First, we have @GypsyCeltic (ID 1307840989617434624), an account with a GAN-generated face and a propensity for posting false statements about COVID vaccines. This allegedly Florida-based account is followed by Ron DeSantis campaign operative @ChristinaPushaw. #FloridaGAN
Next up is @dogoym (ID 1346315171229143044), an antisemitic troll account with a GAN-generated pic and a name that references the antisemitic dog whistle "The Goyim Know". According to one of this fake account's replies to Elon Musk, ~30% of Twitter accounts are fake.
Third, we have @BarbFromScarb (ID 1554907193413173251), a transphobic troll account with a GAN-generated face. This account has already had multiple tweets removed by Twitter and has been silent for about a week, possibly indicating a temporary suspension.
Last and possibly least, we have @LisaLaurens2, @OliviaEl2, and @Sandra_Andres12, a trio of accounts with GAN-generated faces. These three accounts spam links to T-shirts on Amazon.
(permanent account IDs: 1490983088964481028, 1525626452833714177, and 1495218569264738308)
There are multiple indicators that these "faces" are GAN-generated: surreal clothing/hats/backgrounds, glitches at the boundaries between hair/skin/background, identical eye placement.
(The eye placement is obvious in the video at the top of this thread:
It's a Friday in August, and a bunch of spammy accounts are tweeting links to what appears to be the same article about recreational marijuana and auto insurance rates in Missouri on a variety of obscure websites.
Although the article has the same title on each website, the text varies slightly from site to site (possibly a result of article spinning: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_s…). The original version appears to be from St. Louis news outlet @KMOV.
The articles are being shared on Twitter by a network consisting of 13 automated Twitter accounts, each of which tweets links to a different website. Most of the accounts (10 of 13) were created within the last month, and all but one have the biography "all news for you".
The accounts that tweeted the identical "the fundamental purpose..." tweets are part of a spam network consisting of 58 similarly-named accounts created between December 28th, 2021, and January 8th, 2022. They tweet in a mix of English and Turkish, mostly via the Twitter Web App.
This network's tweets are generally repeated verbatim by multiple accounts. Pretty much all of the content is about Xinjiang, consisting of a mix of positive content about the region and denial of genocide and other human rights abuses against Uyghurs there.
In theory, @SubstackInc prohibits threats, harassment, and promotion of illegal activity (substack.com/content). In practice, enforcement is rather lacking. This thread contains some examples of apparent violations that Substack has taken no action on.
When reporting TOS violations, I've been using either Substack's reporting form (support.substack.com/hc/en-us/reque…) or email (tos@substackinc.com). The examples in this thread were also sent via Twitter DM to Substack's @cjgbest and @lulumeservey for the sake of thoroughness.
A rule prohibiting threats presumably applies to this comment proposing violence against 5 US Supreme Court justices. I reported this comment via email to tos@substackinc.com on June 30th and via Twitter DM to @cjgbest and @lulumeservey on July 2nd. It has not been removed.
It's a Saturday in August, which is as good a time as any to look at a network of ten interacting MAGA accounts that tweet follow trains and have stolen profile photos.
First, what are follow trains? Follow trains are tweets containing lists of Twitter accounts to follow, with the expectation that the listed accounts will follow back any followers they gain from the train tweet.
We've seen one of the ten accounts in this group of follow train conductors before: @goldisez (permanent ID 98799275). This account has used at least two different plagiarized profile photos since April 2022. web.archive.org/web/2022041019…
First up is @FarteenHu, an #ULTRAMAGA account with a GAN-generated face, a flatulence joke for a display name, and a bad habit of falsely claiming that COVID vaccines have killed over a million Americans. Note the unrealistic background, clothing, and headgear on the "face" pic.
Next, we have @atouchofsnark, an automated account with a GAN-generated profile pic that apparently intends to vote for Hillary Clinton, who is not currently running for office. This account's tweets are highly repetitive and posted via a custom app called "A Touch Of Snark".