The year 2022 is drawing to a close, and yet another low-effort Twitter spam network is tweeting about Xinjiang. #FridaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote collage of four identical tweets containing a video about no
This spam network consists of 50 accounts with female names created on April 26th and April 27th, 2022. Thus far, these accounts have posted all of their tweets via "Twitter for Android", and all appear to have been dormant between October 2nd and December 2nd. table of the 50 accounts in the networkdaily tweet volume by source app bar chart, showing that alldaily tweet volume by type bar chart, showing that the netwo
The tweets tweeted by this network are often repeated verbatim by multiple accounts. Their content is a mix of feel-good content about Xinjiang, denial of human rights abuses by China, and tweets about U.S. political issues (abortion, student loans, military aid to Ukraine, etc). table of the network's most frequently repeated tweets
This network retweets a variety of English and Chinese-language accounts (most of which tweet about Xinjiang). Some appear to be official government accounts, but many are random obscure accounts, and at least one (@Horatio53363883) presently sports a plagiarized profile pic. screenshots of @Horatio53363883's profile and a reverse imag
Speaking of plagiarized photos, you'll be completely unsurprised to learn that the accounts in the spam network have pilfered their profile pics from a variety of corners of the Internet. (TinEye proved superior to Google for finding these images.) collage of reverse image searches showing that several of th
This is far from the first time we've ran across a spam network tweeting about Xinjiang. Here's a Substack article covering the phenomenon:
conspirator0.substack.com/p/genocide-den…
Also, here's a pastebin of the permanent IDs of the 50 accounts in the network, for those interested in such things.
pastebin.com/sn2SWHdB

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More from @conspirator0

Dec 22
Over the last 3 years, we've analyzed and posted threads about a variety of similar spam networks associated with an entity known as "Thousand Followers" or "Thousand Bytes". Here's a Substack article covering the entire astroturfy saga.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
conspirator0.substack.com/p/a-thousand-f…
This series of fake follower/account sales operations first came on our radar back in August 2020, when we ran across follower sales website thousandfollowers(dot)com. We found the site's operator(s) on BlackHatWorld, and kept an eye on their posts.
In January 2022, the operators of the now-defunct thousandfollowers(dot)com started advertising a new account sales website, twaccs(dot)com. Both we () and @EJGibney () posted analyses of the site and the accounts it sold.
Read 4 tweets
Dec 18
What's up with these tweets that got hundreds of retweets and no likes whatsoever? #SundaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote screenshots of several recent tweets with hundreds of retwee
Answer: the tweets in question were amplified by a spam network consisting of (at least) 3586 accounts created between October 2013 and December 2022. The accounts have Turkish display names that rarely match their @-handles. histogram of account creation dates, showing creation dates table of example accounts
All of this network's recent tweets are retweets, and all of these retweets were tweeted via Twitter for Android. (Some accounts have older tweets sent with other apps; as we'll see, these accounts were likely hijacked and the old tweets are probably from the original owners.) hourly tweet volume by source app chart, showing that all twhourly tweet volume by source app chart, showing that all tw
Read 5 tweets
Dec 14
Despite recent rumors that all the spammy Twitter bots have been banished to a spamtastic afterlife, one only has to look at the followers of the aptly-named @TBotFightClub to find evidence that fake follower botnets continue to flourish on Twitter 2.0.

cc: @ZellaQuixote screenshot of an Elon Musk tweet showing a symbolic "fuscreenshot of @TBotFightClub's profilefollow order by creation date plot for @TBotFightClub's foll
The first 83000 or so of @TBotFightClub's followers are all empty accounts (no tweets, no likes) created in either November or December 2022. By recursively exploring the followers of the other accounts these fake followers follow, we can map out the fake follower network. follow order by creation date plot for @TBotFightClub's foll
This fake follower network consists of (at least) 925655 accounts created in November/ December 2022 (including some created after Elon Musk's recent bot cemetery tweet). All of these accounts follow a similar number of accounts and have zero tweets and zero likes. histogram of creation dates for the 925655 accounts in the ntable of 30 example accounts from the network
Read 8 tweets
Dec 10
A rogue's gallery of dishonest influencers have spent the last couple hours attempting to smear former Twitter Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth as a pedophile via old out-of-context tweets.

Predictably, the far-right hate mob is now spamming Roth with death threats. ImageImage
It's the same tactic that LibsOfTikTok has used to direct hate swarms at hospitals and educators, but directed at a former Twitter employee and amplified by current Twitter leadership.
ImageImage
Update: @TwitterSafety appears to no longer be removing death threats. The man being targeted here been forced to flee his home (cnn.com/2022/12/12/tec…). Choosing to leave these threats online is a sociopathic and evil decision. Image
Read 5 tweets
Dec 3
Here's a look at a smallish astroturf network targeting @SafeguardDefend (a non-profit group that has released multiple reports on human rights abuses in China) with spammy duplicate tweets. #SaturdaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote collage of 32 identical tweets with the text "#Safeguar
This network consists of 25 Twitter accounts created in multiple batches in September and October 2022. Thus far, all their tweets were tweeted via the Twitter Web App, and they generally go silent for two days a week (Friday and Saturday in US Pacific Time). table of the 25 accounts in the networkdaily tweet volume by source app chart, showing that the acc
The content tweeted by this network is repetitive, with many tweets duplicated verbatim numerous times across multiple accounts. The most frequently repeated tweets all begin with the hashtag #SafeguardDefenders, and are all attacks on the Safeguard Defenders group. table of repeated tweets
Read 6 tweets
Nov 30
Meet @patfkauffman, a "TRUMP 2024!" account motivated by freedom and hard work with over 44 thousand followers. Although this account may at first glance appear authentic, there are multiple problems.

cc: @ZellaQuixote screenshot of @patfkauffman's Twitter profile
First, @patfkauffman's profile pic is a GAN-generated face. The image has been cropped, preventing it from being detected by facial feature position, but other anomalies remain, such an incorrectly shaped ear and weird artifacts where the hair, skin, and clothing meet. @patfkauffman's profile image, a cropped GAN-generated face
(More on GAN-generated faces and their use on Twitter and elsewhere here: )
Read 9 tweets

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