Meet @Noah__Abrams, @AbbyFeldman19, @MarkPerlman14, and @SamHoffhoff, a quartet of allegedly liberal Twitter accounts created in January 2023 with GAN-generated faces. #SundayShenaniGANs

cc: @ZellaQuixote screenshots of the profiles of the four accounts
GAN-generated faces produced by popular tools such as thispersondoesnotexist.com and generated.photos have the property that the major facial features (particularly the eyes) are in the same location on every image. This becomes obvious when the images are blended together.
In addition to the facial feature positioning, there are several additional indicators that these faces are artificially generated, such as the mismatched lenses on @SamHoffhoff's glasses, @MarkPerlman14's mismatched ears, and @Noah__Abrams's surreal background. the profile images of the four accounts, all GAN-generated f
Two of these accounts have alleged work history in their profiles: @MarkPerlman14 claims to be an ex-@CNN journalist, and @SamHoffhoff claims to be a former @UCBerkeley professor with poor spelling skills. Unsurprisingly, search results don't back up their assertions. screenshots of @MarkPerlman14's and @SamHoffhoff's profiles,
Each of these four accounts follows or is followed by at least two of the other three. Speaking of who these accounts follow and are followed by, there's one more interesting detail... network diagram showing the follow relationships between the
All four of these newly-created GAN-faced accounts both follow and are followed by @TheActivistsClb, a "Media & News Company" Twitter account created in January 2023 - in fact, @Noah__Abrams is @TheActivistsClb's very first follower. screenshot of @TheActivistsClb's profilescreenshot of the four GAN-faced accounts in @TheActivistsCl
The four GAN-faced accounts amplify @TheActivistsClb via retweets, replies, and quote tweets. Although the GAN accounts occasionally interact with other accounts as well (mostly big liberal accounts), promoting @TheActivistsClb appears to be their primary mission. collage of screenshots of interactions between the GAN-faced
Permanent IDs of the four accounts in the network:

@Noah__Abrams: 1611391085019906050
@AbbyFeldman19: 1612899060884570112
@MarkPerlman14: 1613175054266761220
@SamHoffhoff: 1613264740465213440
More information on various uses of GAN-generated faces over the years:

Some tips on identifying GAN-generated faces:
Update: two of these accounts have replied to this thread.
A couple more responses from these GAN-tastic fake accounts...
Hilariously, the operator of the @AbbyFeldman19 account has now threatened to sue me for "using (their) photo without (their) consent". Since the image is an artificially generated face rather than an actual photo, this notion is ridiculous. #LOLsuit

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More from @conspirator0

Jan 14
It's #Caturday, so here's a look at a smallish botnet that tweeted identical tweets about bobcats playing on a Texas golf course.

cc: @ZellaQuixote collage of 15 identical tweets consisting of the text "
This botnet consists of 15 accounts created in 2018 that mostly abstained from tweeting until mid-2022. Most of their recent tweets were sent via the Twitter Web App, with the exception of 183 retweets that were somehow sent via "Twitter Web Client" (the pre-2019 Twitter web UI). table of the 15 accounts in the botnetweekly volume by tweet source chart, showing that almost all
The content posted by this network is extremely repetitive, with 124 distinct tweets that were tweeted at least once by all 15 accounts. None of the content is original; the repeated tweets are all plagiarized Twitter headlines. table of repeated tweetsexample screenshots of headlines the repeated tweets were pl
Read 5 tweets
Jan 11
It's 2023, and accounts with GAN-generated faces continue to receive "verification" checkmarks from Twitter Blue here and there. #BlueCheckShenaniGANs

(These accounts were found by searching for common English words in combination with "filter:blue_verified.)

cc: @ZellaQuixote collage of the profiles of six Twitter Blue verified account
Unmodified GAN-generated faces (at least, those in widespread use) have the telltale trait that the primary facial features (particularly the eyes) are rendered in the same location on each image. This becomes obvious when multiple "faces" are blended together.
These "faces" contain additional anomalies that indicate that they are synthetically generated, such as the surreal backgrounds in @Doctor_Iver's and @jonidanna's images and @jonidanna's mismatched earrings. @mikerson_mike's "face" was obtained from generated.photos. collage of the GAN-generated faces used by the accountsscreenshot of @mikerson_mike's profile and screenshot of @mi
Read 6 tweets
Jan 6
Over the last 24 hours or so, a bunch of popular accounts that tweet about US politics got followed by a swarm of newly created accounts with default profile pics. What's up with that?

cc: @ZellaQuixote
These followers are part of a fake follower network consisting of (at least) 6279 accounts created between January 4th and January 6th, 2023. All have zero tweets and default profile images.
The accounts in this fake follower network all have display names consisting of a first name and last name, sometimes accompanied by one of the following prefixes or suffixes:

DDS
DVM
Dr.
Jr.
MD
Miss
Mr.
Mrs.
Ms.
PhD
Sr.
I
II
III
IV
V
Read 6 tweets
Jan 5
The ongoing saga of a persistent fake persona: If at first you don't succeed, create a new inauthentic account with minor tweaks.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
conspirator0.substack.com/p/the-ongoing-…
This post covers a series of fake accounts that all appear to be attempts to create the same persona. We ran across the first account (@cheecierom) in July 2020, when it was attempting to spread a rumor about Bill Barr visiting Ghislaine Maxwell in jail:
The second incarnation of this persona - @/romanochee69 (later renamed to @Mollyjucee091) turned up later in 2020, when a photo of a locked mailbox it tweeted went viral:
Read 6 tweets
Jan 2
Meet @SophiaM98566027 (permanent ID 1602043736195751937), a Twitter account created in December 2022 with a stolen profile photo that claims to be a Democrat and 12-year military veteran (allegedly serving in the "Nation Guard").

cc: @ZellaQuixote screenshots of @SophiaM98566027 profile and tweets along wit
Unsurprisingly, @SophiaM98566027's profile pic is not the only plagiarized photo posted by this account. The photographs in the account's "good morning" tweets are stolen from the social media pages of random models, and are therefore unlikely to depict the account operator. screenshot of a photo tweeted by @SophiaM98566027 and a revescreenshot of a photo tweeted by @SophiaM98566027 and a reve
This photographic plagiarism habit isn't limited to images of humans. @SophiaM98566027 has repeatedly tweeted stolen cat and dog pics, often claiming or implying that the photos depict @SophiaM98566027's pets. screenshots of a cat photo tweeted by @SophiaM98566027 and ascreenshots of a cat photo tweeted by @SophiaM98566027 and ascreenshots of a dog photo tweeted by @SophiaM98566027 and ascreenshots of a dog photo tweeted by @SophiaM98566027 and a
Read 8 tweets
Jan 1
About three years ago, a bunch of accounts with GAN-generated faces moved their companies to Las Vegas, where their companies were nearly destroyed. #NewYearsShenaniGANs

(GAN = "generative adversarial network", the AI technique used by thispersondoesnotexist.com)

cc: @ZellaQuixote collage of nine tweets containing the text "About three
The duplicate tweets about moving a company to Las Vegas are from a botnet consisting of 37 accounts created on Sept 28th/29th, 2022. All 37 accounts have GAN-generated face pics, and (with the exception of a few early tweets) all tweet exclusively via automation service IFTTT. table of the 37 accounts in the botnethourly tweet volume by source app bar chart, showing that 99collage of the accounts' profile pics, all GAN-generated fac
GAN-generated face pics (at least, the ones in common usage generated by StyleGAN) have the telltale trait that the major facial features (especially the eyes) are in the same location on every image. This becomes obvious when the images are blended together.
Read 6 tweets

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