I think its interesting that Twitter has the capability to automatically and instantly tag tweets or accounts as being written by third party apps Yet they choose not to
At least the web interface shows the client used to create the tweet?
Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
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Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#32The biggest sign mentioned in the article is the insane number of tweets since the inception of the account - surely this must set off some alerts on Twitter's backend? I know that this is an extremely difficult problem to solve and that they probably ban accounts in waves but with something as obvious as this you'd think that the ban could/should come more swiftly...
Given the pressure that Elliott is putting on Dorsey to aggressively grow Twitter, I don't think it is likely that things will improve. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/9/21171482/twitter-jack-do...
They got 3 seats on the board and agreed to create a committee literally to search for Dorsey's successor. It's far too late for Dorsey. Realistically they're just letting him go out on his own terms at this point. In a few months Dorsey will announce that he's stepping down because he wants to focus his attention on his other job and that'll be that.
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I am perplexed by this. I have noted an insane number of bots commenting positively on Donald Trump's twitter account. It's obvious they're bots because of the username, lack of other activity, spelling and grammatical mistakes (due to phrases being directly translated from Russian). P.S. Whenever I mention the above on here, I am subject to a barrage of down votes. Almost as if bots are searching HN comments an…
I've seen that in some comments I made on another story. Not sure whether it's Russians or Russian bots or just HN-reading Trump fans.
Downvoted already. On further reflection, I think it must be the last category since it would be a challenge for a Russian [bot] account to get the karma to be able to downvote.
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#34Easiest way I've found to spot bots on Twitter is username patterns where both the handle and display name are similar or the same with 1 or 2 words (often a first and last name) and a random number. For example JohnDoe127474 . For a more realistic example: I just went to the first trending semi-poltical topic and this was the first bottish account I found (the tweet itself is pretty benign): https://twitter.com/Elsi…
I'm curious what you think makes this particular account a bot? To me it looks like someone who might not be particularly tech savvy who signed up for Twitter to find out about and discuss the ongoing global pandemic, which I guess you could call a "semi-political topic". To me it looks like Twitter's attempts to reach out to people who aren't already constantly online might occasionally work, which could result in a screen name or behavior that seems "strange" to people who are already very familiar with the platform
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I am perplexed by this. I have noted an insane number of bots commenting positively on Donald Trump's twitter account. It's obvious they're bots because of the username, lack of other activity, spelling and grammatical mistakes (due to phrases being directly translated from Russian). P.S. Whenever I mention the above on here, I am subject to a barrage of down votes. Almost as if bots are searching HN comments an…
I've seen that in some comments I made on another story. Not sure whether it's Russians or Russian bots or just HN-reading Trump fans.
The down voting has begun! @dang, I wonder if this is something you can address somehow?!
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen that in some comments I made on another story. Not sure whether it's Russians or Russian bots or just HN-reading Trump fans.
Downvoted already. On further reflection, I think it must be the last category since it would be a challenge for a Russian [bot] account to get the karma to be able to downvote.
You'd be surprised. I can imagine they've got a bit of link submission karma, which allows them to downvote.
For what it's worth, I'm upvoting you!
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#37Easiest way I've found to spot bots on Twitter is username patterns where both the handle and display name are similar or the same with 1 or 2 words (often a first and last name) and a random number. For example JohnDoe127474 . For a more realistic example: I just went to the first trending semi-poltical topic and this was the first bottish account I found (the tweet itself is pretty benign): https://twitter.com/Elsi…
It's the same problem EBay had 20 years ago.
User growth is always a KPI that people care about, so there's a bias to not get aggressive about purging fake accounts. Being aggressive will also flag unsophisticated real people as well.
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#38Got out of Twitter after seven years using it like a breaking news website from few vetted sources: bots, venom, ads and shameless plugs just made the experience more and more unsufferable, so good riddance. Also unfollowed any contact on LinkedIn, the amount of motivational fluff and plain gibberish just astounding, something like facebook for professionals. Am I happier? Nope, but the void will be somehow filled by…
I've been using Twitter for news, IMO it's not too hard to get things "right":
- start from a (small) curated list, like https://twitter.com/i/lists/1014747092554866689 for national politics
- add in news publications you read
- add in reporters from those news publications (they usually link their account in their bio)
- add in accounts of people who appear in the stories
- continue for 2-3 years
At the moment I'm following 18k news-ish accounts spread across 4 lists. The main Twitter interface doesn't work for that many accounts, but Tweetdeck does. I open it up in the morning and get a 10-minute dose of "reality", leaving me with 5-6 interesting news stories to read later from opening the links in background tabs. Even with semi-curated lists there's a lot of fluff in the feeds, but since it scrolls by in less than 10 seconds I don't mind as much.
Is this the best setup? Probably not, Nassim Taleb has written some good articles arguing that nobody should read any news. But it's enough to cover most of the popular trends and satisfy that "in the loop" craving.
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#39Easiest way I've found to spot bots on Twitter is username patterns where both the handle and display name are similar or the same with 1 or 2 words (often a first and last name) and a random number. For example JohnDoe127474 . For a more realistic example: I just went to the first trending semi-poltical topic and this was the first bottish account I found (the tweet itself is pretty benign): https://twitter.com/Elsi…
I'm now wondering if people would think my twitter profile is a bot and report me because the handle has numbers representing my name in leetcode.
Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account
#40I've been writing about this for years but it's insane to me that Twitter is not stopping this. They are contributing both to group psychosis and the destruction of democracy through the spread of disinformation.