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Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

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Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#51

Post by [deleted] »

deminature wrote: post #44
biznickman wrote: post #40

I'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.

They have conflicting incentives, it's the same problem all social networks have. Bot accounts qualitatively detract from the real user experience, but substantially inflate quantitative activity metrics, if artificially. Policing bot accounts improves the quality of the site, but hands Elliot Management and others more ammunition that social isn't growing to expectations. Unfortunately these sites continue to pick t…

[deleted]

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#52

Post by [deleted] »

atemerev wrote: post #47
biznickman wrote: post #40

I'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.

And how exactly do you propose to stop this on scale? The problem is harder than it looks.

[deleted]

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#53

Post by inetknght »

deminature wrote: post #44
biznickman wrote: post #40

I'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.

They have conflicting incentives, it's the same problem all social networks have. Bot accounts qualitatively detract from the real user experience, but substantially inflate quantitative activity metrics, if artificially. Policing bot accounts improves the quality of the site, but hands Elliot Management and others more ammunition that social isn't growing to expectations. Unfortunately these sites continue to pick t…

> but hands Elliot Management and others more ammunition that social isn't growing to expectations.

If the growth is largely from bots, then perhaps Elliot Management is right even if you disagree with the business dealings.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#54

Post by vertis »

thefreeman wrote: post #45
osrec wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The down voting has begun! @dang, I wonder if this is something you can address somehow?!

Did you ever consider people don't agree with your opinion? I am anti Trump but not everybody is. Also there are bots on all sides of the political spectrum as evidenced by the article you are commenting on which dealt with an account pumping Bernie.

It's a well-reasoned respectful comment though. It has been the HN way that downvoting is really to punish overtly bad comments and a lack of upvoting boring comments.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#55

Post by vertis »

osrec wrote: post #50
thefreeman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ever consider people don't agree with your opinion? I am anti Trump but not everybody is. Also there are bots on all sides of the political spectrum as evidenced by the article you are commenting on which dealt with an account pumping Bernie.

Yes, I have considered that, however the downvote patterns on those topics are unusual for HN. I've been here a few years, and know when something feels a bit off. Also, I'm not saying something that is wildly incorrect - just go on Twitter onto DT's account - what I'm reporting is self-evident. Do you disagree? Edit: also, if I don't mention DT's name, but refer to him in other more cryptic ways, I (and other HN use…

I didn't realize I could potentially get free karma by saying Donald Trump is a legend. Good to know.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#56

Post by vertis »

Zigurd wrote: post #5

There is a general problem with platforms and fake entities of various kinds posing as friendly, relatable individuals. This problem surfaces far less deeply than you have to dig to find a well-crafted fake portrait. Is that really a crafty artistic person turning out handmade items on Etsy, or is it a front for a factory in China with dozens of pseudonymous identities on Etsy? They take on multiple fake identities i…

Etsy does take their identity verification for sellers fairly seriously, though it's hard to combat if you have a workforce of people whose ID you can use.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#57

Post by CapacitorSet »

I feel like the article went way too much over aspects like TPDNE and the non-existent lawyer, which - while being useful to know - are somewhat poor indicators of fake profiles especially in a tech circle. I personally know a few people who use TPDNE profile pictures and many who use fake names, although none do both (a wise thing in this day and age). The rest was quite lacking.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#58

Post by Balgair »

biznickman wrote: post #40

I'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.

Likely, they don't really care to stop it. Real people still use it enough that the advertisers don't really mind.

I'd suppose that they cannot really tell the difference between a bot and a real person, at least at scale.

I follow a few non-English speaking hashtags that act as local news sources for their areas. These hashtags have been active for a few years. Though Twitter has a lot of policies for English twitter, these languages really have no policies. By that I mean they live-stream executions, have drug sales, solicit sex-work, etc. Illegal isn't really a thing in these places to begin with. That said, these cases are somewhat rare and these hashtags are mostly used as genuine news sources. Granted, these are 'edge case' languages, but still, it's a free for all that Twitter doesn't care to dive into.

Based on the 'extreme' cases and their long lived incoherence to Twitter policy, it's not hard to conclude that Twitter really does not care to enforce policies unless forced to.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#59

Post by vertis »

DrNuke wrote: post #8

Got 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 am incredibly close to getting rid of my twitter account. Already most of my meaningful interactions have moved to private group chats on Slack (etc).

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#60

Post by xaxsacsdaffbnk »

Many people use fake avatars, names and locations. Those are not good indicators for bots.

Presumably it is more obvious by the stuff being posted.

However, the whole question is mostly irrelevant. If you don't care what an account tweets about, don't follow it.

The big issue with the whole bot manipulation narrative is that while it is easy to create fake accounts, it is not easy to also get followers for those accounts. Without followers (with voting rights, not some other bots you bought on the dark net), the bot accounts are irrelevant.

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