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False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

bitterwinter.org

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Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#51

Post by White_Wolf »

This is absurd. 26 accounts? 70 accounts? This is script kiddie level.

You can buy accounts for pennies(literally) linked to @outlook.com on blackhat marketing websites. You can also buy the tools to administer all of them.

£500 (estimate) would get you from black hat marketeers:

- 200 twitter accounts (new) - you can also get aged ones but more expensive - bot

- around 25-100 proxies to rotate when posting (depending on quality 25 would suffice)

- someone to do the work for you (a part time PA)

- a win VPS to run it all

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#53

Post by ceejayoz »

White_Wolf wrote: post #51

This is absurd. 26 accounts? 70 accounts? This is script kiddie level. You can buy accounts for pennies(literally) linked to @outlook.com on blackhat marketing websites. You can also buy the tools to administer all of them. £500 (estimate) would get you from black hat marketeers: - 200 twitter accounts (new) - you can also get aged ones but more expensive - bot - around 25-100 proxies to rotate when posting (dependin…

This always cracks me up about Facebook announcements.

https://about.fb.com/news/2020/07/removing-political-coordin...

> We removed 38 Facebook accounts, 76 Pages, and 55 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against foreign interference which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government entity.

Wow, great work, now do the other billion or so.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#54

Post by axiosgunnar »

White_Wolf wrote: post #51

This is absurd. 26 accounts? 70 accounts? This is script kiddie level. You can buy accounts for pennies(literally) linked to @outlook.com on blackhat marketing websites. You can also buy the tools to administer all of them. £500 (estimate) would get you from black hat marketeers: - 200 twitter accounts (new) - you can also get aged ones but more expensive - bot - around 25-100 proxies to rotate when posting (dependin…

It is also script kiddie level to steal candy from a store.

But if a nation state engages in systematic candy theft, that should raise eyebrows.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#55

Post by White_Wolf »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #54
White_Wolf wrote: post #51

This is absurd. 26 accounts? 70 accounts? This is script kiddie level. You can buy accounts for pennies(literally) linked to @outlook.com on blackhat marketing websites. You can also buy the tools to administer all of them. £500 (estimate) would get you from black hat marketeers: - 200 twitter accounts (new) - you can also get aged ones but more expensive - bot - around 25-100 proxies to rotate when posting (dependin…

It is also script kiddie level to steal candy from a store. But if a nation state engages in systematic candy theft, that should raise eyebrows.

In RL you'd be able to catch and identify the thief. Digital... a bit different I'm afraid. Online - you'll struggle to prove with 100% certainty who did it. Anything else apart from proof is propaganda/assumptions. Not facts.

What makes you think those accounts were really from China and not from Australia, Taiwan or even Iran? Anyone can do it with a tiny botnet/a few ssh's into consumer routers or by buying less popular browser addons.

My point was this is not news worthy by any measure. It's just bashing for the sake of bashing. If you want to make it news worthy, tell me you indentified 1k or 2 of aged twitter accounts that spwe propaganda. Not 1 week accounts.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#56

Post by 3np »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #43
onethought wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been accused of being 50c army for expressing a more neutral tone on China and challenging pro-US anti-China rhetoric. It’s actually impossible to have a reasonable conversation about China, Chinese economy, Chinese government, or Xijinping because those seperate things are all conflated into a single one. Where as if you try to conflate, Biden (or trump) with US economy, america or the america people you will q…

Isn't that a cultural thing with China, though? That the party is the state, and therefore any criticism of the party is anti-patriotic criticism of the country? Thailand has similar rules; criticising the king is illegal because anti-patriotic. Cambodia has rules around criticising the government (conflating it with criticising the country). Myanmar is a bit of a special case at the moment. Not sure about Laos or Vi…

It doesn't seem like you're consciously doing it but this comment falls to the exact same fallacy. That is, the party and their enforcers would be happy to agree.

Yes, there's a very noisy mainority both online and abroad that will make you believe so.

It's far from representative of the culture(s) and views of people in China, though.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#57

Post by NgCTQagzf »

qsort wrote: post #45
vlaxx100 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, let's confine any discussion, academic or otherwise, to exactly what a paper/submitter/party wants to discuss. Never mention any parallels that could broaden one's horizon. This is how "discussions" in the Soviet Union looked like.

Discussions are like soccer: if you go out of bounds you lose possession. We can't be talking about everything at the same time, that's exactly how you stifle discussion.

[flagged]

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#58

Post by raverbashing »

Apfel wrote: post #21
cturner wrote: post #11

I have wondered whether the 50c army will go global, and what would become of forums like this one if it happens.

They're already all over Quora and Reddit.

No GFW if you're working in propaganda apparently.

This way they could claim on twitter how it was "business as usual" for the Chinese embassy on Kabul during the Taliban invasion. Information clearly not directed to its alleged audience.

Though yes, it should be on Twitter and FB to detect and control those bot accounts.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#59

Post by yodelshady »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #32

I stopped using Twitter a few years ago. Haven't regretted it. I see nothing useful or good there. And it's amazing how it just doesn't matter if you don't pay any attention to it.

Supposedly, it's good for security discussions. I've tried and in reality whilst some signal is there the noise is just overwhelming. Even with curation, almost 100% of the traffic was unrelated personal conflicts.

Hopefully in a few years' we'll rediscover the personal/professional separation.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#60

Post by oliwarner »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #48

Imagine a future where GTP–5 is unleashed and there are 1 million bot comments per single human comment. There’s such a scenario feasible? Yes. Will we have protections in place to mitigate?…

I think it takes more imagination to pretend we're not already there.

It doesn't take much money to convince people to do awful things for you online. You certainly don't need nation-state levels of cash to push your opinions in front of a lot of eyeballs.

I suspect Twitter/FB/etc all know about what they're being used for, but per other comments, this is all positive KPI for their investors.

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