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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

#81

Post by Chris2048 »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #14
qsort wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not salient at all. It's a research report from the University of Oxford: https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/127/20... If you want to criticize something, criticize that. We can do without baseless accusations.

First, there point was that this post seems to engage in similar tactics. The report existing doesn't mean this isn't some counter information campaign. Second, the post links to an article about that report, and though the article mentions 189 twitter accounts the report only lists 62. Similarly, they don't show close to the 62000 tweets mentioned in the article from what I could see.

> The report existing doesn't mean this isn't some counter information campaign

But it uses the name/rep of an actual university, and presumably is data is open for peer review? a "counter information" campaign that fights falsehood with truth is fine in my book. I'd call that an "awareness campaign".

> this post seems to engage in similar tactics

In what sense?

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

#82

Post by im3w1l »

ilamont wrote: post #23

Suspicions were aroused after researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other. They exclusively promoted UK-based PRC diplomats, ignoring those in other countries. So human researchers were able to spot a pretty obvious pattern. How come Twitter's own staff and algorithms never seem to catch on, despite having even more data to look at? It amazes me that…

It's similar to the problem of security holes. Defenders have to find all bugs. Attackers have to find a single bug that the defenders missed. Twitter has to find all bots. These researchers have to find a single (cluster of) bot that Twitter missed. It's a lot easier.

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

#83

Post by Chris2048 »

reillyse wrote: post #24
okasaki wrote: post #2

We're not supposed to question it, but in this case it seems salient: your account was created just to post this and it's got a lot of upvotes for something seemingly banal. Is this part of a competing "diplomatic program"?

This. Even the website bitterwind just looks like an attack site against China. It seems to just have “articles” that just say negative things about China. This is just seems to be another play in an influence campaign.

And Amnesty International rarely publishes good new either.

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

#84

Post by kleene_op »

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…

Maybe the meager amount of fake accounts uncovered here is testimony to how good the CCP is at compartmentalizing it's propaganda cells.

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

#85

Post by JasonFruit »

The question that comes to my mind is: So?

Does this really do any harm? Sure, it may spread the positions of Chinese diplomats more broadly than they would naturally be shared, but it doesn't change the ability and responsibility of readers to evaluate the truth and value of what they read. We act like people are incapable of thinking for themselves, like they must at all costs be prevented from seeing something that might be untrue or not to their benefit.

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

#86

Post by stayfrosty420 »

ilamont wrote: post #23

Suspicions were aroused after researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other. They exclusively promoted UK-based PRC diplomats, ignoring those in other countries. So human researchers were able to spot a pretty obvious pattern. How come Twitter's own staff and algorithms never seem to catch on, despite having even more data to look at? It amazes me that…

that would expose twitter as a cesspit where the most mentally ill extroverts in society argue with bots and no actual conversation happens

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

#87

Post by Anthony-G »

heurisko wrote: post #47

A fraction of the population of the UK are on twitter, but it is used to drive media narratives. I'm skeptical, as it feels like the narratives are more to do with they are cheap to write about, rather than meaningful journalism. For example, after black players missed penalties in the Euros, there was wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC about racist comments directed at the players on twitter, provoking discussion on h…

That reminds me of a recent case where an Irish teenager had charges brought against him for using Twitter to send hateful racist messages to a former English footballer. The abuser (sensibly) pleaded guilty and avoided a criminal conviction.

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2021/0203/1194820-ian-wright/

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/feb/03/ian-wright-...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/ian-wright-say...

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

#88

Post by Ekaros »

pessimizer wrote: post #73
axiosgunnar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If paid/automated social media activity is "candy theft," the only nation states that aren't doing it are the ones who can't afford to.

I wonder if there is even nation state that can't afford it. Knowing North Korean capabilities they too probably can. And I can't think anyone who would me more limited.

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

#89

Post by dangerface »

ilamont wrote: post #23

Suspicions were aroused after researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other. They exclusively promoted UK-based PRC diplomats, ignoring those in other countries. So human researchers were able to spot a pretty obvious pattern. How come Twitter's own staff and algorithms never seem to catch on, despite having even more data to look at? It amazes me that…

If they blocked chinas bots they would also block the follow, like, spam and click fraud bots. Removing 50% of twitters traffic would be hard to justify to higher ups, you could argue that the robots just produce noise and lower the quality of the product but higher ups just want to see the numbers get bigger.

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

#90

Post by AbrahamParangi »

ilamont wrote: post #23

Suspicions were aroused after researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other. They exclusively promoted UK-based PRC diplomats, ignoring those in other countries. So human researchers were able to spot a pretty obvious pattern. How come Twitter's own staff and algorithms never seem to catch on, despite having even more data to look at? It amazes me that…

I know I’ve had that thought here but I’m sure I’m not alone. The incentives are perverse, and moreover it explains why the Apple App Store and Amazon are populated with fake reviews and general chaff.

The fakers are parasitic to the buyer but symbiotic to the seller.

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