Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #ASeriesOfUn4ChanateEvents
Most recents (9)
In one of the least surprising developments ever, 4chan/alt-right trolls are still creating fake left-wing Twitter accounts with GAN-generated faces as profile pics, such as @BlueVotedJenn (ID 1386808499414441984). #AltWankers #ASeriesOfUn4chanateEvents
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
The @BlueVotedJenn account established itself as "liberal" via early tweets denouncing climate change and the GOP (and praising CNN), and subsequntly pivoted to alt-right trolling (multiple forms of bigotry, attacks on Fauci, etc).
Although the operator of the @BlueVotedJenn account cropped its profile image so that the facial features no longer have the telltale positioning seen in GAN-generated face pics, other artifacts remain (nonsense earring and hair in the lower right corner, for example).
Move over, thispersondoesnotexist(dot)com, because deepfake face pics are so 2019. The good folks over on 4chan have made us aware of thiswaifudoesnotexist(dot)net, a site that serves up GAN-generated anime pics. #SaturdayShenaniGANs #ASeriesOfUn4chanateEvents.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
The thiswaifudoesnotexist(dot)net website offers the real anime images used to train the GAN for download (we downloaded via Tor because opsec). We used this along with a set of images it produced to come up with a simple technique for detecting the GAN-generated anime pics.
The GAN-generated anime pics contain a variety of anomalies that aren't present in most of the real ones, but the most obvious (and the one we focused on) is the presence of blotches/very slight random variance in color in areas that would be solid colors on real anime pics.
If you're looking for an up-and-comer in the 2020 general election with a passion for social justice and a GAN-generated face who retweets @MrAndyNgo and @JackPosobiec alongside #RidinForBiden and #NoComradeUnder1K tweets, @Juan6million is the account for you.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
The political stances expressed by @Juan6million are all over the map - among other things, it has now expressed support for the candidacies of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Kanye West. The "don't vote if you're white" and "both parties are the same" messaging is also interesting.
Although @Juan6million profusely retweets pro-Biden hashtags, a very different picture emerges when one looks at just the verified accounts it amplifies, which include a variety of #MAGA propagandists, GOP candidates, and Trump's own account.
The denizens of 4chan's /pol/ continue to encourage the creation of fake Twitter accounts using GAN-generated face pics from thispersondoesnotexist(dot)com, so we rounded up a dozen more possible examples. #ASeriesOfUn4chanateEvents
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
We downloaded recent replies containing various racial terms (some of them derogatory, which is why they're not listed in the graph title), and checked the accounts with 2020 creation dates for GAN-generated profile pics.
We found twelve accounts with 2020 creation dates and GAN-generated facial features that look like possible 4chan troll accounts based on their selection of content and narratives.
In one of the least surprising developments ever, 4chan trolls are creating fake left-wing Twitter accounts with GAN-generated faces as profile pics. Let's find some. #ASeriesOfUn4ChanateEvents
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
To do so, we pulled recent replies to @AOC, @IlhanMN, @SpeakerPelosi, @JoeBiden, and @ElonMusk and scored the profile pics of the accounts replying with the algorithm described in this thread:
The first account we noticed was @AishaHa88298072 (permanent ID 1270531817012187137), a fake #BlackLivesMatter account with 16 tweets worth of racist replies and conspiracy barflegarble.
These images tweeted by five-month old Twitter account @diana_feinstein do not in fact depict the Jefferson Square Park shooter. Rather, they've been used repeatedly by 4chan trolls to falsely identify shooting suspects as "Sam Hyde." #ASeriesOfUn4chanateEvents
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
We took a closer look at @diana_feinstein and the accounts in its orbit. In an unsurprising plot twist, @diana_feinstein's profile photo is stolen. Among its recurring themes: outrage over @BernieSanders endorsing @JoeBiden in the 2020 US presidential race.
Although @diana_feinstein doesn't have many followers, some of those it does have are interesting. Several of its followers (and followers' followers) have faces that appear to have been generated by a neural network similar to thispersondoesnotexist.com.
Heading into #DemDebate3, @AndrewYang is the most frequently discussed candidate over on 4chan, followed by @JoeBiden, @BernieSanders, and @ewarren. In fifth place is @TulsiGabbard, whose absence has apparently inspired displeasure. #ASeriesOfUn4chanateEvents
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@AndrewYang @JoeBiden @BernieSanders @ewarren @TulsiGabbard @ZellaQuixote As on 4chan, so it goes on Twitter. Andrew Yang was the most frequently mentioned candidate (by name or Twitter handle) in tweets containing #DemDebate or #DemDebate3 during the debate and in the 10 days prior.
(Chart is zoomed to the timespan with the majority of the tweets.)
(Chart is zoomed to the timespan with the majority of the tweets.)
@AndrewYang @JoeBiden @BernieSanders @ewarren @TulsiGabbard @ZellaQuixote We ran VADER sentiment analysis on #DemDebate/#DemDebate3 tweets before/during/after the debate. Positive sentiment in tweets mentioning all candidates but @warren decreased, with @JoeBiden and @BetoORourke showing large declines (pro-NRA accounts may have affected the latter.)
Somewhat surprisingly, anonymous message board and toxic wellspring of the internet 4chan has an API one can use to retrieve data. We decided to take a gander at /pol/ (the "politically incorrect" forum popular among #AltWankers). #ASeriesOfUn4ChanateEvents
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
For those of you who may not be familiar with it, 4chan is unlike most internet forums/social media sites in that there are no user accounts - everyone is theoretically anonymous. That being said. . .
Like pretty much all websites, 4chan logs your IP address. What's more, its default behavior is to use this information to publicly tag your posts with country-of-origin. (Tip: use Tor or VPN when accessing sites and you want to mask your location.)
Let's take a look at a technique employed by some Twitter impersonation accounts: replacing "rn" with "m" in the name of the clone as seen here with @propornot/@propomot. Unless one has good eyesight and looks closely, it's easy to miss.
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
(we've previously covered a group of accounts impersonating the #AltGov accounts that used a similar technique here)
We searched through our accumulated datasets for account names containing "rn", pulled the profile information for the equivalent account with "rn" replaced with "m", and looked for cases where the two accounts had similar profiles.
