Conspirador Norteño

Conspirador Norteño is a Substack focused on analyzing and exposing the tactics behind social media manipulation, the spread of disinformation and misinformation, and the use of inauthentic accounts and AI-generated content. It provides insights into identifying fake social media activity and the implications of such activities on public discourse and elections.

Social Media Manipulation Disinformation and Misinformation Artificial Intelligence in Social Media Online Security and Privacy Social Media Platforms' Policies Analytical Tools and Techniques Elections and Political Campaigns

The hottest Substack posts of Conspirador Norteño

And their main takeaways

Love, happiness, blessings, and spam

30 implied HN points • 16 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Social media Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis Content creation Social media Data Analysis Fake Accounts
  1. Spam accounts use repetitive and fake positive messages to amplify content, making it appear more popular than it actually is.
  2. Researchers are now facing difficulties in mapping out spam account networks due to limitations in data access.
  3. Spam network accounts use GAN-generated faces and peculiar vowels in account names, creating an association with suspended spam networks.

This barndominium does not exist

41 implied HN points • 01 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Social media AI Online Security Ethics
  1. The Facebook account 'Barndominium Gallery' is posting AI-generated images of houses to engage users, many of whom believe the images are real
  2. The AI-generated images of 'barndominiums' contain synthetic artifacts, like unrealistic fire placements and impossible elements, that reveal their inauthenticity
  3. The 'Barndominium Gallery' account operator solicits personal information from users in the comments, risking exposure to potential privacy threats or fraud

Multilevel marketing mayhem

41 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
💼 Business Marketing Online business Digital marketing Entrepreneurship
  1. Be cautious of 'online businesses' that prompt you to set up websites with identical language and testimonials, often part of multilevel marketing schemes.
  2. Identical sales pitches on multiple websites can be easily found through internet searches, revealing potential interconnectedness.
  3. Participating in these schemes may lead to continuous spam emails, financial losses, and the risk of personal information being compromised.

Seeing isn't always believing: video edition

33 implied HN points • 17 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Generative AI Deepfakes
  1. The advancement of text-to-video generative AI like Sora raises concerns about deceptive video content, introducing the concept of the "liar's dividend."
  2. Despite impressive quality, AI-generated videos by Sora exhibit anomalies that reveal their synthetic origins, such as sudden appearance and disappearance of objects.
  3. While AI-generated videos can be photorealistic, they often contain telltale signs of synthetic generation, cautioning against an excessive distrust of all videos and emphasizing the long-standing history of manipulating video content.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Trending topics and word salad

18 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Social media Cryptocurrency Spam Algorithm Automation
  1. Trending topics on social media can be manipulated by spam posts containing random words instead of coherent sentences.
  2. Accounts participating in spam trends can show signs of being hijacked and may switch focus from personal topics to spam suddenly.
  3. Past spam campaigns involving hashtags and random word mashups have been successful in manipulating social media trends.

GAN-tastic politics enthusiasts

37 implied HN points • 06 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Social media Spam Network
  1. A network of fake accounts with GAN-generated faces is spamming users with phrases like 'politics enthusiast'.
  2. The fake accounts have repetitive behaviors and characteristics, such as long handles with many vowels and repetitive use of certain phrases.
  3. Some replies from the fake accounts show signs of being artificially generated, with error messages and tagging issues.

Flashback Friday: Taxi!

18 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Social media Automation Data Analysis
  1. A network of taxi and real estate-themed social media accounts were used to boost political content on Twitter through automation.
  2. The botnet consisted of at least 98 Twitter accounts with automated posting schedules that operated 24/7.
  3. The botnet retweeted content based on hashtags, focusing on small accounts and political tweets rather than popular ones.

Happy Holidays

37 implied HN points • 24 Dec 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Misinformation Social media
  1. The blogger will continue exploring deceptive uses of generative AI related to the 2024 U.S. election season.
  2. There will be a focus on dissecting and debunking misleading coverage of misinformation in mainstream publications.
  3. Less content will be dedicated to consolidating older threads from Twitter, with a shift towards discussing other platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon.

GET WOKE UP by these nonexistent authors

33 implied HN points • 26 Nov 23
📰 News Satire
  1. An "anti-woke" satirical news site used AI-generated faces for its non-existent authors.
  2. The GAN-generated faces on the site originated from generated.photos with watermarks removed.
  3. Social media accounts linked to the site also use the same GAN-generated faces as the authors.

Some thoughts on social media, disinformation, and the 2024 elections

30 implied HN points • 12 Nov 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media Disinformation Elections Research Media Coverage
  1. Data-driven research on social media activity for the 2024 elections is made difficult due to factors like reduced transparency by platforms and attacks on researchers.
  2. Generative AI advancements have made it easier to create misleading content like fake images and videos.
  3. Media coverage of disinformation and social media manipulation may not always be based on legitimate research, highlighting the importance of skepticism.

A brief and partial history of generative AI on social media

22 implied HN points • 19 Nov 23
🕹 Technology AI Social media
  1. Deceptive uses of generative AI technology have increased on social media platforms in recent years.
  2. StyleGAN was one of the first generative AI technologies used on mainstream social media platforms to create synthetic faces.
  3. AI-generated text poses challenges in detection and has the potential for misuse to create spam and deception on social media.

The curious case of user one134500 and the most obvious reply spam ever

63 implied HN points • 22 May 23
🕹 Technology Social media Cryptocurrency Spam Fake Accounts Online Security
  1. A network of spam accounts flooded Twitter with repetitive replies containing login credentials for a suspicious website.
  2. Over 13,000 active accounts in this spam network were created in March or April 2023 and only post replies.
  3. Spam campaign targeted various accounts including Reuters, Elon Musk, and news organizations, with a high percentage of replies in English.

Anatomy of an online outrage mob

67 implied HN points • 13 Feb 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media Online behavior Twitter Harassment Threats
  1. Right-wing social media influencers can cause online outrage mobs by tagging institutions on Twitter.
  2. 72 school district, university, and hospital accounts experienced a significant spike in mentions after being tagged by an influencer.
  3. The barrage of tweets following these tags often include threats of real-world violence, violating Twitter's terms of service.

How to find swarms of fake Twitter followers

71 implied HN points • 19 Nov 22
  1. Fake Twitter follower networks follow accounts en masse and have anomalous creation date patterns.
  2. Additional evidence of inauthentic followers includes zero likes or tweets, odd follower/following ratios, and repeated biographies.
  3. Using tools like Python scripts and scatter plots can help analyze followers and detect patterns of fake followers.

The Curious Case of BNN

48 implied HN points • 26 Jan 23
  1. Rephrasing news articles is cheaper than hiring journalists globally.
  2. BNN's coverage seems to be reworded from mainstream news sites.
  3. Algorithm can detect copied content by comparing trigrams in paragraphs.

Some thoughts on the current state of AI from a disinformation research perspective

37 implied HN points • 31 Mar 23
  1. AI technologies are advancing quickly, leading to concerns about potential risks in disinformation research.
  2. Mass account creation tools utilizing AI can now generate more realistic-looking accounts.
  3. AI-generated text in news articles is becoming more common, posing challenges in separating factual content from AI-generated content.

The ongoing saga of a persistent fake persona

45 implied HN points • 05 Jan 23
  1. Accounts with a fake persona are persistently created with minor tweaks to keep spreading false information.
  2. Characteristics of these fake accounts include stolen profile photos, false claims of being a healthcare worker or military member in NYC, and linguistic errors.
  3. The goal of these fake accounts is to bait liberal Twitter users into spreading unsubstantiated claims through replies and fake narratives.

The nine thousand dollar botnet

3 HN points • 28 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. A network of verified spam accounts with blue checkmarks is flooding posts with similar replies.
  2. The spam network consists of over 1000 old accounts that may have been hijacked or purchased.
  3. The spam accounts primarily reply to meme accounts and tech personalities, casting doubt on the value of paid verification for preventing spam.

Fun all year round until your Twitter account gets compromised

41 implied HN points • 24 Nov 22
  1. Be cautious with third-party Twitter apps, as they may have hidden malicious intentions.
  2. Revoke access to Round Year Fun apps if you have used them to prevent unwanted actions on your account.
  3. Investigate and verify suspicious accounts to avoid falling for fake profiles with inflated follower counts.