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

How to find swarms of fake Twitter followers

76 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.
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A brief and partial history of generative AI on social media

24 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 BNN

52 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

40 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

48 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.

Fun all year round until your Twitter account gets compromised

44 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.

Scraping public GoFundMe donation data

40 implied HN points • 15 Dec 22
  1. GoFundMe makes the most recent 1000 donations public.
  2. Modern web platforms like GoFundMe communicate with their backend using REST web services.
  3. Python can be used to scrape donation data by calling specific URLs and parsing JSON responses.

This war correspondent does not exist

40 implied HN points • 15 Nov 22
  1. Be cautious of fake journalist accounts on social media with artificially generated faces
  2. Check the account's permanent numeric ID to confirm handle changes
  3. Artificially generated faces used in profile images can have telltale signs like deformed features or surreal elements

A thousand followers and none

36 implied HN points • 22 Dec 22
  1. Businesses that sell fake social media accounts continually adapt to avoid detection.
  2. Fake follower networks often have common characteristics like zero engagement and Turkish display names.
  3. Operatives behind fake account sales create multiple networks with similar features to evade detection.

Genocide denial and spam

28 implied HN points • 04 Dec 22
  1. Low-effort Twitter spam networks spread propaganda denying the Uyghur Genocide.
  2. Spam networks tweet identical content, often in multiple languages, with repetitive feel-good messages about Xinjiang.
  3. Spam tweets aim to create noise around Xinjiang-related hashtags, diluting the conversation about human rights abuses.

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.

GAN-tastic catfishing

3 HN points • 20 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Social media Artificial Intelligence Online Identity
  1. Some inauthentic social media accounts use artificially generated faces to create fictional personas that are accepted as real
  2. Fake accounts like "Paul Fox" and "Gabby" use stolen images to fabricate their online lives and engage with followers
  3. As synthetic media technology improves, it is important for social media platforms to require disclosure of synthetic images to address deception