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

Scraping public GoFundMe donation data

37 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.

A thousand followers and none

33 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.

This war correspondent does not exist

37 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

Genocide denial and spam

26 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.
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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