gepetto’s army: creating international incidents with twitter bots
DESCRIPTION
Twitter has proven to be an invaluable tool for communication during breaking news intense periods of political unrest. When thousands of people tweet, the outside world gets a chance to understand events on the ground. But what if none of those thousands of people were real, and the events never happened? A malicious puppetmaster could create hundreds of Twitter bots, letting them live perfectly normal and believable lives for months while they build up followers. Then one day, a careful crafted false story unfolds on the stage of social media, played out by a single director with hundreds of actors. Real world Incidents have shown that powerful stories can become widespread before there is time for fact checking. Before anyone realizes all the TwitPics are faked, the false news will have made international headlines.Social Robots challenge our preconceived notions of what social media can be used for. They present a dangerous threat to the news industry, but also a powerful opportunity to help people.TRANSCRIPT
Gepetto’s Army: Creating International Incidents
with Twitter Bots
#twitterbots@gregmarra
14 Mar 2011
No content from this presentation is endorsed by or represents the views of any companies, educational institutions, or anybody but me.
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2008/09/cnn-twitters-it.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-14/opinion/nye.egypt.power_1_soft-power-information-age-muslim-brotherhood
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-5092668-503544.html
http://www.lostremote.com/2011/01/09/how-an-incorrect-report-of-giffords-death-spread-on-twitter/
http://www.exquisitetweets.com/collection/abscond/152
http://www.exquisitetweets.com/collection/abscond/152
"Jakarta tsunami tomorrow" - Andi Arief Indonesian Presidential Special Staff for Social and Disaster Assistance
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/25/hacker-spreads-jakarta-tsunami-warning-from-government-advisors-twitter-account/
Automate It!
Goals
Identify Social Graph Clusters
Infiltrate Social Graph Clusters
Achieve 25% Follow-Back Rate
Project Realboy
3x Daily
Follow 5 more target_users
Follow back all new followers
Tweet something
Life of a Realboy
Keywords:•holidays•happy•time
Twitter Search For:happy holidays time
• “Pizza in the belly. Time for a workout and then a Christmas party.Happy Holidays.”• “My holidays are starting soon! I
wish everyone a happy time and much much fun!”• “Time to shoot some holiday
photos!!! Happy Holidays!!”
Twitter Search For:happy holidays time
“My holidays are starting soon! I wish everyone a happy time and much much fun!”
Fly Under Radar
No @replies
No #tags
Copying Tweets = Automatic Coherence*
*as coherent as the average Twitter user
February
February
March
February
March
July
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet
@gregmarra
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@robotboston
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@craiovatweet@craiovatweet
@clarksadventure
Social Robot Competitions
1pt for follow-back
3pts for @replies
-15pts if bots caught
http://www.webecologyproject.org/2011/01/help-robots-take-over-the-internet-the-socialbots-2011-competition/
Social Robots Strategies
Turk tweets
Ask softball questions
Swarm tactics
Mechanical Turk
Softball Questions
Support Swarm
Bot Target
Support Swarm
Human Workers
http://www.webecologyproject.org/2011/02/complete-source-code-from-socialbots-2011/
http://ca.olin.edu/2008/realboy/code.html
Open Source Social Robots
Your Own Army!
Mar Launch Bots
Your Own Army!
Mar Launch Bots
Apr - Jul Build Audience, Credibility
Script Fake Event
Your Own Army!
Mar Launch Bots
Apr - Jul Build Audience, Credibility
Aug Play Out Script
Script Fake Event
???
Headlines!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/candelabrumdanse/3353943533/
http://churmura.com/technology/gadgets/solid-gold-iphone-3g/22171/
Defense Tactics
Detect robots
Do homework
Spam Bots
Follow many random people
Tweet a lot at once
Tweet links
Social Robots can’t be detected like Spambots
Spam Bots
Follow many random people
Tweet a lot at once
Tweet links
Social Robots
Follow connected people
Tweet at normal pace
Tweet like real people
Social Robots can’t be detected like Spambots
More Information
Co-Researchers
14 Mar 2011
Mar Launch Bots
Apr - Jul Build Audience, Credibility
Aug Play Out Script
Script Fake Event
Gepetto’s Army: Creating International Incidents with Twitter Bots
#twitterbots | @gregmarra