False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK
<i>Suspicions were aroused after researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other. They exclusively promoted UK-based PRC diplomats, ignoring those in other countries.</i><p>So human researchers were able to spot a pretty obvious pattern. How come Twitter's own staff and algorithms never seem to catch on, despite having even more data to look at?<p>It amazes me that Twitter fails at something so basic -- identifying and shutting down bot networks -- and has been failing at it for so long. Here's a report from 2017 (<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38724082" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38724082</a>). Another one from 2014 (<a href="https://medium.com/i-data/fake-friends-with-real-benefits-eec8c4693bd3" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/i-data/fake-friends-with-real-benefits-ee...</a>). If you look through the archives you will find similar reports going back 15 years.<p>Someone on HN (can't find the ref) once speculated that Twitter has an incentive <i>not</i> to shut down the fake accounts because the fakes boosts user numbers and "engagement" which correlate with profit. Twitter is certainly making a lot: I once looked into running a Twitter ad campaign for my business until I saw projected <i>$2+ clicks</i>. Are the massive margins suggested by those CPCs built on the backs of fake accounts?