Independently, @mvanhulten of @TI_EU and @ArbiterOfTweets of @Knack found it with different methods.
It's not a friendly environment for fake campaigns, folks.
https://t.co/ASpAmH4ukz
Great report by @satariano on a fake network that @Graphika_NYC (and others) found in December.
Twitter accounts with GAN faces, boosting Huawei, boosted by Huawei execs, and attacking Belgium's 5G policies.
Not enough evidence to prove who ran them.
Independently, @mvanhulten of @TI_EU and @ArbiterOfTweets of @Knack found it with different methods.
It's not a friendly environment for fake campaigns, folks.
https://t.co/ASpAmH4ukz
"Alexandre, PhD", apparently a CEO.
But no surname, no indication of what he's a CEO of, and a GAN-generated profile pic.
Especially, Belgium's security limitations on 5G providers, which are reportedly mainly about Huawei and ZTE.
Alexandre didn't like the Belgian approach much.
They were meant to be about VR, as in virtual reality. Oddly, one was actually about Victorian Railways in Australia. Awkward.
Not infallible, and the GAN will get better fast, but... see how the eyeballs align?
Each posted 8-10 authored tweets, each a share of a web article plus a comment (usually in English), about #Belgium, #5G, #Huawei or #ZTE.
@satariano has some great insights into this one.
"New and relatively explosive."
Watch this space.
https://t.co/hlvobt9Z7V
Binnenkort publiceer ik nog een eigen follow-up analyse met nieuwe, relatief explosieve informatie. Stay tuned en zo. \U0001f62c
— Arbiter (@ArbiterOfTweets) January 29, 2021
Hier kan je het vorige stuk herlezen:https://t.co/DSTzpzCZ1f
When that happened, different fake accounts tweeted the same article from different sources - an attempt to make it harder to spot them all with a URL search?
12 assets, one article, 3 URLs.
They were attributed to the fake personas themselves.
Looks like the operation was going for the direct approach.
As far as we can tell, the article was planted on a website by one of the fake accounts.
Note the number of times each one mentioned one of the fake accounts (red box).
One was the theme. This looked like an exercise in dark lobbying: try and raise the heat on the Belgian government on an issue that's of interest to a corporate titan.
Business, not party politics.
Most of the influence ops we've tracked so far have been in the political or geopolitical space.
Dark lobbying like this will be something to watch for more.
We found it via Spamouflage. @mvanhulten and @ArbiterOfTweets spotted sponsored posts that led there.
There's a growing community of people who can spot this stuff, explain it and expose it.
Running influence ops may seem like an attractive option, but they're going to have to be a lot less dumb than this one was to avoid getting exposed.
But their exposure landed them in @nytimes and @knack, and not in a good way.
Was the operation worth the blowback? Let's keep watching to find out.
https://t.co/u0VOfoa4KN
More from Tech
Machine translation can be a wonderful translation tool, but its uses are widely misunderstood.
Let's talk about Google Translate, its current state in the professional translation industry, and why robots are terrible at interpreting culture and context.
Straight to the point: machine translation (MT) is an incredibly helpful tool for translation! But just like any tool, there are specific times and places for it.
You wouldn't use a jackhammer to nail a painting to the wall.
Two factors are at play when determining how useful MT is: language pair and context.
Certain language pairs are better suited for MT. Typically, the more similar the grammar structure, the better the MT will be. Think Spanish <> Portuguese vs. Spanish <> Japanese.
No two MT engines are the same, though! Check out how human professionals ranked their choice of MT engine in a Phrase survey:
https://t.co/yiVPmHnjKv
When it comes to context, the first thing to look at is the type of text you want to translate. Typically, the more technical and straightforward the text, the better a machine will be at working on it.
Let's talk about Google Translate, its current state in the professional translation industry, and why robots are terrible at interpreting culture and context.
Straight to the point: machine translation (MT) is an incredibly helpful tool for translation! But just like any tool, there are specific times and places for it.
You wouldn't use a jackhammer to nail a painting to the wall.
Two factors are at play when determining how useful MT is: language pair and context.
Certain language pairs are better suited for MT. Typically, the more similar the grammar structure, the better the MT will be. Think Spanish <> Portuguese vs. Spanish <> Japanese.
No two MT engines are the same, though! Check out how human professionals ranked their choice of MT engine in a Phrase survey:
https://t.co/yiVPmHnjKv
When it comes to context, the first thing to look at is the type of text you want to translate. Typically, the more technical and straightforward the text, the better a machine will be at working on it.
Ok, I’ve told this story a few times, but maybe never here. Here we go. 🧵👇
I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.
There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.
My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:
I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”
Wish I had the audio of Rush Limbaugh telling me off on the phone on his show when I was six. In the meantime, RIP.
— Shannon Woodward (@shannonwoodward) February 17, 2021
I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.
There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.
My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:
I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”
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**Thread on Bravery of Sikhs**
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)
Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI
Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.
Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.
The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.
Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.
In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.
And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)
Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI
Tomorrow again same thing happens bcoz fudus like you are creating a narrative oh Khalistan. when farmers are asking MSP. (RSS ki tatti khane wale Kerni sena ke kutte).
— Ancient Economist (@_stock_tips) December 5, 2020
U kill sikhs in 1984 just politics. To BC low IQ fudu Saale entire history was politics.
Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.
Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.
The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.
Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.
In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.
And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.
