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
"I really want to break into Product Management"
make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.
make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
"I really want to break into comics"
— Ed Brisson (@edbrisson) December 4, 2018
make comics.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get an editor to notice me."
Make Comics.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE COMICS.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.
1. One of the best changes in recent years is the GOP abandoning libertarianism. Here's GOP Rep. Greg Steube: “I do think there is an appetite amongst Republicans, if the Dems wanted to try to break up Big Tech, I think there is support for that."
2. And @RepKenBuck, who offered a thoughtful Third Way report on antitrust law in 2020, weighed in quite reasonably on Biden antitrust frameworks.
3. I believe this change is sincere because it's so pervasive and beginning to result in real policy changes. Example: The North Dakota GOP is taking on Apple's app store.
4. And yet there's a problem. The GOP establishment is still pro-big tech. Trump, despite some of his instincts, appointed pro-monopoly antitrust enforcers. Antitrust chief Makan Delrahim helped big tech, and the antitrust case happened bc he was recused.
5. At the other sleepy antitrust agency, the Federal Trade Commission, Trump appointed commissioners
@FTCPhillips and @CSWilsonFTC are both pro-monopoly. Both voted *against* the antitrust case on FB. That case was 3-2, with a GOP Chair and 2 Dems teaming up against 2 Rs.
2. And @RepKenBuck, who offered a thoughtful Third Way report on antitrust law in 2020, weighed in quite reasonably on Biden antitrust frameworks.
3. I believe this change is sincere because it's so pervasive and beginning to result in real policy changes. Example: The North Dakota GOP is taking on Apple's app store.
Republican North Dakota legislators have introduced #SB2333, a bill that prohibits large tech companies from locking their users into a single app store or payment processor.https://t.co/PgyhgOhFAl
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) February 11, 2021
1/ pic.twitter.com/KZ8BMFQoPO
4. And yet there's a problem. The GOP establishment is still pro-big tech. Trump, despite some of his instincts, appointed pro-monopoly antitrust enforcers. Antitrust chief Makan Delrahim helped big tech, and the antitrust case happened bc he was recused.
5. At the other sleepy antitrust agency, the Federal Trade Commission, Trump appointed commissioners
@FTCPhillips and @CSWilsonFTC are both pro-monopoly. Both voted *against* the antitrust case on FB. That case was 3-2, with a GOP Chair and 2 Dems teaming up against 2 Rs.
