[liberationtech] Twitter Underground Market Research - pdf

[Mark Nelson]

Thank you for this, Andrea.

I have rather the opposite question. Is there any way for an account
holder to verify that their followers are real humans, who are following
them with intent rather than because they own a bot-net compromised
computer?

I smell the opportunity for a follower auditing business.

Best,

Mark

On Tuesday, June 4, 2013, Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb wrote:

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>
> Thanks Andrea for answering my questions.
>
> So regarding the cost its due to the extra PVA bypass, which the "follower
> merchants" charge for..I wonder if there is any connection between these
>  merchants and botnets? Botnet owners or spammers would seem like a great
> source of "valid" IDs.
>
> I wonder if "limit" in tracing fake followers is useful for something else
> other than zombie accounts...
>
> thanks again.
>
>
> On 3 Jun 2013, at 21:11, Andrea St wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> > and thank for the questions.
> >
> > On twitter you need to bypass captcha, buy a "black software"
> > (botnets), buy premium proxy address.
> >
> > On facebook you need to bypass captcha, buy a "black software", buy
> > premium proxy address , pva bypasser (phone verification code) and
> > verified email.
> >
> > --
> >
> > About Mercedes Benz and others brand i don't know what people think
> > about but this is a good question and if there are any sociologists
> > here, please ping us!
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Impossible to prove if X bought fake followers and this is the main
> > reason because people do it.
> >
> > 2013/6/3 Bernard Tyers <ei8fdb at ei8fdb.org <javascript:;>>:
> >> Hello Andrea,
> >>
> >> Thanks for sending the presentation. Very interesting.
> >>
> >> I have a few questions:
> >>
> >> - how did you calculate the "variable cost" for creating a Twitter
> account
> >> and a Facebook account?
> >> - why the difference in cost of creation of each? (Maybe I am missing
> >> something obvious...)
> >> - is it possible to quantify the negative effect of a popular twitter
> >> account (ending Mercedes Benz, or some celebrity) being exposed as
> buying
> >> followers? (i.e.: does anyone care?)
> >> - what do you think it the affect is on the reputation of the account
> owner?
> >> Is it possible to prove a user did not buy followers? As in, is it
> possible
> >> to prove someone else bought the followers for another account?
> >>
> >> Thanks very much!
> >>
> >> Bernard
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Andrea St <andst7 at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Dear friends,
> >>>
> >>> Two weeks ago we presented at Nexa For Internet & Society our Research
> >>> about Twitter and underground market.
> >>> Now you can download here:
> >>> http://nexa.polito.it/nexacenterfiles/lunch-11-de_micheli-stroppa.pdf
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Our research on Nyt part1:
> >>>
> >>>
> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/fake-twitter-followers-becomes-multimillion-dollar-business/
> >>> Our research on Nyt part2 :
> >>>
> >>>
> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/researchers-call-out-twitter-celebrities-with-suspicious-followings/
> >>>
> >>> Now we're working on Facebook. If you have any idea or you would like
> >>> to get in touch my
> >>> email is: andst7 at gmail.com <javascript:;>
> >>>
> >>> Best,
> >>> A
> >>
> >>
> >> Sent from my tiny electronic gadget. Please excuse my brevity and
> (probable)
> >> spelling mistakes.
> >>
> >> --
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Andrea Stroppa
> > http://huffingtonpost.com/andrea-stroppa
> > @andst7
> > --
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> - --------------------------------------
> Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb
>
> IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org
>
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