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