Florida Firm Sells Twitter Followers and Bots That Retweet Celebrities, Executives, and 'Influencers' (nytimes.com) 66
Over the weekend, The New York Times published an expose on an obscure American company called Devumi that sells Twitter followers and bots that automatically retweet celebrities, executives, social media "influencers" and anyone else who will pay. From the report: Devumi sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online. Drawing on an estimated stock of at least 3.5 million automated accounts, each sold many times over, the company has provided customers with more than 200 million Twitter followers, a New York Times investigation found. The accounts that most resemble real people reveal a kind of large-scale social identity theft. At least 55,000 of the accounts use the names, profile pictures, hometowns and other personal details of real Twitter users, including minors, according to a Times data analysis.
[...] The actor John Leguizamo has Devumi followers. So do Michael Dell, the computer billionaire, and Ray Lewis, the football commentator and former Ravens linebacker. Kathy Ireland, the onetime swimsuit model who today presides over a half-billion-dollar licensing empire, has hundreds of thousands of fake Devumi followers, as does Akbar Gbajabiamila, the host of the show "American Ninja Warrior." Even a Twitter board member, Martha Lane Fox, has some. Hours after the report was published, New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, opened an investigation into Devumi. "Impersonation and deception are illegal under New York law," Mr. Schneiderman said. "We're opening an investigation into Devumi and its apparent sale of bots using stolen identities."
[...] The actor John Leguizamo has Devumi followers. So do Michael Dell, the computer billionaire, and Ray Lewis, the football commentator and former Ravens linebacker. Kathy Ireland, the onetime swimsuit model who today presides over a half-billion-dollar licensing empire, has hundreds of thousands of fake Devumi followers, as does Akbar Gbajabiamila, the host of the show "American Ninja Warrior." Even a Twitter board member, Martha Lane Fox, has some. Hours after the report was published, New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, opened an investigation into Devumi. "Impersonation and deception are illegal under New York law," Mr. Schneiderman said. "We're opening an investigation into Devumi and its apparent sale of bots using stolen identities."
Twitter ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... is a depressing rabbit hole.
I recommend we don't scrape the slime off.
Let it fester in a vacuum.
It's public masturbatory narcissism.
Re:Twitter ... (Score:5, Funny)
Burma Shave
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Twitter is Mostly Narcissistic Morons and now apparently, mindless zombies.
Just like Facebook, Instagram and the rest
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I agree.
I sense a fatigue in those vertical markets on the part of all involved.
Ad agencies can't shake a buck, users want more dancing bunnies, the silos are not news-friendly, and content is becoming vacuous except for the over-the-top shit that requires expensive human intervention to stave off government regulators.
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... is a depressing rabbit hole.
I recommend we don't scrape the slime off.
Let it fester in a vacuum.
It's public masturbatory narcissism.
The problem with your assertion is we wish Twitter were regulated down to nothing more than public masturbatory narcissism. Unfortunately, a lot of morons look to social media as a source of news and facts, which is why many are concerned with a certain (cough, POTUS, cough) Twitter account being damn near capable of starting a war.
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The problem isn't Twitter or the pussy-grabbing POTUS.
The problem is on the demand side for that kind of shit.
It's wearing thin and the market shows it.
Re:Twitter ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Demand side is largely Pussy Hat wearing or Sean Hannity watching idiots. Known by the term "average Americans'. What we need are a few Elites to tell us what we need to know, like perhaps, CNN and the NYT!
(Please note, the post is filled with all sorts of sarcasm and ad hominem to the point of being reductio ad absurdum)
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Everyone's an elite compared to Fox News morons.
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... long ago ...
Precisely my point [ringling.com].
On Sunday, May 21, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® said its final farewell ...
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... long ago ...
Precisely my point [ringling.com].
On Sunday, May 21, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® said its final farewell ...
You know what we call Ringling Bros. in the 21st century?
YouTube.
You know how many suckers are taking the click bait to keep a shitload of clowns employed in that circus? About one every minute.
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... is a depressing rabbit hole.
You misspelled "shithole"
Maybe that was what Trump was trying to say...
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They don't have Twitter in shithole countries.
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Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Followers I get but retweet accounts? (Score:2)
What is the point of the retweet account? I have seen lots of them that just take something someone posts and retweets it. Heck there is a service I use to manage multiple social network accounts and it has a plugin that allows me to set up an account that does nothing but retweet what I post. I just dont see the need for it.
Re:Followers I get but retweet accounts? (Score:5, Informative)
What is the point of the retweet account?
Valuation, nothing more. It also helps to bypass twitters awful anti-spam system. An account with more activity, more retweets, and so on is less likely to be autobanned by people simply trying to shut it down. Really though, Twitter is having a hard enough time staying afloat and them pissing on users isn't helping them.
Wait what?! (Score:3)
"Impersonation and deception are illegal under New York law,"
Since when is a twitter account considered a bona-fide persona for legal purposes?
It's one thing if you've got a Twitter account trying to act like an official mouthpiece like DeBlasio's office or DeBlasio himself. But a name retweeting or liking a post isn't impersonation. Deception? That 3.5 million retweets aren't a valid count of a posts accuracy? Likability? Popularity? What's being deceived? a "i like this" has no meaning unless you're a sheep. Likewise, a retweet doesn't mean something is liked or unliked.
Is this guy honestly insinuating that all tweets must be legally accurate?! How about RottenTomatoes? Amazon review scores?!
And what does this portend for Slashdot's mod system?
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What's being deceived?
Bots are using personally identifiable information of REAL people, without their consent, in order to "be" those people.
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And since when does New York get to dictate what a company in Florida can do?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The vast majority of Twitter's "users" are bots. There are probably less than 10 million daily active users at this point. Everyone and their dog has dumped Twitter and Snapchat for Instagram. And I mean they literally have accounts for their dogs that have huge followings. Having an Instagram-famous dog is a career now.
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When the company in Florida does business with people/companies in New York or commits a crime in New York (such as stealing the identity of people who live in New York.
You don't have to physically set foot in a state to commit a crime in that state.
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When the company in Florida does business with people/companies in New York or commits a crime in New York (such as stealing the identity of people who live in New York.
Except New York doesn't get to regulate interstate trade. New York is going to have to demonstrate that specific New York citizens were harmed (e.g., their identities were stolen), and then the worst they can do is ask the feds to tell the Florida company not to sell its services to people in New York.
You don't have to physically set foot in a state to commit a crime in that state.
You pretty much have to if you want the state to have jurisdiction to do something about it.
amazing article (Score:4, Interesting)
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Why is this allowed? (Score:1)
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More evidence that so-called 'social media' is a metasticized cancer on our civilization. Time for some serious chemo.
Social Media thrives on ignorance, stupidity, and narcissism.
In other words, you've got about as much of a chance of eradicating it as you do the Darwin Awards.
Polocies (Score:5, Insightful)
(Emphasis mine) If a company has policies it can't adequately enforce it should be held liable for, at minimum, false advertising. Either enforce the policies or abandon them. Enforcing policies only when it suits them commercially should fail any test of adequate enforcement.
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Did anyone not know this ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Next up : You can buy Reddit upvotes and Facebook likes. Sky is blue, more at 11.
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Kids knew it. People in the industry knew it. Advertisers knew it but tried to hide it while using it. People like our parents and grandparents however, unfortunately, not only did not know it, but also literally can't believe the notion. The vast majority of the voting public in fact can't react maturely to this revelation. They will simply think the concept is too absurd to happen in real life. And that's why it worked.
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Kids knew it. People in the industry knew it. Advertisers knew it but tried to hide it while using it. People like our parents and grandparents however, unfortunately, not only did not know it, but also literally can't believe the notion. The vast majority of the voting public in fact can't react maturely to this revelation. They will simply think the concept is too absurd to happen in real life. And that's why it worked.
I'm honestly more puzzled why Twitter/Facebook don't just cut out the middle man and do it Loot box style.
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I'm honestly more puzzled why Twitter/Facebook don't just cut out the middle man and do it Loot box style.
Probably because they can't come up with original ideas, only steal them. Now that you posted this though, you've just given them a new idea.
Oh, NOW you just noticed? (Score:1)
Years too late on this one guys.
fraud upon fraud? (Score:2)
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You plan internet activity 18 months out? How much time a week do you set aside for porn?
Useless (Score:2)
Twitter is the confetti of the internet.