iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Do you have a handle of some? Would like to take a look.

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Auf jeden Fall ein Fake-Account (siehe Antwort an OP)! Ich denke aber nicht, das der zum gleichen Netzwerk gehört - da diese Bilder von Instagram gestohlen wurden. Das Ziel kann aber natürlich das gleiche sein.

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Eines der Fotos zeigt auf der Uniform den Namen "Hufschmidt". Schnelle Google Suche bestätigt deinen Verdacht: Diese "Christine Wagner" existiert nicht und hat die Bilder geklaut.

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Lars Wienand @larswienand.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

4/ Some sources said it has been up to 50 accounts, but currently I cannot find those accounts on Bluesky (perhaps already blocked?). See for example this list: bsky.app/profile/lars... Thanks to everyone who helped/helps shining light on this!

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Reposted by Lion Cassens

Es sind noch ein paar mehr schon/noch hinterlegt bei vanillasky. click

1. Screenshot of Subdomains of vanilasky.click https://urlscan.io/ip/23.88.96.130

2. Screenshot of Subdomains of vanilasky.click https://urlscan.io/ip/23.88.96.130

3. Screenshot of Subdomains of vanilasky.click https://urlscan.io/ip/23.88.96.130

4. Screenshot of Subdomains of vanilasky.click https://urlscan.io/ip/23.88.96.130, zusätzlicher Hinweis: „Attention: These domains and hostnames were discovered through Certificate Transparency (CT)
Logs and have been irrevocably published as part of the public record. There is no mechanism for us or anyone else to remove this information from the internet“

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3/ The 9 remaining accounts stopped posting shortly after my initial thread and have not posted since. Until then, these 9 made 182 posts: bsky.app/profile/badl... This network was easy to find due to the common URL. However, it is likely not the only attempt to build a German speaking AI-network.

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2/ This is less than it seemed, based on how the replies to these news articles were dominated by the network (now often called vanillasky network). However, the network was likely still being developed. The oldest account first posted 4 days ago, while approx. half started posting 2 days ago.

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Yesterdays thread on the discovery of an AI bot network gained quite some traction. Since then, ppl. found out more about the network. 1/ @badlogic.bsky.social and other's found that the bots are hosted through the same domain, which now has a total of only 19 bots. 10 of which are blocked by Bsky.

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Hi Robert, ich hatte selber auch nicht mit so viel Aufmerksamkeit für den post gerechnet und kann deine Verunsicherung daher verstehen. Falls noch zweifel bestehen, gerne über meine Arbeits/Uni-E-Mail Kontakt suchen (kann via Google gefunden werden).

Mario Zechner @mariozechner.at · 08/12/2024

The accounts were less just a few hours/days old. Roughly half have been deleted by now - so it seems BlueSky is doing a good job! They might still rely on us for reporting suspicious activities though.

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Reposted by Lion Cassens

And just to quantify the OPs claim that Bluesky is being flooded with German speaking bots. This tiny network hat 19 bots, which posted a total of 182 posts (at least the 10 bots that are still active). That's not quite a flood. Pretty sure as the elections come closer, we'll se more activity tho.

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Mario Zechner @mariozechner.at · 07/12/2024

Die bots aus dem thread haben mit niemandem interagiert. Rein technisch dürfte das aber Möglich sein. Fliegt aber ggf. schneller auf, wenn die Antworten weniger Sinn machen. Das Hauptproblem ist, das die mit der Zeit besser werden könnten.

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Reposted by Lion Cassens

In other bot news, these bots are on their on "Personal Data Server", which is still running. There are a total of 19 accounts on that server. Only 9 of them have been suspended. Curious why @support.bsky.team hasn't defederated with that PDS entirely?

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Die sind alle über eine eigene Bluesky-Instanz registriert. Bluesky ist dezentral aufgebaut, so das man seinen Provider selbst auswählen kann. In diesem Fall wird das wohl genutzt um z.b. E-Mail-Verifizierungen zu umgehen. Oder andere Sicherheitsmaßnahmen.

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The domain also seems fairly new. Registered on 26th November according to www.whatsmydns.net/domain-age?q....

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Yes. I'm also german speaking but posted in English due to a mostly English speaking audience.

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It's still deception and not clear who is behind this. They may shift to more radical messaging once enough people trust (follow) them.

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/6 @zeit.de @spiegel.de @taz.de Habt ihr eine Idee, wie solche Bot-Netzwerke davon abgehalten werden können, eure Posts zu hijacken? 2/3 der replies zu euren letzten Posts sind von Bots. (Do you have any ideas how to stop these bots from hijacking your posts)? 2/3 of replies are bots)

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Hier ein (englischsprachiger) Thread zu dem Thema: bsky.app/profile/lion...

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/5 How is this different from bots in the past? With gen. AI posts bot networks can act in any language. They also have a simple understanding of the posts they reply to, making them much more authentic! Bear in mind, that this is probably a crude example. More advanced networks may not be spotted.

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/4 Why build a German speaking bot network if they don't post strong opinions (yet)? While this is largely speculation, one should consider that Germany holds elections soon! By growing reach now, such an AI network will then be able to significantly steer what people see on Bsky! See #romania.

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/3 What are these German speaking bots up to? Each account posts only under German news articles (e.g. @spiegel.de). But here is the catch: its not the usual strong conspiracies or fake news. All posts rather neutral. My guess is that the goal is to first generate followers...

News post from DER SPIEGEL with a bot reply.

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/2 Further indicators of this AI generated troll network All have profile pictures and banners which align with the first word from their profile description (wave lover, hiking guy, etc.) The pictures are likely AI generated based on the profile text, to increase authenticity! #LLM #AI #bots

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1/ What are the indicators these posts are even fake? All responses have a similar style (textbook-like, neutrally written) and do not really respond to the article. Instead they just use generic phrases, while also somewhat being adjusted to the post. All accounts only reply / have similar bio's.

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Bsky is being flooded with German speaking AI powered bots. A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election 1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):

Likely AI generated responses to a german news article.

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Lion Cassens @lion-c.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Die meisten Kommentare unter diesem Artikel sind von sich ähnelnden Fake accounts und haben alle die gleiche Kernaussage. Potentiell KI generiert...

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Oben drauf ist das Problem allerdings auch die Nutzung von tausenden Fake-Accounts (Bots und Trolls) die den Lügen Reichweite geben... Hier wurden Leute zurem für politische Unterstützung bezahlt - was ohne Kennzeichnung verboten ist.

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Lion Cassens @lion-c.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

I'm not posting much myself, but regarding Romania: tomorrow is the vote for parliament. Last week's vote for the president went badly, but it was only the first round. The second round is next week between the far right pro Russian candidate, and the more moderate woman (second in first round).

Lion Cassens @lion-c.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Nothing has been won in Romania yet. 🤞

Lion Cassens @lion-c.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Irgendwer den Artikel auch gelesen? Er schreibt, der "große Fehler" wäre, Reichweitenbeschränkungen nun wieder einzuführen. In anderen Worten, man sollte sich durch den Angriff nicht erpressen lassen. Wieso also so kritische Stimmen hier?

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Lion Cassens @lion-c.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I am not sure I understand the issue here. Posts are all public anyway, right? So what is the purpose of blocking someone? There shouldn't be any expectation of privacy on Bluesky, it's not a messenger. Or am I wrong here?