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"Free API is being abused badly right now by bot scammers & opinion manipulators. There’s no verification process or cost, so easy to spin up 100k bots to do ba

"Free API is being abused badly right now by bot scammers & opinion manipulators. There’s no verification process or cost, so easy to spin up 100k bots to do bad things." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1621259936524300289 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1621259936524300289

binarymax 4y ago
This is mostly untrue. While it’s possible to stay anonymous you need a phone number, and it can’t be from twilio or other services. It’s been this way for years. I strongly suspect the bots that are unverified use headless browsers. The problem won’t go away.
- narag 4y ago
  Twitter hasn't my phone number, just checked. Maybe is it because my account is old?
  - detaro 4y ago
    Yes. But even with an old account, if you sign that up freshly to the developer program they'll force you to provide a phone number, and can require you to go through the approval process for higher API access even if you don't want that.
  - Hamuko 4y ago
    My Twitter account also has no phone number, but it gives me an error about it if I try to sign up for API access.
- numpad0 4y ago
  Agreed, while there are tons of spambots, they are likely scraping Web API and using some backdoor-ish thing to get around requirements than using the documented API. This announcement and today's ban-wave that followed seemed like someone not accustomed to Twitter just knew there are bots, and thought it to be workable idea to sample global timeline and script ban duplicates, which of course is not workable at all and only maximize harm on real users.
- mlrtime 4y ago
  It is trivial to buy 1000's of phone numbers with SMS all available through APIs. You don't even need to keep them. The grey web is filled with many of these services. If I looked hard enough I could probably buy 10000 verified twitter accounts with API access right now, aged 1 year or older.
  - flangola7 4y ago
    Where can you buy actual mobile phone numbers? (Not VoIP numbers) I would think mobile carriers keep that in their own house
    - numpad0 4y ago
      I think I've encountered some nefarious discussions around obtaining SS7 bulk access endpoint and intercepting SMS?
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    Yup. PVAs can be had for a couple of $, with the price going up if they're 'warmed' (with a history of innocuous activity, usually liking celebrity tweets, retweeting the occasional breaking news story or heartwarming puppy video etc).
- ryantgtg 4y ago
  Furthermore, every time I create an API service, I get immediately banned (before I do anything) over and over until I truly prove that my bot is in good faith. They are super aggressive, and they actively enforce their rules (in the past, I've tried to make bots that reply to folks - that don't follow me - and the bot lasts like four hours).
some1else 4y ago
Classic sock-puppet usage is done through the web UI.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Is this kind of thing still possible with Buffer? I don't keep current with twitter manipulation tech. And do Buffer, RoundTeam and Hootsuite use the API directly? How A Twitter Fight Over Bernie Sanders Revealed A Network Of Fake Accounts https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-bot-network-sally-albright_n_5aa2f548e4b07047bec68023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-bot-network-sally-... https://shareblueastroturf.netlify.app/ https://shareblueastroturf.netlify.app/
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Buffer, Hootsuite, etc. use the API. The app/integration something was published via used to show up below tweets; Musk removed it. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/15/23460186/elon-musk-twitter-sent-from-iphone-label-eliminated-police https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/15/23460186/elon-musk-twitt...
ceejayoz 4y ago
Scammers and opinion manipulators aren't using the Twitter API developer program. They're just using the native apps' API keys and posing as real people.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
shortlived 4y ago
Why are people downvoting jmeister who is just quoting Musk. Don’t shoot the messenger.

binarymax 4y ago

This is mostly untrue. While it’s possible to stay anonymous you need a phone number, and it can’t be from twilio or other services. It’s been this way for years. I strongly suspect the bots that are unverified use headless browsers. The problem won’t go away.

narag 4y ago
Twitter hasn't my phone number, just checked. Maybe is it because my account is old?
- detaro 4y ago
  Yes. But even with an old account, if you sign that up freshly to the developer program they'll force you to provide a phone number, and can require you to go through the approval process for higher API access even if you don't want that.
- Hamuko 4y ago
  My Twitter account also has no phone number, but it gives me an error about it if I try to sign up for API access.
numpad0 4y ago
Agreed, while there are tons of spambots, they are likely scraping Web API and using some backdoor-ish thing to get around requirements than using the documented API. This announcement and today's ban-wave that followed seemed like someone not accustomed to Twitter just knew there are bots, and thought it to be workable idea to sample global timeline and script ban duplicates, which of course is not workable at all and only maximize harm on real users.
mlrtime 4y ago
It is trivial to buy 1000's of phone numbers with SMS all available through APIs. You don't even need to keep them. The grey web is filled with many of these services. If I looked hard enough I could probably buy 10000 verified twitter accounts with API access right now, aged 1 year or older.
- flangola7 4y ago
  Where can you buy actual mobile phone numbers? (Not VoIP numbers) I would think mobile carriers keep that in their own house
  - numpad0 4y ago
    I think I've encountered some nefarious discussions around obtaining SS7 bulk access endpoint and intercepting SMS?
- anigbrowl 4y ago
  Yup. PVAs can be had for a couple of $, with the price going up if they're 'warmed' (with a history of innocuous activity, usually liking celebrity tweets, retweeting the occasional breaking news story or heartwarming puppy video etc).
ryantgtg 4y ago
Furthermore, every time I create an API service, I get immediately banned (before I do anything) over and over until I truly prove that my bot is in good faith. They are super aggressive, and they actively enforce their rules (in the past, I've tried to make bots that reply to folks - that don't follow me - and the bot lasts like four hours).

some1else 4y ago

Classic sock-puppet usage is done through the web UI.

pessimizer 4y ago
Is this kind of thing still possible with Buffer? I don't keep current with twitter manipulation tech. And do Buffer, RoundTeam and Hootsuite use the API directly? How A Twitter Fight Over Bernie Sanders Revealed A Network Of Fake Accounts https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-bot-network-sally-albright_n_5aa2f548e4b07047bec68023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-bot-network-sally-... https://shareblueastroturf.netlify.app/ https://shareblueastroturf.netlify.app/
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Buffer, Hootsuite, etc. use the API. The app/integration something was published via used to show up below tweets; Musk removed it. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/15/23460186/elon-musk-twitter-sent-from-iphone-label-eliminated-police https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/15/23460186/elon-musk-twitt...

ceejayoz 4y ago

Scammers and opinion manipulators aren't using the Twitter API developer program. They're just using the native apps' API keys and posing as real people.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

shortlived 4y ago

Why are people downvoting jmeister who is just quoting Musk. Don’t shoot the messenger.