An algorithm developed at Carnegie Mellon University makes it easier to determine if someone has faked an Amazon or Yelp review or if a politician with a suspiciously large number of Twitter followers might have bought and paid for that popularity.
The method, called FRAUDAR, marks the latest escalation in the cat-and-mouse game played by online fraudsters and the social media platforms that try to out them. In particular, the new algorithm makes it possible to see through camouflage that fraudsters use to make themselves look legitimate, said Christos Faloutsos, professor of machine learning and computer science.
In real-world experiments using Twitter data for 41.7 million users and 1.47 billion followers, FRAUDAR fingered more than 4,000 accounts not previously identified as fraudulent, including many that used known follower-buying services such as TweepMe and TweeterGetter.
Bad news for the nascent astroturfing industry.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday September 09 2016, @02:58PM
Whaddaya mean, nascent? There's nothing new about astroturfing: The idea goes back to at least the Roman Republic, when all of the politicians (who were also usually the richest guys around) would give out a few denarii to a bunch of plebs, and the plebs were then responsible for showing up and cheering whenever that politician spoke in public at the Forum. Sure, it's a bit more formalized now, but the fundamentals haven't changed.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday September 09 2016, @03:29PM
Bad news for the nascent astroturfing industry.
Whaddaya mean, nascent? There's nothing new about astroturfing: The idea goes back to at least the Roman Republic, when all of the politicians (who were also usually the richest guys around) would give out a few denarii to a bunch of plebs, and the plebs were then responsible for showing up and cheering whenever that politician spoke in public at the Forum. Sure, it's a bit more formalized now, but the fundamentals haven't changed.
Astroturfing on the Internet. That's radically new. In fact, I've already submitted my patent application [eff.org].
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr