A University of Cambridge analysis reveals how cheap SMS text message verification to create online accounts fuels global influence and manipulation campaigns
Analysis reveals how cheap text message verification fuels global influence and manipulation campaigns
The first global index tracking real-time prices for buying fake account verifications on 500+ online platforms only 0.26 cents a pop for a US account —explains much of what goes on here https://www.cam.ac.uk/...
How cheap is it to build a bot army? 🤖 Find out using the first global index to track real-time prices for verifying fake accounts on 500 platforms, from TikTok to Amazon 👇 https://www.cam.ac.uk/... [image]
Verifying a social network or internet account with SMS/text is cheap. Such accounts may be used to fraud, cyberattacks, disinformation. It's very cheap for France ($0.31), US ($0.26), the UK ($0.10), and Russia ($0.08), most expensive in Japan ($4.93). www.science.org/doi/10.1…
Here's the paper: — “Mapping the online manipulation economy” by Anton Dek, @yarakyrychenko.bsky.social, @profsanderlinden.bsky.social, and Jon Roozenbeek. — www.science.org/doi/10.1126/ ...
The first global index tracking real-time prices for buying fake account verifications on 500+ online platforms — only 0.26 cents a pop for a US account — explains much — www.cam.ac.uk/stories/pric...
WhatsApp responded to the findings of our new Cambridge Trust and Safety index: — “WhatsApp said in a statement that it welcomed the research into an industry it said was “aiming to mislead internet services. Unsurprisingly, X did not return messages seeking comment — www.re…
This research gets at an idea that's been percolating in disinfo-fighting circles for a while: Rather than get bogged down in debates over online censorship, why not shine a light on the market for disinformation-related services? — www.reuters.com/business/med...