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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Manisha Ganguly

‘Aims’: the software for hire that can control 30,000 fake online profiles

AIMS Tal Hanan ICO Twitter Inc. Team Jorge Facebook Jorge Gauri Lankesh Airbnb Amazon
Aims software screenshots composite
Tal Hanan said Aims bots were linked to SMS-verified phone numbers, and some even had credit cards. Composite: Guardian Design/Haaretz/TheMarker/Radio France

At first glance, the Twitter user “Canaelan” looks ordinary enough. He has tweeted on everything from basketball to Taylor Swift, Tottenham Hotspur football club to the price of a KitKat. The profile shows a friendly-looking blond man with a stubbly beard and glasses who, it indicates, lives in Sheffield. The background: a winking owl.

Canaelan is, in fact, a non-human bot linked to a vast army of fake social media profiles controlled by a software designed to spread “propaganda”.

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