#case type: sockpuppeting

[ai-art-thieves]

Hey, am I overreacting or do some of the videos on the youtube channel @/FactsByBriggs contain ai generated images?

Here's the link to the channel if you need it: https://youtube.com/@factsbybriggs?si=QC-lGMhM9239_g5C

I don't usually tackle cases that are on youtube, but for the sake of investigating whether or not something is ai generated I'll do it.

(FUTURE A2T HERE: THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG ONE.)

Aaaaand right out of the gate I see AI.

However, I can't call this ai trash just because they generate art from ai.

The real deciding factor would involve a few things:

Does this channel tell people that some of the pictures are ai generated?

Does this channel credit any images they use online?

Are they using ai to mislead and/or farm content solely for monetization purposes?

Only one way to find out.

Ok, so right out of the gate, we don't see any links to images.

This guy also has a lot of socials.

....And a LinkedIn for some reason.

Let's put a pin on that for now.

What do the videos have to offer?

Ok. So we got an ai voice, an avatar that reeks of content farm garbage, and an image that has not been credited.

We're off to a good start. (in case you couldn't tell, that was sarcastic.)

What they didn't do is crop the url that is above, so we know the art got taken from somewhere.

Luckily, we have Google Lens.

That image is from @yuumei-art.

They took that image and did not credit where the image was from.

But, it gets better. IT'S NOT THE ONLY ONE.

There's even some where they even left the artist's signature! Not once, but twice.

And to answer your question, fellow anon, yes. They do use ai generated imagery as well.

This channel is generating images or taking images from the internet for their videos.

No, this is not me hypothesizing. This is what they are actually doing.

I know this because in one video, they use a stock image with the watermark still intact.

But let's take a step back for a mo'. We need to investigate that LinkedIn account.

I have no idea why they have this account here. Like, at all.

LinkedIn is a job hunting website, not TikTok!

The link they have goes back to their Linktree.

Another thing to point out is that they have a Kofi page.

Well, BuyMeACoffee.

Same difference.

There doesn't seem to be anyone supporting that page.

Looking at this channel some more, this doesn't seem to be a content farm.

It has the stench of one, for sure. But it's also responding to comments.

Feeling like I've hit a dead end, I dropped "Facts by Briggs" on google.

That's when I learned that Facts By Briggs actually has a tumblr page.

....It's just not advertised on the Linktree.

And they have their own tumblr domain.

....wait, tumblr domains cost 22 bucks (18.02 pounds sterling in the UK). Isn't Briggs struggling with financial stuff?

...Something's not adding up.

They reblog posts from a London Hip-Hop DJ and Rapper by the name of CANMKING.

I was going to let this fact pass. But...

And yes, he is a real guy.

But let's get back on topic.

What's even stranger is that Can isn't the only one of the usual suspects that replies.

ctkvi, the people that made an album cover for Can.

They too have a linktree and a tumblr domain.

They also do ai video and music work.

And upon investigating those guys...

"Instagram Growth Service"?

Ok, the LinkedIn accounts are starting to make sense.

Let's tackle that monstocity another day, because it looks pretty daunting.

As for the avatar...

Google Lens saved me again, and that led me to Adobe Express.

And lookie here!

It's Briggs!

And considering that its a part of the Adobe Express ecosystem, I can probably infer that the whole video is made on Adobe Express.

Along with some of the other projects that CANMKING has done.

"Riley Frankcap"

Yes. This man made another one.

Better yet, Can has a total of 6 accounts.

And they reply to all of his stuff.

ongawdclub is the oldest of the alts, going as far back as December 2021, but Can has been on tumblr since 2011.

...

Huh. Looks like this case does involve this fellow hellsite after all.

Ok that's enough rabbit hole digging for today. Also I've hit the image limit on this post. Needless to say, there's a whole lot to unpack.

TL;DR:

Yes, Facts by Briggs is a content farm.

Yes, it uses ai art. BUT...

It also uses images off the internet and doesn't credit artists.

Briggs himself is not an original creation, but an avatar that you can easily use on Adobe Express. It's probably how most of the videos were created.

Facts by Briggs has a lot of social media accounts, as seen on their Linktree, including one on LinkedIn and one on a Kofi-like site.

What Facts by Briggs doesn't have on the Linktree is a tumblr. One that has a domain. This goes against what was said in the Kofi, which states that they are struggling with money.

Facts by Briggs reblogs posts by a London hip-hop dj/rapper named CANMKING.

CANMKING replies and reblogs numerous posts by Facts by Briggs, along with five other accounts (reallysmalls, ongawdclub, needgoodgraphics, ctkvi, and rileyfrankcap (A news based content farm). Facts by Briggs also replies to posts made those five accounts. CANMKING is the oldest account out of the total seven, so we assume that the six are sockpuppets that astroturf his tumblr posts.

ctkvi deals with ai video and audio, and needgoodgraphics has a service that, and I'm probably guessing here at the moment, artificially boosts your instagram account by astroturfing it.

TL;DR for the TL;DR:

CANMKING is a rapper/dj from London who uses sock puppets, astroturfing, bots, content farms, and straight up kofi scams to gain success.

...and he made those content farm videos all in Adobe Express.

To prove it, I reverse engineered a Facts by Briggs video.

Mostly.... I know Facts by Briggs uses ai voices... but I don't want to make another account just to access the ai voice add-on. So I used the legendary "Why You Lying?" instead.

I only found one post that talks about CANMKING's scamming efforts, but they've only scratched the surface.

If any of you have any more info about CANMKING that's not listed up here, do let me know.

[airandangels]

Within months of Craven’s introduction of Banks, Craven claimed Banks had been hospitalized after dropping a KitchenAid mixer on her foot, according to both an anonymous former business associate of Craven's I spoke to, and my own past conversations with Craven. Several hours later, her leg was allegedly amputated, and nearly 48 hours after the first operation, her other leg was amputated as well. The anonymous source mentioned above claims they then contacted West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Illinois where Banks was said to be recovering according to the source who saw this information on social media. When they contacted the hospital to send flowers, the hospital said there was no patient by that name. This resulted in the source seeking a third-party opinion due to fears of Craven allegedly misrepresenting himself and taking advantage of clients through sympathy.

A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed. - IGN

This reminds me of “The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover,” which details a very similar fraud committed by a man on CompuServe’s CB Simulator in the early 1980s.  Like, this kind of thing is pretty much as old as the social use of the Internet.

And of course the HIV+ high school AU/cannibal mermaid Hamilton fanfiction incident.

[galvanizedfriend]

hi it's the anon who believes in the elijah/cami agenda. i too would never forgive you because u brought this into my life and i can not let go of it ever.

Sai do fake, Luiza! 😂

Jokes aside, this is lovely nonnie. It's really just the highest of compliments to get people caring about a side pairing that is not even canon (although I would argue they made a lot more sense than the actual pairings they went with, but that's a different convo 🤐). I promise I will try my best not to disappoint on that end. 🙏

[ai-art-thieves]

Just translated the name.

The account's name is Ivan.

Updating again, because it has gotten worse. This user has now started to use random names so you can no longer filter for “Russian”. The content and harassment has also evolved. TW list is updated.

At this point just keep an eye out for users with a ‘Z’ on a Russian flag background (🇷🇺). That’s all of their accounts.

———————————————————————————

Hi everyone, quick update on these assholes in the Mouthwashing tags.

These are new accounts, so those of you who are already aware of what is happening, I recommend blocking these as well.

To those who are unaware:

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

These individuals have been DMing users and spamming the Mouthwashing tags with:

——-—————————————————————————

Videos depicting:

• REAL videos of individuals being executed.

• This has turned into gore of children/babies.

• Images depicting child 🍇/🌽

• Images depicting women/Anya being 🍇

• LIVE animal mutilation/torture/death.

• REAL videos depicting extreme sexual fetishes.

Such as: sexual organ removal, scat fetish, vomit fetish, etc.

• As well as harassing users in the comments of their posts or DMs with slurs or promoting the legalization of rape.

• NOTE: Harassment has now changed to threats of sexual violence or encouraging users of suicide.

———————————————————————————

These individuals are DMing users or sending Asks, so that you are forced to see these videos upon opening the chat.

Please be advised and recommend that your followers BLOCK, REPORT, and FILTER these individuals and their content in advance so that less people have to see these horrific videos.

Also feel free to add more tags so that this will reach a wider audience and we can hopefully prevent anyone else from having to see this.

[chncmt]

i always manage to find some unobserved corners of the internet where as i read its contents i can't help but think about some fraud horrortuber (think nexpo) making a low quality 40 minute video about it

[marikbentusi]

I wasn't interested much in the Gwenpool Fortnite collab (fingerless gloves are a cute tweak), but someone asked on Twitter about "evil future Gwenpool" being labelled "Dark Gwenpool" ingame (which is what I've been calling my fan character variant since 2020):

"Dark" is a very common prefix for evil alter egos, so even if people occasionally mistake my comics for official material, I was certain this was a coincidence. But then the person also casually pointed out that she's called "Dark GwenPool" on Wikipedia. Huh?

No sources cited as far as I can tell. One of the original Gwenpool creators even agreed that "Dark Gwenpool" was never official:

I hunted down the Wikipedia changelog where apparently someone injected all the Dark Gwenpool stuff on 8th of April this year (2024). So maybe someone on the Fortnite team checked Google/Wikipedia instead of making up the name from scratch.

I tried to hunt down the wiki editor for questioning only to find out they are banned for being a sockpuppet account. In fact, that user was such a prolific sockpuppeteer that they've got their own Wikipedia page listing all 164 suspected alts. One of them is called "Batrocfrogg", what kind of canonization assist from beyond the grave is this?!

Since that lead went cold, I looked at the sources the wiki edit gave when talking about the character more generally. Aside from the official comics where she isn't called Dark Gwenpool, we've got:

"Peter Parker & Miles Morales: Spider-Men Double Trouble #2" – evil Gwen just has a cosplay background cameo there, no name drop.

Marvel Duel, a niche F2P mobile card game, where she's an antagonist.

The person who first pointed out to me that "Dark Gwenpool" was also on Wikipedia dug around and found a screenshot that evil Gwen is indeed called "Dark Gwenpool" in Marvel Duel:

Obviously I assume the Marvel Duel devs just made that one up without knowing about my comics. Case closed on that lead! But I'm not sure if the Wiki edit was based on this.

Marvel Duel, if we can still trust its wiki page, only released in eight countries. They are mostly in the UTC+8 time zone. The edit was finished on ~22:00 UTC+0, which would be Tuesday 05:00 AM local time if the editor is from one of those countries themselves. Of course, maybe the person played an emulated/jailbroken version (the game does come in English), watched a foreign Let's Play, or is just a super night owl. None of these are stranger than having 146 sockpuppet accounts. But it also doesn't exactly help the edit's credibility like I had hoped.

I also don't know if Marvel Duel included the name variations "Dark GwenPool" and "Dark Gwen" that the Wiki editor used specifically (in the screencap above she's stylized differently). The editor also called her the "evil alternator future version" tho, so maybe they aren't a stickler for details.

----

But yeah the TL;DR is that "Dark GwenPool" is currently the main name for evil Gwen on Wikipedia with no source cited. Marvel Duel calling her that as well was probably just coincidence. Maybe Fortnite also made it up, or they copied it from Wikipedia, or maybe they copied it from Marvel Duel itself.

I thought it was weird and funny enough to share. 164 sockpuppets. WTF.

[ai-art-thieves]

From the information I gathered, the owner of all those sock puppets was a user by the name of russiansoldier282.

And that icon seems to be a variation of a pro-russia flag.

Glad to know that tumblr is doing something to stop this guy.

i didn't intend to return to this account but it seems like there are a bunch of sock puppet accounts posting really really fucked up shit in mouthwashing tags, like anywhere from extreme proship content to real life gore of children and other shit. if you're easily affected by that you should avoid the tumblr tags for a bit.

all of these accounts seem to have one thing in common and that is this profile picture. no clue if it means anything but watch out for it and report any of these you see accordingly, or avoid the mouthwashing tags

[adz]

i don't believe in sockpuppeting, trolling, or sending anon hate. not because these things are morally wrong, but because in almost all cases your goals would be better served by spending the same time preparing ingredients, cooking, and eating 4-8 quarts of vegetable soup.

[ai-art-thieves]

Investigation: Lavenderconstellation.store (or, how I started worrying and hate the aesthetic and meme blogs)

Looks like we got yet another epidemic of scammy garbage on our hands.

It's name is available HERE

GET IT HERE

GET THIS SHIRT HERE

Advertisements for websites disguised as posts.

Only problem?

These websites are dropshipping scam sites that inflate prices and create fake flash deals to make oblivious buyers take their products.

And it has infected numerous meme and aesthetic blogs.

They're already catalogued on this blog, so I won't have to restate myself.

HOWEVER, I did find something interesting.

Lavenderconstellation is not the only one.

It started when I looked into one of the sites plants, @/im-going-gh0st.

They created the blog on June 2022.

Initially, things seemed pretty normal.

Reblogging posts and memes.

That is... until June 22.

This right here is the first post and potentially the first appearance of loveandthunder.com

But that post was nothing compared to July 10th, 2022.

From there, numerous posts advertising the site began to flood the page, albeit with some regular reblogged posts to make them look less suspicious.

It also made me learn that @/throwbackblr, @/marvelness, @/deejay, @/johnwickofficial, @/heroesnewday, @/bong, @/elephantwildlife and @/im-so-3008 were a part of this at the time.

Love and Thunder even had their own tumblr, @/love-and-thvnder.

And all of us were unknowingly reblogging these posts.

Some people didn't even know these were ADS.

Luckily the site no longer exists.

....unfortunately it changed to Retro Mini.

Which is.... also a scam.

So we already got two stores that are straight up scams.

And a selection of blogs that have been advertising the site.

Most of them were aesthetic and meme blogs.

Sound familiar?

Wait, no. It gets better.

We got December 19th 2023.

That's when this thing started to show up.

Behold. The beginning of a new wave of stealth dropshipping store ads.

Adverts for RetroMini, Miyoo, and... on December 26th, 2023....

lavenderconstellation.store.

Scarily enough, that's not even the first appearance of that store.

It goes back further to 2022. In APRIL.

I found out when I saw one of their plants, @/shutupandtakemymonies, reblogged an account with only one post.

From this account.

That blog reblogged the hell out of that post.

These guys aren't just plants.

These guys are ASTROTURFERS.

@/best-black-friday-deals, @/bellaela, @/@cute-lovely-bee, @/bellapretty, @/viral-pink-toks, @/goth--roseee, @/carolineeeeeeeeeeeee, @/rosit-aaa, @/ee-jos, @/sword-grandma, @/alfred-xx @/dreamcore-posts, @/my-random--thoughts-deactivated, @/romaaaa-n....

And that's just the ones I could find in im-going-gh0st's archive.

A lot of blogs that reblog aesthetic or meme posts, reblog the hell out of the site, and leave the blog dormant when they are no longer needed.... which usually means that they moved to a different blog.

Some are less obvious about it than others.

I'm glad that there are people that are becoming more and more aware of this.... but that's not good enough.

We are dealing with a dropshipping, cheap videogame, price inflating online store with an army of astroturfers disguised as run of the mill meme blogs and aesthetic blogs.

And again, a lot of accounts fall for these posts.

This gives me some serious "They Live" vibes and I don't like it.

The only way we can stop them is to become the Nada of this story.

It's time to chew bubblegum and kick ass.

And we are all out of bubblegum.

[confused-rat]

I think the thing about Lily trying to act like Britt was the bad person for interacting with Tara is you can tell she's really dying go "Look! Look! I threw all these crazy ethical dilemmas at Britt and she went with them! I knew none of this stuff was real, but she didn't know for sure, so she's so much worse than me!"

...Except that argument means admitting she invented a sockpuppet for the purpose of playing sick mindgames on people she supposedly cared for, which is in fact worse again.

Lose-lose, Lily. Either you're worse than Britt for contemplating hiding evidence of a predator you knew in RL and 100% knew was a real person who did real crimes, or you're worse than Britt for being an enormous creep, because seriously, who DOES that shit.

It’s fucked up, cause you know there was already a power imbalance when Lily and Britt met. Britt was a fan, Lily “introduced**” her to “Tara,” and then “Tara”  started feeding her lines and scenarios. Slowly ramping up from the smaller, easier to laugh off stuff, to the straight up grotesque. This is the kind of shit you’d see Netflix documentaries on. Lily blaming Britt for not acting on any of the information she was given is straight up victim blaming. 

**I’m not sure on how Britt and Tara met, either Lily “introduced” the two, or Britt met her through running in the same circles as most of Lily’s fans (in which case, Lily was directly fishing for victims in her audience pool.)

[ai-art-thieves]

I'm going to keep the ask box open to hopefully get direct evidence of their wrongdoings and report them accordingly.

They aren't getting away with any of this.

I've gotten a few asks warning of a raid of sorts on Christmas where a group of people are going to send gore etc. in asks to random people. Whether or not this will actually happen I don't know, but there are some simple things you can do to protect yourself if you are worried!

Turn off anonymous asks

Turn off media in asks

You can see both of these in your blog settings (not the general settings for your whole account, specifically the blog settings).

You can also turn off asks entirely if you're really worried. I take warnings about things like this with a grain of salt, but there's no harm in taking precautions for a day or so if you're worried! I figured a single short post like this would be more efficient than answering each ask about it, haha. You can change your settings back once you feel like the coast is clear.

[amielbjacobs]

@yaoist

Yessss let me list my favorite Soviet history books

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia, by Orlando Figes - I wound up doing a lot of deep dives into very specific subjects without ever reading a good general history book, so this was one of the more general histories I've read. As a writer, I love all of the specific detail. Figes himself is kind of a . . . character (read: writes his own Amazon reviews under a sockpuppet) and there's a few weird moments in the text that seem to reflect that, but it was really enlightening.

Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia, by Dan Healey - the definitive book on queer Soviet history. My favorite parts are the portraits of early trans people - although like many historians, Healey is (imo) way too eager to label historical people as cis when the evidence is at best mixed.

Red Closet: The hidden history of gay oppression in the USSR, by Rustam Alexander - A series of portraits of queer people in the USSR. As someone morbidly fascinated by the secret police, my favorite was the case of the KGB officer who was 1) gay and 2) weirdly obsessed with arresting gay people, to the point where it made all of his comrades very uncomfortable. It's a fascinating window into the institutional KGB approach to the "crime" of sodomy.

The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service, by Andrew Meier - I picked this one up at random at a library book sale and loved it. An investigation into an American agent of the NKVD who vanished into the USSR during the great purges and was never seen again. My favorite part is how the writer (a journalist) makes his own research part of the story, a kind of detective story.

Police Aesthetics: Literature, Film, and the Secret Police in Soviet Times, by Critina Vatulescu - this is another academic book so it might be really boring to anyone who isn't me, but I am fascinated by the interplay between propaganda and the people who propaganda depicts, especially in terms of spy fiction. I quote the line "In classic secret police fashion, the true secret is that there is no secret at all," all the time to my other war-crimes-special-interest friend.

Next Stop Execution, by Oleg Gordievsky - A memoir by KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky. I found this a fascinating look into the inner workings of the KGB, as well as into the mind of a man willing to risk everything for what he believed in.

Those are my history book recs, I have some more historical fiction or Soviet fiction recs!

[lillian-v-orchard]

Okay so if 2bits4bits6bits is actually Lily's sockpuppet then this screenshot is WILD

Just...straight up calling people slurs now... here's the archive link in case she deletes it.

yikes

[theliterarywolf]

...

So... You know how I've been going on and ON with trying to push the notion that 'once you have a creation out in the purchasing/industry wilds, you can't act like a dipshit teenager anymore'?

To the point that some people probably find themselves wondering 'why won't this bitch shut up about this already'?

Do you want to see a perfect case-study of WHY that notion needs to keep being pushed?

If so, all you have to do is look at the current state of BookTwitter/BookTube/BookTok!

Because how the FUCK are you telling me that someone MADE IT! They had a book ready to drop! They had gotten their $175,000 advance. THEY! HAD! IT! MAAAAAADE!!!

...Yet they had to pull some middle-school drama bullshit and have all their ship fandom friends make a platoon's worth of sockpuppet accounts to review-bomb people all over GoodReads!

And not even properly cover their tracks, oh my GOD!!

[ai-art-thieves]

Those accounts do get purged pretty quickly, so I recommend you report/block rather than just block.

[OOC]

Hello everyone! @francis-s-bassists has notified me that gore bots have infected the Mouthwashing, Scott Pilgrim, Stardew Valley, and Artists On Tumblr tags.

Here is a more detailed explanation:

Incase you aren't sure how to filter tags:

1.) Go to your account settings

2.) Click "Content you see" and "Filter tags"

3.) Type the tag you'd like to filter

Please stay safe everyone (⁠´⁠∩⁠｡⁠•⁠ ⁠ᵕ⁠ ⁠•⁠｡⁠∩⁠`⁠)

[opencommunion]

lately I'm seeing "leftist" "pro-Palestine" blogs—either zionist sockpuppets or just self-centered cowards who want excuses to not take action—say that because they're involved in other activism they have no obligation to lift a finger to stop genocide. this makes it very obvious not only that they don't give a shit about Palestinians, but also that they're probably not actually involved in any struggle against racism or capitalism. bc those of us who are struggling understand that not only do we have a moral obligation to stand with Palestine; colonialism and genocide in Palestine are linchpins of the white supremacist capitalist system that oppresses us all, and the Palestinian struggle is currently a "hot front" in our global liberation struggle. directing energy and resources toward Palestinian liberation does not take away from any other struggle, because it's the same struggle—often in ways that are blatantly obvious (as in the case of Stop Cop City and other movements fighting direct collaborations btwn US cops and IOF). the connections are extremely clear and if you're really involved in any liberation mvmts you would probably know this long before Oct 7th! if your activism is rigidly siloed into different "causes" that never touch, you're probably not doing anything that directly impacts the interconnected structures maintaining our oppression