Mastodawn

@Crapknocker Mar 30, 2023

A source of new Fediverse accounts is dev.brighteon.social.

46,862 were discovered during the past day.

Brighteon is known for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories all over Facebook and Twitter, and it looks like they’re trying their hand at the Fediverse now.

I’ve looked at the accounts on that server, and the overwhelming majority look like bots. The goal seems to be spamming misinformation.

I recommend putting brighteon.social on #Fediblock.

https://botsin.space/@mastodon_daily_active_users/110107223841240128

Mastodon Daily Active Users (@[email protected])

Daily Top User Growth dev.brighteon.social: +46862 mastodon.social: +3986 kids.0px.io: +275 mstdn.jp: +222 mstdn.social: +206 mastodon.world: +203 mastodon.cloud: +159 mastodon.online: +149 masto.es: +111 mas.to: +105 data collected from: https://instances.social/

botsin.space

scarlett Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet oh boy, that whole list looks like a doozy

@atomicpoet @seb @Moritz @cd24

@BruceHalperin @atomicpoet @seb @Moritz good eye! We’ve limited our federation with them. Thank you!

@cd24 @atomicpoet @seb @Moritz thanks for acting on it so quickly!

Rairii Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet lol, look at the github repo they've linked to for AGPL compliance: https://github.com/webseedcom/BTSocial-open-source

GitHub - webseedcom/BTSocial-open-source

Contribute to webseedcom/BTSocial-open-source development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

Colin Cogle 🔵Mar 30, 2023

@Rairii @atomicpoet “This AGPLv3 license applies to the entirety of the work and all its parts. This license grants no permission to license this work in any other way.” Sounds like they didn’t even read the license! #AfferoGPL #gpl

Ernie Smith Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet awesome so the bulk of the growth is from disinfo merchants. Awesome

Matthew Nadler Mar 29, 2023

@ernie @atomicpoet It's not that surprising, sadly.

Steven Hilton Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet @supernovae FYI

Oblomov Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet cc @gubi

@atomicpoet Brighteon is run by Mike Adams, a far-right antivaxxer conspiracy theorist. He was previously banned by Facebook for using overseas bot farms to spread misinformation. It also provides a platform to other notable far-right and antivaxxer conspiracy theorists such as Clay Clark, Bryan Ardis, and Ann Vandersteel, and is rife with election denialist, anti-LGBT, and fascist propaganda. I agree that admins should #Fediblock it. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/brighteon/

Brighteon

CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE Sources in the Conspiracy-Pseudoscience category may publish unverifiable information that is not always supported by evidence. These sources may be untrustworthy for credible/verifiable information; therefore, fact-checking and further investigation is recommended on a per article basis when obtaining information from these sources. See all Conspiracy-Pseudoscience sources. We rate Brighteon a right-biased Tin-Foil Hat Conspiracy website that also publishes pseudoscience. This source is associated with Natural

Media Bias/Fact Check

Koochulainn Mar 29, 2023

@BruceHalperin One of the worst people on the internet alright.
The best thing he ever did was his hilarious self-penned bio on his own website.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160106163427/http://www.truthwiki.org/natural_news

Natural News - TruthWiki

Health Ranger Profile and History Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Mike Adams, the “Health Ranger,” is an outspoken consumer health advocate, award-winning investigative journalist, internet activist and science lab director. He is the founder and editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet’s most-trafficked natural health news website. He is also the creator of http://www.CounterThink.com,http://www.FoodInvestigations.com, http://www.HealingFoodReference.com,http://www.HonestFoodGuide.org and several Full Article…

TruthWiki

@Koochulainn @atomicpoet jfc

Koochulainn Mar 29, 2023

@BruceHalperin You said it.
I'm not sure if TruthWiki was the inspiration for Badgers Law, but it's a prime example of it @atomicpoet

Floon Mar 29, 2023

@Koochulainn @BruceHalperin @atomicpoet What a tool.

Koochulainn Mar 29, 2023

@hteasley A proper arsehole
He had his first business success helping spammers bypass email filtering (IIRC)
That was his ethical highpoint
@BruceHalperin @atomicpoet

Catherine is not complacent Mar 29, 2023

@Koochulainn @BruceHalperin @atomicpoet it’s like Elon Musk and George Santos had a baby .

Sophie Schmieg Mar 29, 2023

@Koochulainn @BruceHalperin @atomicpoet when you read that lifestyle section, you just know he tried more or less any drug on the planet.

Ice Nine Apr 27, 2023

@Koochulainn @BruceHalperin @atomicpoet

He was using his own prototype of ChatGTP, with bullshit ramped up to 11, right?

hannahshouse2 🇺🇸 California Mar 30, 2023

@BruceHalperin @atomicpoet
@jorijn for information

Troed Sångberg Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet Thanks. Blocked.

Anomnomnomaly Mar 29, 2023

@wild1145 Ryan, would you be so kind as to look into this and see if it needs blocking from mastodonapp.uk

Derek Caelin is writing a book Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet I was wondering what the source of all those new fediverse users was...

Instance Coffee Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet blocking here, too. They host Alex Jones, nuff said

BakersRelay Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet Thanks - to all my instance developers - please block this at the instance level.

Helge Mar 29, 2023

It's an idea raised with mastodon, but without progress on the issue. I'm not sure about how other server distributions handle it. It seems like an obvious move to include "import blocklist from trusted source" as a step in instructions on how to setup an instance. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be. Also finding a trusted source is hard.

Baked-in project-wide blocklist · Issue #21666 · mastodon/mastodon

Pitch Your project should have a baked-in blocklist. Motivation You have a Code of Conduct already. Use it. Yes, some admins are just gonna remove it, but it's a matter of putting up barriers again...

GitHub

BakersRelay Mar 29, 2023

@helge @atomicpoet @ai6yr Then we do it the old fashioned way - we request it en mass. @lckrohjr

Helge Mar 29, 2023

Requesting better blocking via behavior that is a cause for blocking, seems counter intuitive to me. I would suggest starting smaller by for example trying to get pointers on how to find the servers to block included in https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/moderation/#server-wide-moderation

Moderation actions - Mastodon documentation

Features to assist in managing your community.

BakersRelay Mar 29, 2023

@helge @atomicpoet @ai6yr @lckrohjr I’m in emergency relaying. If I have worry about bots muddying the message or espousing conspiracy theories to a vulnerable audience then I’ll be tolerating here what caused me to leave Mr Twitter’s platform. I’d rather work to prevent a foothold.

AI6YR Ben Mar 29, 2023

@BakerRL75 @helge @atomicpoet @lckrohjr I have been blocking these.. .there's a mass blocklist automation effort by @oliphant but I have found that (right now) once you get the bulk of the bad actors blocked out you just have to add one or two every so often when they crop up. That doesn't fix the rest of the world, but it removes the issues on this server here!

Helge Mar 29, 2023

That's a good link. Thanks for sharing.

Direct link to the repo

blocklists

Blocklists

Codeberg.org

Stark Mar 29, 2023

Fun thing about #Mastodon is that you can block entire such instances!

MikeK Mar 29, 2023

46,862...

I suppose they thought that was being inconspicuous.

Cookie Mumbles Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet with things like fediblock here I keep wondering: why even try, you know?

Marco Bresciani Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet
@kev @mike what do you think?
@gubi

@cenobyte Time to use our powers for good 😊

Miss Koula Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet @jonGhull @libreops

Jøn Ghùll Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet @libreops @misskoula Thanks! We have fediblocked brighteon.social since day one of running our instance, as well as other racist and homophobic instances. Even fucking Alex Jones is in it.

You can find more sketchy instances to #fediblock here:

https://joinfediverse.wiki/FediBlock

FediBlock - Join the Fediverse

@atomicpoet Thank you for the heads up, Sir! 😊

swish Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet @greymatter fyi

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet Done #Fediblock

@atomicpoet @storvandre che tu sappia, può interessare i nostri #admin?

@OrsGiu @atomicpoet @misterpinna

@atomicpoet @aras

@atomicpoet hoooboy now that’s a clusterfuck of evil lunacy. spicy yet so old, boring, and repetitive.

ReallyCanadianFly Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet
@chad something to look in to.

heathenwisp Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet oh GOD NO. These jerks got a hold of my dad during the pandemic and turned him into a vaccine denialist. I second any motion to likit their spread!!!!

Susan Larson ♀️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈Mar 29, 2023

#Majority of #Americans #reject #RepublicanParty #antitrans #bills, but support for this #restriction is rising

43% of Americans now say they support laws that #criminalize the act of providing transition-related #GenderAffirming #Healthcare to #minors, according to the latest poll, marking a 15% increase since April 2021. About half of Americans — 54% — say they oppose such #laws.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQIA #Hate #Bigotry #transphobia #MoralPanic

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/majority-of-americans-reject-anti-trans-bills-but-support-for-this-restriction-is-rising

Majority of Americans reject anti-trans bills, but support for this restriction is rising

Forty-three percent of Americans now say they support laws that criminalize the act of providing gender-transition-related medical care to minors, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, marking a 15-percentage point increase in less than two years.

PBS News

Susan Larson ♀️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈Mar 29, 2023

- The Overton Window is slowly moving rightward…

Jonathan Mar 29, 2023

cc @ParadeGrotesque :arrow_up:

Parade du Grotesque 💀Mar 29, 2023

Not in charge of the blocking at @SDF - guys, can we do something about that domain?

Austin Godber Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet I’ve been suspicious of the +1k users and hour growth rate. Glad you have called this out.

Erlend Sogge Heggen Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet ActivityPub immune system in action ❤️‍🔥love to see it!

1. Attention-hoarding apps (Twitter/Fb) have a weak incentive to block these types of users, especially in the early days when user numbers rule supreme.
2. Even when those apps do enact bans, it’s usually done in quiet.

Silver lining: If the troll farms are starting to target the #fediverse , I suppose that signals faith in the network 😅

Bret Pettichord

@atomicpoet @davetroy Dave, here ⬆️ is more info on Brighton.social which I saw you tag as Russian adjacent in your recent Twitter post.

@bpettichord @atomicpoet can confirm Brighteon is toxic disinfo. Definitely should be added to fediblock. See my study here.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JIHe_RqyRVO9JR1yR7AqEYqcLg9uimidiiEcVnlDnbA/edit#gid=0

Charles Johnson Mar 29, 2023

@davetroy @bpettichord @atomicpoet I was wondering where all the right wingers were — and hey, there they are!

I just took a quick look at the site and now I need a shower.

Flittermouse 🔞🐩

@bpettichord @atomicpoet @davetroy

Be aware that there is an instance brighton.social (without the e) which is harmless. Probably associated with the seaside town on the south coast of England.

Brighton.social

Brighton.social is a Mastodon instance designed for the Brighton area but open to registration from everywhere. Server banner by Xgkkp on Wikimedia and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mastodon hosted on brighton.social

@bitnik @atomicpoet @bpettichord heh, those poor folks. ;)

Voron Mar 29, 2023

@atomicpoet woah https://toad.social/@davetroy just posted a spreadsheet that connects brighteon to russian info ops

Dave Troy :toad: (@[email protected])

2.96K Posts, 873 Following, 18.7K Followers · Publisher and Editor, America 2.0. Entrepreneur, investor, tech pioneer. Columnist, Washington Spectator. Speaker. Cook. Pilot. Host of https://toad.social — a trusted source of news, analysis, and thoughtful discussion, and a part of the federated social universe. 📍Baltimore/Washington

toad.social