AlanJul 15
Petra van Cronenburg
🧵 A thread on how to check #accounts you don't trust.
Over the last few days I've been getting strange #followRequests. People who have never interacted with me or my followers. I wonder how they find me. Usually, I at least check accounts to see if they are real people.
These accounts had strange patterns: Mostly politics, some as if they were fans of the EU. Very lefty. But when I searched more, I always found ideologies to destroy democracy or far-right ideas from #TESCREAL. Well, you can be
Jul 15 at 1:49pmWeb
Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15

🧵 as much left as you want, I accept you as #follower. But if people shout out to destroy #democracy, I destroy their request (and probably report them).
I did my 'quick check' and found out: they were mostly and probably (very) good hidden #propaganda accounts.

I want to tell you my methods. For technical features I recommend the Mastodon guide https://fedi.tips/

☑️ Real humans?
Watch the 'Post & Replies' section of their stream. You can see if they interact, communicate actively.

Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15

🧵 Here you can also see if they abuse comments or nag constantly at others. If they broadcast only: Watch if they get answers. Most propaganda accounts are quite lonely. If they have links in their profile: check them! (you can sometimes find bad surprises).

☑️ Check their entry date. If they are here for only a handful of days, perhaps not everything is already federated (even if they are on mastodon social). But you should already see profile photos and descriptions! Watch their account from

Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15

🧵 *their* instance: here you should see the better follower numbers / content. Pay attention if you see nothing or nearly zero followers if they are here for longer.

☑️ Check their connections. This is the quickest way to expose AI accounts and propaganda slinger: They have a lot of bots and zero-Follower accounts without images as followees and followers. If you check these, you get quickly an idea of their purpose.
It's a bit more complicated to check because many people don't make their

Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15
🧵 followers public. But propaganda bots in particular just love it simple and rarely hide it. Click on Followers/followees. Depending on their time on Mastodon and the federation of smaller instances, you often have to check this on *their* instance directly.
Do you see real groups of aliases without images and without followers? Accounts who follow a lot of people but get followed only by some bots or empty accounts?
Then it's a propaganda machine with 95% probability.
If this propaganda slop
Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15

🧵 is well made, they follow some very big accounts and some random real people. Often they choose the big accounts by topic (to convince you).

☑️ Another sign: Mastodon has a new feature to show you which of the people you follow, follows such an account. Mostly nobody. But pay attention, many follow automatically back, and sometimes you ask yourself why your friend follows such a slop bot. Ask your friend. 😉

☑️ Hashtags for showing trolling accounts as a warning are toodles and WhackATroll.

Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15

🧵 This is my "quick check". As a journalist, I can go deeper via search machines, other accounts and traces of the aliases. But most of the time the deep 💩 is already visible in their comment section.

☑️ Attention, not every account without profile photo is a bad one: this is also a sign to recognise blind people. But they communicate and have profile descriptions. https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-customise-my-profile-how-do-i-upload-a-profile-banner-how-do-i-verify-my-account/

Well, these are my methods. I'm happy if you like to share yours to identify bot and propaganda accounts!

How to use and customise profile pages on Mastodon | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Show threadSewBlueJul 15

@NatureMC I figure propaganda is harder to scale here because there is no algorithm to juice.

Bots talking to bots because fake internet points cause a post to reach real eyeballs.

I know I have a number of bots following me but i don't follow back unless I have clearly human interactions.

(And competely off topic, I got to see a Doctor Who exhibit yesterday)

Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15

@sewblue (Dr Who can never be off topic!) 🤭

Not every bot is bad. Some follow people to get informations / boost posts. It depends on the bots. I also follow some bots like the HitchhikersGuideQuoteBot2 at mastodon.social 😉

Show threadSewBlueJul 15

@NatureMC I like bots when they are open and honest about what they are, and provide entertainment that would not be feasible by a himachal.

It's when they are sneaky and have undisclosed motives in have issues with. I came across one that was like buzz word bingo for a certain type of person, but all they talked about was splitting up the UK. Wales, Scotland, England etc.

Not a thing about her life or a human interaction. Nothing that spoke to the buzz words in her profile. Hello, being trans in London right now might cause a few concerns? Just how great splitting up the UK would be.

Was very clear the account was spitting out propaganda. Probably the same content to multiple accounts.

Show threadCiwi 🏳️‍🌈Jul 15
@NatureMC How can I kick people out who follow me, if they seem fishy? Do I have to block them? I don’t see another option here.. will they then not see my stuff anymore?
Show threadPetra van CronenburgJul 15
@ciwi8 Different possibilities:
1. You block them - they will see the block but can't interact anymore.
2. You mute them (for some time only or forever) - they don't see the muting but your posts. You don't see their actions/posts.
3. Very elegant: Soft block (they don't see it): https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-remove-followers-on-mastodon-without-blocking-them/
How do I remove followers on Mastodon without blocking them? How do I “soft block”? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Show threadCiwi 🏳️‍🌈Jul 15
@NatureMC thank you!