Thread by @benimmo

Thread: If you want to know how fake likes, loves and follows get industrialised on #Facebook, here's a good example from #Brazil.

The fakes boosted hyper-partisan posts in Mexico ahead of the election.

Fake engagement's an international business.

medium.com/dfrlab/electio…

Here are the reactions to two hyper-partisan Mexican posts, on different pages.

Note the number of accounts in common. Looks like an organised brigade.

Following the traces of the brigade led back to this account. Note the letters PCSD, which are diagnostic for this particular network.

PCSD had a number of pages. Its stated purpose?

“To bring together all Facebook page managers to exchange knowledge, negotiations and profits using the social network.”

Profits. This was an industrial engagement-trading community.

The amazing thing is how overt the organisation was.

Here's a member posting a receipt for the sale of a page. About the platform, on the platform.

Here's proof that one of the members sold a share of a post.

Left, the post confirming the transaction. Right, the share.

Even the accompanying text and emoji were part of the deal.

This one showed the sale of a page.

This one recorded the sale of a page with 121k likes for 300 reals (just under $100 at the time).

Gives you an idea of going prices in the marketplace.

And here's a sale of 10k likes for $60.

Shows how cheap it is to control thousands of accounts.

It wasn't limited to Facebook. This one recorded a trade of an Instagram account.

Another one recorded the sale of a Twitter account.

This one even traded $250 Paypal for $200 cash. Hell of a conversion rate.

The group was self-policing. One of its pages recorded sanctions against members who broke the rules.

Here's one who got banned for failing to follow through on a deal.

Here's another who got banned in perpetuity for "several robbery attempts."

Trust and reputation matter in shadow economies like this.

This was part of a much bigger network which @Facebook took down this morning.

Five pages, 50 accounts, 72 groups.

politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/eleic…

It's an international market, monetising likes, follows, pages and shares.

Brazil isn't the end of the trail. /

Thread ends.