{"id":268595,"date":"2021-06-07T18:01:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T15:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-hackers-have-manipulated-twitters-trending-algorithm-for-years\/"},"modified":"2021-06-07T18:01:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T15:01:32","slug":"how-hackers-have-manipulated-twitters-trending-algorithm-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-hackers-have-manipulated-twitters-trending-algorithm-for-years\/","title":{"rendered":"#How hackers have manipulated Twitter\u2019s trending algorithm for years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a36e13683686\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a36e13683686\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-hackers-have-manipulated-twitters-trending-algorithm-for-years\/#Manipulating_Twitter\" >Manipulating Twitter<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#How hackers have manipulated <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>\u2019s trending algorithm for years<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image?fit=796%2C417&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2021%2F06%2FUntitled-design-2-2.jpg&amp;signature=9614429d904fd14cd91b72b7df6a0937\" \/><\/p>\n<div>A new study has discovered a vulnerability in Twitter\u2019s trending algorithm that makes the platform\u00a0<span>susceptible<\/span> to astroturfing attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers from\u00a0the Swiss Federal Institute of <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology<\/a> in Lausanne (EPFL) found that the social network doesn\u2019t consider whether a tweet has been deleted when determining which keywords should trend.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, attackers can\u00a0artificially push topics up the list of Twitter trends and then remove evidence of the manipulation.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers call this new form of attack\u00a0\u201cephemeral astroturfing:\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In this attack, a chosen keyword or topic is artificially promoted by coordinated and inauthentic activity to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ear popular, and, crucially, this activity is removed as part of the attack.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On Twitter, trending\u00a0topics are determined by an algorithm that identifies subjects that are popular at a given moment.<\/p>\n<p><em>[Read:\u00a0<span class=\"c-message_attachment__title\"><span dir=\"auto\">Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters<\/span><span aria-label=\"(opens in new tab)\"\/><\/span>]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The mechanism generates significant influence and potential revenue,\u00a0which makes it an attractive target for adversaries seeking to manipulate users.<\/p>\n<p>Ephemeral astroturfing enables them to boost their\u00a0messages by exploiting the design of the Twitter trends algorithm. Per the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/1910.07783.pdf\">study paper:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Trends are refreshed every five minutes, taking as input tweets that have been published in some time interval. However, despite the importance of the integrity of the list of trends, the algorithm <em>does not check<\/em> whether those tweets are still available or have been deleted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The researchers inspected both\u00a0Turkish local and global Twitter trends to investigate the impact of ephemeral astroturfing.<\/p>\n<p>They found that these\u00a0attacks accounted for at least 47% of local trends in Turkey and 20% of top 10 global trends analyzed during their study.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Manipulating_Twitter\"><\/span>Manipulating Twitter<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The attackers employed both bots and compromised accounts to generate the fake trends, which included phishing apps, disinformation campaigns, hate speech, and even marriage proposals.<\/p>\n<p>One of the manipulated hashtags that were artificially pushed to Trends was\u00a0<span>#SuriyelilerDefolsun (\u201cSyrians get out.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was then picked up by several <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> reports, other social media platforms, and in academic papers,\u201d said\u00a0<span>study co-author Rebekah Overdorf in a statement.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cIn reality, it was completely fabricated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team\u00a0says they\u2019ve twice notified\u00a0Twitter\u00a0about the issue. The company has\u00a0acknowledged that the attacks do exist, but the researchers say the problem has still not been fixed.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis manipulation has serious implications because we know that Twitter\u00a0trends get attention,\u201d said\u00a0Overdorf. \u201cBroader media outlets report on trends, which are used as a proxy for what people are talking about, but unfortunately, it\u2019s a manipulated proxy, distorting the public view of what conversations are actually going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve\u00a0contacted Twitter for comment on this and will update this article if we receive a response.<\/p>\n<p><em>Greetings Humanoids! Did you know we have a newsletter all about AI? You can subscribe to it<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/share.hsforms.com\/1kUPK28s-Ro67GKE8E65Zwg47gef\">right here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/twitter-trending-topics-algorithm-has-vulnerability-hackers-using-ephemeral-astroturfing-attacks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#How hackers have manipulated Twitter\u2019s trending algorithm for years&#8221; A new study has discovered a vulnerability in Twitter\u2019s trending algorithm that makes the platform\u00a0susceptible to astroturfing attacks. Researchers from\u00a0the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) found that the social network doesn\u2019t consider whether a tweet has been deleted when determining which keywords should&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/neural?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/Untitled-design-2-2.jpg&signature=25703a87990d7161ec5a4d8d3cc8e972","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}