• Chozo@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    66
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    They appear to be scrolling through a single social media feed. This operation is likely what those social media “boosting” services are doing, where they’ll bring a ton of new traffic to your profile to try to goad the algorithm into sending real users your way.

  • whoareu@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    5 months ago

    Is there a way to interact with GUI elements of Android using external device like a pc Or something?

    • brian@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      5 months ago

      There are a ton of things you can do with a keyboard natively on Android. I would imagine these use that plus a bit of software to emulate “real” movements, like the flicking down to scroll

    • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      5 months ago

      Sure with like teamviewer or similar app. I’d guess they’re running the bot on a computer which is remote controlling those phones

    • Aux@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yes, you can control the phone programmatically if you unlock it and put it into dev mode.

    • Vince@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      5 months ago

      If it’s just a browser you can connect to chrome devtools via web socket and send commands

  • Zier@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    5 months ago

    So all my followers/adoring fans are just 1 guy with a laptop? [crushed]

    • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      5 months ago

      All of my Twitter followers are thot-bots. I don’t even get the good ones that have pictures of cats in their bio. Just poorly photoshopped Kim Kardashian body swaps.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    5 months ago

    Surprised they use real phones for this, I would think VMs and VPNs would be the most scalable.

    • cmhe@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      5 months ago

      Since their usage is probably forbidden my the TOS of the platforms they use, and the platforms will try to detect this kind of usage and ban users, I would assume that the closer they appear like natural usage, the more effective they are.

      Running these apps on a emulator and using VPNs etc. will probably be a red flag.