Silver Tongue

westsemiteblues:

But there is one particular type of anti-Semitic troll that I find particularly pernicious: the racists who use their accounts to impersonate Jews and defame them. The con goes like this: The troll finds a picture of a very Jewish-looking person online—typically a Hasidic Jew in full regalia—and makes it his avatar. He puts a bunch of very Jewish descriptors in his bio (“Orthodox,” “Zionist,” “enemy of the alt-right”). He then proceeds to insert himself into conversations with prominent Twitter users—conversations that will often be read by tens of thousands of followers—and say horrifically racist things. Thus, it appears to unsuspecting readers that Jews are outlandishly bigoted. The same has been done with other minorities, from Latinos to African-Americans to Muslims.

***

The problem is, most casual social media users aren’t even aware that this sort of racist deception is being perpetrated, let alone trained to be vigilant for it. And Twitter isn’t really capable of the detective work to identify these accounts and take them down as they spring up.So the question becomes: How can users fight back? Can this insidious tool of anti-Semitic harassment be defanged like the (((echoes))) that were previously used by internet bigots? The answer is yes, and it takes the form of a Twitter bot.Working with developer Neal Chandra, we created an automated Twitter account that exposes these imposters in real-time. Meet Imposter Buster, social media’s new sheriff. He is programmed with an updated database of impersonator accounts, and every time one of them tweets, he automatically replies and exposes them with pre-programmed evidence:

The bot is kind of amazing. And Rosenberg wants more jobs for it.

So, have you encountered a racist troll impersonating a Jew, African-American, Latino, Muslim, or other minority on Twitter? Send it my way at yrosenberg@tabletmag.com and we’ll put the bot on the case. And do be sure to follow Imposter Buster and his exploits on Twitter!

*SLAMS FIST ON TABLE*

YES GIVE ME MORE ROBOTS BUILT TO FIGHT BIGOTS!

  1. bitchycatwizard reblogged this from cardhoarder
  2. cardhoarder reblogged this from ryttu3k
  3. houndstoothholmes reblogged this from deadpanwalking
  4. coloursisee reblogged this from tanoraqui
  5. moral-autism said: This is out of date by years: nytimes.com/2017/12…
  6. ryanbp12 reblogged this from krazyfan1
  7. perishedoffits reblogged this from archwrites
  8. amberlyinviolet reblogged this from archwrites
  9. archwrites reblogged this from atomicbubblegum
  10. pollyq reblogged this from xyriath
  11. trenchcat-it-department reblogged this from adie638
  12. fae-and-night reblogged this from isaaccastlevania
  13. kitchensinkchronicles reblogged this from isaaccastlevania
  14. isaaccastlevania reblogged this from doykeitdyke
  15. zafaron-uriuc reblogged this from ryumarumg
  16. period-safe-chameleon reblogged this from blique-shi
  17. blique-shi reblogged this from salahare
  18. salahare reblogged this from the-swift-tricker
  19. fireflysecret reblogged this from firecrackerduration
  20. molassesdisaster reblogged this from miracufic
  21. ndrv1-ascendant reblogged this from inkyxward
  22. adrien-noir1798 reblogged this from parlezvousladybug
  23. westsemiteblues posted this