teru-byte-dev

[teru-byte-dev]

Introducing @teru-byte, the sockpuppet detector (among other things)

Something I've always hated about online forums is trolls repeatedly making new accounts to continue their mayhem with impunity.

They're everywhere. It does not matter if you're on Tumblr or Discord or Reddit or a dedicated forum, they will keep coming back well after they ought to be shooed off.

There are many different kinds of trolls. Some are just nuisances. Some spam. Some try to get a reaction. Some are much more crafty about trying to get a reaction. Some will do and say and send and post deplorable things.

Some enjoy their reputation as troublemakers. Some take refuge in anonymity. It is the latter type that @teru-byte was made to address.

Over some 3am brainstorming sessions and showers, my brain combined some disparate facts I knew to form an amazing discovery in language analysis. Sadly I cannot share the discovery publicly because it is what gives power to @teru-byte.

@teru-byte is a bot I have worked for a long time to bring to life, and it's finally ready. Given sufficient data, it can accurately determine the author of given writing. No, it does not use “AI.”

I waited until I was very confident in its ability before going public, because a single misfire could be ruinous. It still errs on the side of caution, by design. The false negative rate of approximately 50% is worth the near complete erasure of false positives.

Some might say this is “feeding the trolls.” If I believed it was, I would not be doing this. I counter that if a troll is hiding behind an array of alternate accounts, it is because they are terrified of reputation. Even a troll who does not immediately reveal themself in order to further their chaos will readily do so when they are found out, if they enjoy the spotlight. If they do not enjoy the spotlight, the prospect of reputation is horrifying.

In addition, knowing it's the same user can aid in learning other patterns, even more so on the administrator side of things. Extra punishment or deterrents are available when a user is provably evading bans or blocks.

I am debuting this project on Sysblr because I hardly know of a more ideal environment. There are dozens (not hundreds or a handful) of active users here who consistently keep coming back to write hundreds or thousands of words weekly, with easily accessible and very expansive account histories. And indeed, some trolls to catch.

Presently, @teru-byte has 1 publicly accessible command: revealing some statistics about a specified user, as proof of work in lieu of being able to publicly discuss the algorithm running the sockpuppet detection, for it is very easy to circumvent given knowledge of how it works.

I suspect these blogs will rarely be visibly active by next week. @teru-byte is designed more to strike like a bolt of lightning upon unsuspecting lowlifes.

The name is half pun and half a reference to the Death Note character Mikami Teru, who traded half his lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes which allow the user to see the true name of anyone they look at.