MadeByGoogle Twitter pushing questionable accounts into your feed (not safe for work)
NSFW even with black bars via MSPAINT, really don’t click at work – File this under “huh, that is an interesting social media exploit, why is Paul writing this late?” – The bar was evidently low for your porn or antivax Twitter account to succeed at getting into your feed today based on what I saw in the first two pages of my main Twitter feed as I was about to head to bed.
For a couple of accounts I looked at, all they had to say to get liked by Google was that they were tempted to get a Pixel 6. You’d get a like from MadeByGoogle’s Twitter account, people would come and tell you how much they love their Pixels on that liked post. And if you clicked the profile, you were in for the payload.
TL;DR – Google official Twitter account liking fake/bot accounts, Paul sounds like a prude but is just up too late and found it interesting. No pearls were clutched. No false outrage.
But it doesn’t appear the MadeByGoogle Twitter team has been doing much, if any, checking of the profiles before liking/retweeting these tweets. In case you’re not familiar with Twitter – if someone you follow (like I follow MadeByGoogle,) likes something, as a follower of Goog’s you’re probably going to see it. That brings a spammer’s profile right into your normally non-porn Twitter feed. Or maybe you have a porn twitter feed, I’m not judging. Really I’m not.
I wondered what phone this person was upgrading from, clicked, you know I’m just not used to scrolling for phone stuff and suddenly there’s reproductive organs and a slew of unlikely scenarios involving wet sheets and an attentive masseuse.
The above tweet, shown to me because I follow Made By Google, is from an account made in the past week or two it looks like, leads to this entirely not safe for work Twitter account. Don’t click it, it’s really not safe for work. Here’s a quick edit of what you will encounter:
I checked the account because MadeByGoogle retweeted/liked a couple of people who said the same thing today. And yesterday. And the day before. That or, honestly I had extremely minor sinus surgery yesterday, I could be hallucinating. Time has no meaning. Anyway, I could find no information on the above person’s current phone.
Removing identifying on this one because I’m not 100% sure it’s a bot, looked a bit more like just an anti-vax or conspiracy account. There were plenty. Go look at anything Google has liked that has a profile name with more than 3 numbers in it and you’re on the trail.
Looking around at more of their likes, yeah, they probably should click on the profiles they decide to like something…
The first tweet like I saw (linked below) was filled with tweets from Pixel people saying to go ahead and do it. That brings real accounts into interacting and being forever linked with an account that appears to be just a porn bot, or does not much other than tweet porn for the two weeks max it’s been around.
The above replies were all safe for work when I looked. All Pixel fans.
Hell, you didn’t even have to say anything about the Pixel if you just tagged @MadeByGoogle they’d like it
That’s about it – Alphabet’s social media team needs to quit with the likes for accounts that are obviously there just to get MadeByGoogle to like them. The porn SEO bots are out-SEOing the SEO company. Or something. Google inadvertently drive by dicked me on that one.
You can follow MadeByGoogle here, and get an eyeful for yourself occasionally:
