A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

An alleged bot account that was promoting Ubisoft and Lucasfilm Games’ upcoming Star Wars Outlaws has been suspended by Elon Musk’s X.

Key art for Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Social media analyst and YouTuber MastersoftheTDS reports, “Another bot account I exposed, that was shilling for Star Wars: Outlaws, has been suspended for violating Twitter’s policies. Someone is definitely watching, but who?”

As seen in the post below, he shared a screenshot of the account elsol82lp being suspend as well as previous posts from the account that he alleged was engaging in bot behavior.

MasteroftheTDS originally posited the account was part of a network of bots back on April 10th, when he wrote, “Ubisoft dropped a new story trailer yesterday, April 9th, for their upcoming Star Wars game, Star Wars: Outlaws. I already exposed some bots potentially running interference for the game and praising the enhanced graphics and Nvidia’s advanced AI technology. ”

He added, “However, it would appear those were not the only bots out there. Here are some strange ones that were posted in the past 4 days or so that seem to be summarizing articles or trailer breakdowns. I sense a disturbance in both the Force and the Internet.”

As seen in the post above, the account, elsol82lp posted on April 6th, “Hades II Release date: Early Access TBD 2024. With Massive Entertainment at the helm, Star Wars Outlaws promises an epic open-world adventure in the galaxy far, far away. Players step into the shoes of the blaster-wielding Kay Vess, navigating a galaxy dominated by ruthless crime syndicates. Expect thrilling combat, daring heists, and heart-pounding escapes as you fight for freedom. Featuring seamless land-to-space transitions, intense dogfights, speeder bike chases, and a lovable furry companion, Outlaws is poised to be the ultimate Han Solo simulator.”

Screenshot of elsol82lp by MastersoftheTDS on X

On April 11th, MasteroftheTDS shared a node graph and explained how these Star Wars Outlaws bot accounts are connected, “With the help and support of Sid Alpha, Upper Echelon and Shino: We had a node graph run on the accounts promoting Star Wars: Outlaws, especially the Mehmet account, and found some interesting information: There seems to be a little over 1,500 accounts involved.”

He continued, “There is no direct follow/follower relation, which may provide the appearance of randomness, but the aggregation of accounts shows a correlation to a bot network being the controlling factor. The primary or largest ones appear to be these two accounts: https://twitter.com/EuroLeague [and] https://twitter.com/sinanguler. Those two are also mutuals and are followed by the Mehmet account.”

These don’t appear to have any direct social media link to Ubisoft, which means these are bought either directly or through a 3rd party,” he added. “In conclusion: This is likely one leg of a larger bot network. So anyone who is saying it’s just crypto or random reply bots farming for engagement, this proves that wrong. It’s not random. It’s paid for engagement boosting, as I’ve said from the beginning.”

MasteroftheTDS first reported on the bots surrounding Star Wars Outlaws back on April 8th. He wrote, “Ubisoft has teased a new story trailer will be dropping tomorrow, April 9th, for their upcoming Star Wars game, Star Wars: Outlaws. The game is said to be set in a gritty underworld setting, deviating from traditional Jedi-focused Star Wars stories.”

He continued, “However, it would seem Disney and Lucasfilm might not be too confident in the game, as the bots are once again out in force running interference for the game. The bots seem to be claiming that enhanced graphics and Nvidia’s advanced AI technology will make the game worth playing. Will the force be strong with this one?”

 

As seen in the post above, he shared 26 separate posts from different accounts that posted between March 15th and 16th about the game using Nvidia’s DLSS 3 and RTX technology.

These posts were made after NVIDIA GeForce announced on March 14th that “Star Wars Outlaws is launching with performance multiplying NVIDIA DLSS 3, Ray Tracing and Reflex.”

The suspension comes in the wake of Elon Musk announcing on April 4th that a “system purge of bots & trolls underway.” He added, “X Corp will be tracing the people responsible and bringing the full force of the law to bear upon them.”

 

He also indicated that he plans to roll out a small annual fee that accounts must pay in an attempt to “curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”

Musk posted on April 15th, “Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. Current AI (and troll farms) can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease.”

He added, “The onslaught of fake accounts also uses up the available namespace, so many good handles are taken as a result.”

 

What do you make of an account alleged to be part of a bot system promoting Star Wars Outlaws being suspended?