Life in <U.S. state>, according to spammers from Bangladesh
In which a network of Facebook spam accounts posts curiously similar AI-generated memes about every U.S. state, with the possible exception of Delaware
In recent months, Facebook has been flooded with U.S. state-themed AI-generated image posts from a swarm of suspiciously similar accounts with names such as “Life in Nevada”, “I grew up in Iowa”, and “Utah Life”. The content posted by these accounts frequently features rural imagery, and is extremely similar regardless of which state any given post is allegedly about; many of the images posted are more or less interchangeable other than the state name. In an ironic twist, this network of U.S.-themed accounts does not appear to be run from within the United States at all; Facebook’s Page Transparency feature indicates that some, and possibly all, of the accounts are actually operated from Bangladesh.
These Facebook accounts are part of a spam network consisting of at least 49 U.S. state-themed Facebook pages, with every state other than Delaware represented. Many are new accounts, and many of the older accounts have been renamed relatively recently. The accounts generally have names of the form “Life in <State>” or “<State> life”; “Just Connecticut Things”, “I grew up in Iowa”, and “Life is Idaho” are exceptions to the rule.
23 of the 49 accounts have location information available via Facebook’s Page Transparency feature; every single one of these 23 accounts has one or more operators in Bangladesh. Two of the accounts have operators in other countries as well; “Louisiana Life” has at least one operator allegedly located in Greece, while “Massachusetts Life” appears to be partially run from Saudi Arabia. Some of the accounts have been renamed, and in a few cases the prior names indicate that the prior content likely had a different theme. Examples include “Life in Ohio”, which was originally named “Rose Shop”, and “Life in Nevada”, which spent about a month with the name “Hello India”.
The content posted by the accounts in this spam network consists largely of memes produced via AI image generation models, and is extremely similar from account to account other than the state referenced. One of the most popular recurring types of content is images of farms with signs expressing opposition to importing food from China. (Example: “Indiana does not need to buy any food from China, Indiana needs to back Indiana farmers”.)
In an ironic twist, another recurring theme of the network’s content is anti-AI data center memes produced with generative AI. These images generally feature aerial views of farms and beaches with messages such as “it’s not worth giving up an inch of this for a data center” emblazoned on the ground in an enormous font, sometimes accompanied by a drawing of the state the account is supposedly based in. In a few cases, the anti-data center message is on a sign instead.
Many of the spam accounts also post anti-property tax memes. These posts consist of an image of a house with a sign in front containing the text “property taxes make no sense on a paid off home if we own it, truly own it” or variations thereupon. Many of the images also include the name or flag of the state theoretically associated with the account that posted the image; in the case of the “Colorado Life” account, this takes the form of a massive “Welcome to Colorado” sign in a random person’s front yard.
Almost every account in this network has posted at least one post claiming that large numbers of earthquakes have just been reported in the account’s alleged state of origin. In reality, seismic activity in the U.S. is not evenly distributed, and the majority of earthquakes in the country take place in either California or Alaska, rendering many of these posts vanishingly unlikely. The earthquake posts all feature maps pinpointing the locations of the alleged earthquakes. Some of these maps, however, are rather inaccurate; for example, Traverse City is on the wrong side of Lake Michigan in the post in the upper left.
Incorrect maps are not the only glitchy aspect of this network’s posts. On multiple occasions, the network operators appear to have forgotten which account they were logged into, resulting in a post about Indiana appearing on the “Wisconsin Life” page, and a map of Maine showing up on the “Utah Life” page. Several posts also include evidence of the prompts used to generate the images and associated text, helpfully corroborating the content’s artificial origin.
While this spam network is in some ways similar to other Facebook generative AI content farms such as those that endlessly post images of nonexistent barndominiums and fictional meals, it has an additional layer of political messaging that these other spam operations lack. The anti-Chinese import, anti-data center, and anti-tax themes are consistently present across the group of accounts, and appear to be largely targeting a rural audience. It will be interesting to see how this network’s activity develops further over time, assuming that Facebook does not intervene and shut it down.