Coordinated inauthentic behavior leaves fingerprints. MIRAGE reads engagement around a target account across five independent signal families, then asks one disciplined question: do enough of them converge? It works in two directions — Manufactured Popularity (a crowd boosting a target) and Manufactured Hate (a crowd attacking one) — with one engine.
Creation-date clustering, stock/AI/default avatars, random-digit handles, reused bios, lopsided follow ratios, near-zero original posts.
Templated replies (normalized edit distance), identical links/hashtags in lockstep, implausibly uniform messaging.
Co-engagement on the same posts, cluster density, one-directional flow (ring→subject, no reciprocity), shared link infrastructure. Highest weight — the hardest signal to fake cheaply.
Engagement spikes with no triggering event, synchronized sub-minute windows, time-zone mismatch vs. the claimed constituency.
The same narrative or links surfacing across platforms inside a coordinated window.
The whole point is that no single number convicts. A swarm of new accounts means little on its own; new accounts and templated replies and synchronized timing anda one-directional ring — that converges, and that’s what MIRAGE flags.
A reading reaches "elevated" only when the weighted sum clears 0.5 AND at least 3 of 5 families exceed their thresholds. One strong family is never enough.
Output is always "indicators of coordination" with a band — never "bot," "fraud," or "proven." MIRAGE scores behavior, not identity or intent.
MIRAGE scores only what you paste. It does not auto-fetch, scrape, or bypass anything. Public data and your own observation only.
An account must engage the same target at least 3 times before it counts as part of a ring. Ordinary one-time engagers are never enumerated; private individuals are never de-anonymized.
Every Discern Report carries a methodology block (weights, thresholds, tool version, timestamp) and a SHA-256 signature over the whole report. Same observations + same config ⇒ same report ⇒ same signature.
MIRAGE produces evidence. A reporting decision rests with a human, with counsel — it never auto-files or auto-accuses.
Detection over operation · Evidence over accusation · Document over speculate