(Click here to watch and listen to the video version of this blog entry)
Introduction
Twitter is (still) one of the best social media platforms to start your OSINT investigation. With a vast user base who share content in real time, the platform is a goldmine for OSINT analysts seeking to gather data on a variety of topics.
In a previous article titled “How to Monitor Oppressive Regimes on Twitter Using TweetDeck” I explained how to set up a TweetDeck dashboard to monitor and track data on possible human rights abuses, using the Islamic Republic of Iran as an example. The tutorial contained step by step instructions on how to create custom decks with numerous columns containing complex searches, lists, or targeting specific users. I specifically warned that you should always set your Twitter lists to “private” to avoid getting blocked and losing access to the content shared by the person or organisation you are monitoring.
But not everyone follows that advice. This means that public Twitter lists can also be a great source of data for open source analysts. They can expose interests, affiliations, and connections to anyone who stumbles upon them.
In this small tutorial I will explain how you can:
- Find all public lists created by a Twitter account
- Find public Twitter lists containing a specific profile
- Find public lists containing a specific keyword (and its limitations)
Find all public lists created by a Twitter account
There are two very simple ways to find all public lists created by a Twitter account:
- 1) Find public Twitter lists through user profile
On the Twitter account you are targeting, click on the three dots located next to the “Follow” button, or next to the mail icon if the user has direct messages enabled. Afterwards select “View Lists”.
Below you can see two examples of space agency Twitter accounts, one with direct messages enabled (left) and one without (right).
- 2) Find public Twitter lists through address bar
Alternatively you can simply type the direct location on the address bar as such:
“twitter.com/USERNAME/lists” and replace the username with the Twitter handle of your choice.
Using the same examples as seen above you would write “twitter.com/AusSpaceAgency/lists” to see all the lists for the Australian Space Agency Twitter account, or “twitter.com/esa/lists” for the lists created by the European Space Agency.
Not all Twitter accounts have public lists, so it is possible that you may not find much information.
When you employ the method mentioned above, you may encounter three types of results. You could either see the public lists created or managed by the account, receive a message stating the profile “hasn’t created any lists“, or encounter a blank page.
The screenshots below illustrate the potential outcomes. The left image displays all the public lists from the European Space Agency, while the top right screenshot shows a message stating that the Australian Space Agency “hasn’t created any lists“. The bottom right screenshot demonstrates the result when searching for “twitter.com/esaa/lists“. A blank page indicates that the Twitter account you are searching for simply does not exist. It is likely that you misspelled the handle or, if the account really exist, it has been suspended.
Find public Twitter lists containing a specific profile
Examining the lists created or managed by a Twitter profile provides valuable insights into the account owner’s interests, however it only presents one side of the equation. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the online impact of a Twitter account, it is equally important to analyse the data from the other side of the coin. Therefore it is crucial to also search for public lists that have added your target Twitter account to their lists.
By doing so, you can access details such as list names and descriptions alongside the complete roster of members who were also added to that specific list. This type of information provides additional data on user networks, type of online presence, and how an account is perceived by its audience.
There are two ways to find all Twitter lists containing a specific profile:
- 1) Find public Twitter lists through user profile
This method only works if you are the account owner. To see the public lists that have added your Twitter account, navigate to the “Lists” section on the left sidebar, and then click the three dots at the top of the screen. Finally, select “Lists you’re on”, as seen below.
This will display the complete public lists where other Twitter users have added your account, providing insight into the type of content people associate with your profile. For example, my Gralhix Twitter account is predominantly included in OSINT lists, as one would expect. If I were to find a list entitled “Tree experts” or “Body building” I would be very confused.
But what if instead you want to find other people’s lists? That can also be arranged.
- 2) Find public Twitter lists through address bar
Similarly to the previous section where we learned how to find public lists created by a Twitter account, you can do the same to discover lists that include a specific account by using the address bar.
Simply enter “twitter.com/USERNAME/lists/memberships“. For example, if you wanted to explore the public lists where my Gralhix Twitter account has been added, you would type “twitter.com/gralhix/lists/memberships“, as seen below.
The number of followers a Twitter account has often plays a significant role in its inclusion within various lists. Accounts with a large follower base are more likely to be added to multiple lists as they attract attention and influence within the platform. Additionally, accounts that focus on controversial or widely discussed topics tend to generate polarised opinions, resulting in their inclusion in both supportive and opposing lists. These polarised lists are curated by groups or individuals who either align with or oppose the account’s viewpoints. Therefore, analysing the lists a Twitter account is associated with can offer insights into its popularity, influence, and the diverse range of opinions it elicits within the Twitter community.
Let’s consider Andrew Tate’s Twitter account as an example. If we were to quickly scan through the names of the lists which have added him, we would gain insights into how the Twitter community perceives his content. Below are various examples that I may have or not handpicked to illustrate my point.
Find public lists containing a specific keyword (and its limitations)
By now, we have covered how to find all the public lists created by a Twitter account, and how to find those who have added your target account to their collection. But we can go a bit further.
Twitter provides the ability to search for public lists containing specific keywords. This approach is extremely valuable for OSINT investigators as it allows us to uncover lists that focus on specific topics or people of interest. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, each list displays the creator’s handle and the complete list of members. This may aid in mapping networks of relevant individuals and accounts for your investigation.
There are two methods to search for public Twitter lists containing specific keywords:
- 1) Search for public Twitter lists through user profile
On your Twitter account can select “Lists” from the left sidebar and write your keyword of interest at the top, as seen below.
- 2) Search for public Twitter lists through address bar
Alternatively you can just write the following on the address bar: “twitter.com/i/lists/search?q=KEYWORD” and substitute KEYWORD with whatever you want. In the previous example you would write “twitter.com/i/lists/search?q=osint“, as seen below.
When searching for public lists it is possible to look for any set of characters. This can be a word, an emoji, or a number. The search results will display any public lists that include your search term either in the list title or description.
Below are three examples of public Twitter lists containing the following searched characters: “world”, “2023”, or “😋”.
Limitation of searching for Twitter lists
Although you can search for any keywords, numbers or emoji, there are a few limitations to this feature. If you want to search for a term that consists of multiple keywords, the results will typicall display only one of them, often the first one. For instance, you can search for “WorldCup” as a single term, but if you were to search for “World Cup” as two separate keywords, the majority of the results will simply focus on the word “World” while disregarding the second term. Similarly, combining a keyword with a number, such as “Euro2016” will provide targeted results, but searching for “Euro 2016” as two distinct terms won’t yield the same outcome. The same limitations apply to emojis as well. While you can include multiple emojis in your search, the results will only display lists that contain one of the emojis, not both combined, even if there is no space between them. For instance, searching for Twitter lists containing “🐧🖥️” will show public lists containing either 🐧 or 🖥️, but not both necessarily together.
This limitation becomes apparent when searching for strings that require multiple keywords. Imagine that you are looking for public Twitter lists mentioning the famous professional golfer, Tiger Woods. You would either have to search for “TigerWoods” and get zero results, or you would have to search for “Tiger Woods” and end up with lists focused on either tigers or woods, but not specifically the golf player.
Another constraint worth noting is the limitation on the number of search results. At no point I was able to retrieve a list with more than 20 results. It is possible that this restriction might change in the future, but for now you will not be able to find more than 20 public lists using any combination of keywords.
Conclusion
Twitter lists are an extremely useful data source for OSINT analysts. By exploring the public lists created by a Twitter account, analysing lists that contain a specific profile, and searching for lists with specific keywords, analysts can gain deep insights into user interests, affiliations, and connections. These insights help paint a comprehensive picture of online presence and audience perception.
TL;DR
- Find all public lists created by a Twitter account -> “twitter.com/gralhix/lists“
- Find all public lists containing a specific profile -> “twitter.com/gralhix/lists/memberships“
- Find up to 20 public lists containing a specific keyword -> “twitter.com/i/lists/search?q=gralhix“
Replace “gralhix” with whatever you need.
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