agwagram is a web interface that allows users to analyze online accounts using the novel BLOC algorithm to explore behaviors and signs of coordinated actions, bots, and other vectors for spreading disinformation. This tool is specifically designed for the analysis of user accounts on X (formerly) Twitter. More information about the underlying BLOC algorithm can be found on Dr. Alexander Nwala's BLOC GitHub.
Current version: 1.14.2
agwagram is a Dockerized web application containing two components, a frontend interface (agwagram) built with React and a backend BLOC Services API built with Django. The frontend is a React + Vite + TypeScript project. It is most stable when ran using Docker. The project contains a Makefile with commands for the setup and usage of the development environment, as well as building the production version.
To start, you will need to have Docker installed and running locally. Clone the website locally with:
git clone https://github.com/immacdonald/bloc-website.gitAfter cloning the repository, from the top-level directory of the website run:
make devThis command uses sets the development environment variables and composes the Docker containers, which can also be ran individually when needed. The website is then accessible at the URL http://localhost:8000/.
To run agwagram on a different port than the default of 8000, change the value of VITE_PORT in the development.env file and the port config value in vite.config.ts. To apply these changes to an existing Docker container, stop the container and start it again.
To run the BLOC Services Django server on a port besides the default of 8080, change the value of PORT in the development.env file. Make sure to also update the URL that agwagram uses for its API calls, located in the Global.tsx file.
For the testing (QA) and production version of the website the React frontend is built out as static files and served using nginx. The Django server is served with gunicorn. In the QA build of agwagram both the frontend and backend are served at the same URL. Use the following command:
make prodThe Flake8 code formatter is used for BLOC Services to enforce syntax and formatting guidelines. It can be automatically invoked using the Makefile:
make lint_backendA combination of ESLint and Prettier is used for linting and formatting the agwagram codebase. It can also be invoked using the Makefile:
make lint_frontendLead development by Ian MacDonald, with additional contributions by members of William & Mary Disinfo Lab. Special thanks to the William & Mary IT Department for assistance with hosting.