Many Ukrainians are unaware that a huge number of comments and posts on social media are not really “public opinion” or “the voice of the people” but rather the work of paid bot farms. Bots are pages created not by real people, but by programs that imitate the behavior of users on social media. Their main task is to influence public opinion, spread disinformation, and manipulate the audience in the interests of the customer: a hostile state, political party, individual politician, brand, or other interested party.
One person can manage dozens and sometimes hundreds of bots simultaneously, creating the illusion of active discussion and support for a particular position. Bots can even “argue” with each other to convince users that they are right.
However, in order to achieve large-scale influence, individual bots are often combined into bot farms – companies that massively create and use fake accounts to spread the desired information. Bot farms are capable of generating thousands of comments, posts, and reposts, giving the impression that a certain idea or point of view is very popular and supported by the majority.
How to recognize a bot?
It can be quite difficult to recognize a bot, as they are constantly improving their disguise methods. However, there are several signs that can help you identify a fake account:
- Photos:
The absence of an avatar or the use of photos from the Internet or photo stocks may indicate that you are facing a bot.
Photos taken from real people’s pages can be uploaded on the same day, even if they show different seasons.
You can check the authenticity of a photo by searching Google Images.
- Personal information:
Suspicious names such as “Vasya Pupkin” or “Ivan Ivanov” may be a sign of a bot.
The absence of personal information on the page should also be alarming.
- Publications:
Bots often repost posts from strange pages to imitate activity.
They rarely feature personal posts with photos and captions about everyday life.
A bot page may have been created recently, but already have thousands of friends and actively participate in political discussions.
- Reaction speed:
Bots can respond to comments instantly using prepared texts.
- Number of friends:
A large number of friends (several thousand) with no content of their own may indicate that you are looking at a bot.
On the other hand, too few friends (5-10) can also be suspicious.
Bots often hide their friends list, showing only their common contacts.
How to fight bots?
If you find a bot, the best thing you can do is to complain about it to the social network administration. The more complaints you receive about a particular account, the more likely it is that it will be blocked.
It is important to remember that fighting bots is a shared responsibility of every social media user. Be careful and cautious, do not blindly trust the information you see on the Internet, and check its authenticity.
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