Bot or Not: How You Can Stop the Fake Robots Destroying Politics, Science and Business?
How many times have you been discussing politics, science, or healthcare online and felt like you were talking to a brick wall? The person just wasn’t “getting it.”
They were either not hearing you, or were unable to comprehend factual information. Perhaps they even verbally abused you for “disagreeing” with them, or you found yourself trapped amid a gang of angry, strange profiles all tweeting or messaging you with embarrassing false accusations.
Chances are the gang wasn’t “real” and your online debate opponent didn’t “hear you” because they couldn’t. They were not people, they were scripts in a distributed computer network, aka “bots.”
These bots can be low-paid individuals repeating messages provided by social media marketing contractors. Or, they can be scripts or “bots” controlled by a “bot master.” According to the Computational Propaganda Research Project at the University of Oxford, “Cyber troops are government, military or political party teams committed to manipulating public opinion over social media.”
“…fake humans just have whatever is…
