On the Internet, no one knows you’re a bot. And that’s a problem.

[KarKar]

Bots in general aren’t new. Your spam folder is filled to the brim with e-mails from them. But what is new is how difficult it is to identify some social bots and how they are being deployed to influence things outside of our commercial interactions, like political dialogues.

For example, a recent New York Times piece on social bots reported that thousands of Twitter bots started flooding the digital conversation during a dispute over a Russian parliamentary election in 2011, aiming to drown out anti-Kremlin activists. And similar tactics were deployed by the beleaguered Syrian government.

It’s easy to see how tyrants could find such a campaign an attractive way to reduce the radically democratizing power of freedom of speech online. Sure, the general public may be outraged by some government scandal and take to the Internet to voice their complaints. But you can deploy an even greater number of bots to fight with them online, and they may give up hope on a cause: If everyone else talking about an issue supports the government on this policy, what chance is there at reform? Since some researchers estimate that only 35 percent of the average Twitter user’s followers are real people right now and that within two years about 10 percent of the activity on social online networks will bots, it’s a very real possibility that bots could have major influence on these kinds of debates.

Of course, this is a familiar concept. For years, governments and companies have been paying actual people to comment online, creating digital astroturf movements that obscure and influence real public sentiment. But bots are becoming better at imitating real people, fed by news databases and given realistic sleep cycles. There are also persona management systems (like the one ordered by the U.S. Airforce) that make it easier to keep track of these automatic sock puppets while giving them digital footprints that spread across social networks — and making it harder to tell the people from the machines.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/13/on-the-internet-no-one-knows-youre-a-bot-and-thats-a-problem/

[d_r]

1. actually the person reading this

is the only real person on the whole damn internet.

[CakeGrrl]

12. Exactly. I know I'M real. I don't know about any other "posters" here

I don't take cyberspace seriously at all. What matters are the people who actually KNOW you and interact with you - in person, or at least voice to voice. Anyone can selectively throw a bunch of words into a post. Or not. Especially on an open forum such as this.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. On the internet

[snooper2]

2. **jk+as:@err{2-00_)

[Pretzel_Warrior]

5. That is one stupid ass video

And no...you aren't as funny as Zach Galifiniakis just because you try to look like him, YouTube douche bag guy.

[snooper2]

7. Yeah, that wasn't that good..

I prefer the greatness of BACON!

[90-percent]

3. OH NOES!

You mean that cute little girl that pops up in the lower right hand corner of porn sites isn't a real person? I've given that bitch some of the best online raps of my life......and all for naught! dammit!

-90% Jimmy

[Pretzel_Warrior]

4. All of the entire works of literature are just different combinations of 26 letters

[Wednesdays]

19. 700 monkeys, 700 typewriters, 700 years...

I never spend much time in school but I taught ladies plenty. It's true I hire my body out for pay, hey hey. I've gotten burned over Cheryl Tiegs, blown up for Raquel Welch. But when I end up in the hay it's only hay, hey hey. I might jump an open drawbridge, or Tarzan from a vine. 'Cause I'm the unknown stuntman that makes Eastwood look so fine.

Beer pilsner ibu becher imperial berliner weisse. Bottle conditioning dunkle terminal gravity ester carboy. Wort chiller malt abv wort dry hopping. Barrel bright beer hefe hard cider aerobic adjunct scotch ale adjunct adjunct yeast, "microbrewery." Wort krausen final gravity; fermentation dry hopping brewing.

And by Sarah Palin:
We can't afford to lose who's more apt to be talking about solutions finding a solution and taking action. As Putin rears his head who are hell bent to help shore up our economy. It's very important when you consider even with inalienable rights has to be considered also. And as Ronald Reagan believed that the dealings with Freddie and Fannie of the evil in the world. Senator McCain also showed great appreciation for what America who are hell bent good old boy network that has been the Washington elite.

[Progressive dog]

6. " fed by news databases and given realistic sleep cycles."

How brilliant, the bot coders figured out that real people sleep.

[Fumesucker]

8. Not all of them

[bemildred]

9. Some of us know. nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

10. robo-kick

[riqster]

27. Bots are bubble-headed boonies.

That's what Dr. Smith said, anyway.

[JoePhilly]

11. OPs with a pic, 4 paragraphs, a link, but no commentary ...

... by the OP "author" ... are usually bot OPs.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. I post like that

without commentary most of the time. I want to see the ensuing discussion without tainting it with my own opinion.

plus I got $0.45 for using big words in my reply to you.



I fear the humans behind the socks more than the bots.

[JoePhilly]

22. The thing I notice with that particular style ...

Is that rarely does the opinion of the OP author differ from the opinion / position of the author of the article found at the link.

Sure, occasionally an article is written with nothing but facts, but that's rare. Most take a position.

Most of the links folks post on DU include a point of view that is being promoted, even if the form of promotion is just the OP with no commentary.

Having a bot do it is easy. An opinion site could run a simple program each day that does nothing but post canned references to their articles in an attempt to generate eyeballs.

[bvar22]

13. The goal of the propaganda assaults across the internet is not to convince anyone of anything.

It is to thoroughly hijack, pollute and therefore eliminate public spaces where real discussion and organization can occur. Occupy is disbanded with clubs and pepper spray. Dissent and organization online are disrupted with surveillance and propaganda.

It is no accident that propaganda brigades post new threads on discussion boards far out of proportion to their presence in the community, and that they nearly *always* demand the last word in any interchange.

The goal is to disrupt the important public space for liberal thought, discussion, and organization that these boards offer, and to keep the participants busy instead batting off the corporate lies and talking points.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023359801

woo me with science, Sun Jul 28, 2013


I approve the above message.

---bvar22
a mainstream center FDR/LBJ Loyal Working Class Democrat for over 46 years.
I haven't changed.

[Luminous Animal]

28. +1

[tridim]

14. I used to program bots in the old days on IRC.

Those were much simpler times.

[Incitatus]

15. 0100100100100000011000010110110100100000011011100110111101110100001000000110000100100000011000100110

[Wednesdays]

20. Watch your damn mouth, or I'm gonna alert

Glad my kids aren't reading these posts.

[Myrina]

17. I'd like to know Grovelbot's opinion on this.

n/t

[longship]

18. We all know how to stop a bot...

Klaatu barada nikto.
Klaatu barada niktie... Oops! SIZZLE!!!

[blogslut]

23. No one?

Conversational bots just aren't that sophisticated. They still haven't gotten past the "I'm just a sexy girl!" stage.

Now, there are programs that can allow a user to automatically sign up for community/social sites and begin auto-posting numerous times, and once banned, re-register and re-post again and again. Just the same, those spammer-bots are pretty freaking recognizable as well.

[Rex]

24. I agree.

They don't sometimes articulate very good at all their point. Which always stays the same point and never wavers.

[bvar22]

29. How do you KNOW for sure?

..maybe those are just the bad bots cleverly deployed to make you think you can tell the difference?

[Xolodno]

25. This thread is just asking for it....

[quinnox]

26. cool picture