Internet bots have many useful online purposes, but they have a dark side, too, as three researchers demonstrated in their analysis of Twitter traffic during the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Bots are used to automate functions on the Net. For example, if you belong to several social networks, you could use a bot to post a photo to all of them at once, saving the time of logging onto each network. What the researchers found was that bots also can be used to amplify support on Twitter.
I'm kinda surprised at myself, but my first reaction is I need to become proficient at using bots myself because they are just the current vehicle to being heard, to have power in the internet swarm of conversation. There definitely seems to be little chance that I could find a way to defeat or render meaningless the use of bots by others.
Sidenote: so, I noticed that the security events reference list after the article allowed attendance by those who registered (provide their email and trust). Yeah, really.
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Bot Armies Boost Candidates’ Popularity on Twitter
Posted by: John P. Mello Jr. October 29, 2016 06:00 AMInternet bots have many useful online purposes, but they have a dark side, too, as three researchers demonstrated in their analysis of Twitter traffic during the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Bots are used to automate functions on the Net. For example, if you belong to several social networks, you could use a bot to post a photo to all of them at once, saving the time of logging onto each network. What the researchers found was that bots also can be used to amplify support on Twitter.
Sidenote: so, I noticed that the security events reference list after the article allowed attendance by those who registered (provide their email and trust). Yeah, really.