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Bot accounts, not fake accounts. I don't even know what the latter means—plenty of people don't associate twitter with their real name. And why would you! Seco

Bot accounts, not fake accounts. I don't even know what the latter means—plenty of people don't associate twitter with their real name. And why would you! Secondly, of course there are this many. There are probably many more. I run several bots myself; there's nothing wrong with this. Twitter's TOS is only as good as its enforcement, and if there's anything twitter is terrible at, it's having any control over its community.

cblock811 10y ago
A fake account on social media (as far as I have seen) can be things like alter-egos. There was a subculture on Facebook of making fake 'emo' accounts. They used to clog up my suggested friends list.
geofft 10y ago
"Fake" implies deception: it's fake because it counterfeits or forges something else that is real. An anonymous or pseudonymous Twitter account run by a human, in the way that a human is expected to use a Twitter account, is not a fake account: it's real, just pseudonymous. A bot account that's clearly a bot, like @big_ben_clock or @choochoobot, isn't a fake account either: it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. From the article: "These accounts did not act like the bots other researchers had found but were clearly not being run by humans." One thing a network of fake accounts could be doing is inflating follower counts. A follow from a pseudonymous account that corresponds to an actual human isn't fake. Even a constant factor or constant term from a small number of humans with multiple accounts isn't particularly deceptive. But thousands or millions of follows from accounts run by a handful of humans is deceptive. Another thing a fake account could be doing is spreading propaganda by creating the impression that many people agree with a political opinion, when these "people" are just canned responses, or humans assisted by automation (but capable of making human replies across large numbers of accounts).
- dgfgfdagasdfgfa 10y ago
  Deception is a great feature. Why is that bad? I don't want Twitter to know my name. Don't exclude me for valuing my own privacy! I'm certainly not "fake", and neither are my interactions.
  - geofft 10y ago
    I'm not sure how you got that interpretation of "deception" out of what I said. You're not fake, and I'm not excluding you. You're just also not deceiving. I certainly don't think your real name is Dgfgfdagasdfgfa. To repeat what I posted: An anonymous or pseudonymous Twitter account run by a human, in the way that a human is expected to use a Twitter account, is not a fake account: it's real, just pseudonymous.

cblock811 10y ago

A fake account on social media (as far as I have seen) can be things like alter-egos. There was a subculture on Facebook of making fake 'emo' accounts. They used to clog up my suggested friends list.

geofft 10y ago

"Fake" implies deception: it's fake because it counterfeits or forges something else that is real. An anonymous or pseudonymous Twitter account run by a human, in the way that a human is expected to use a Twitter account, is not a fake account: it's real, just pseudonymous. A bot account that's clearly a bot, like @big_ben_clock or @choochoobot, isn't a fake account either: it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. From the article: "These accounts did not act like the bots other researchers had found but were clearly not being run by humans." One thing a network of fake accounts could be doing is inflating follower counts. A follow from a pseudonymous account that corresponds to an actual human isn't fake. Even a constant factor or constant term from a small number of humans with multiple accounts isn't particularly deceptive. But thousands or millions of follows from accounts run by a handful of humans is deceptive. Another thing a fake account could be doing is spreading propaganda by creating the impression that many people agree with a political opinion, when these "people" are just canned responses, or humans assisted by automation (but capable of making human replies across large numbers of accounts).

dgfgfdagasdfgfa 10y ago
Deception is a great feature. Why is that bad? I don't want Twitter to know my name. Don't exclude me for valuing my own privacy! I'm certainly not "fake", and neither are my interactions.
- geofft 10y ago
  I'm not sure how you got that interpretation of "deception" out of what I said. You're not fake, and I'm not excluding you. You're just also not deceiving. I certainly don't think your real name is Dgfgfdagasdfgfa. To repeat what I posted: An anonymous or pseudonymous Twitter account run by a human, in the way that a human is expected to use a Twitter account, is not a fake account: it's real, just pseudonymous.