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The social media platforms are not 'struggling to respond.' They have ignored the issue almost completely because it inflates their metrics and enables them to
by j-c-hewitt 9y ago
The social media platforms are not 'struggling to respond.' They have ignored the issue almost completely because it inflates their metrics and enables them to over-bill advertisers. This in turn corrodes the trust that people have in the web in general.
The prevalence of bots really puts stress on the whole idea that pageviews on free websites are the same thing as subscribers to paid services. It is very simple to mass manufacture fake views and fake users on free services. It is not so simple to massively fabricate metrics around paying users.
- themagician 9y agoThey do combat it—but only just enough to keep the system in balance. IMO they should completely ignore it. If they let the bots run completely wild then like/follower/retweet/comment counts will all become completely useless and probably disappear completely. The internet was a better place before every piece of content had a number associated with it. A number that serves no real purpose other than to manipulate you into thinking it is more or less legitimate/important than you would otherwise know at first glance.