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> Trouble is, it appears that it's actually mostly real people with otherwise perfectly normal accounts and verifiable identies Just hypothetical: how do they
by wyldfire 7y ago
> Trouble is, it appears that it's actually mostly real people with otherwise perfectly normal accounts and verifiable identies
Just hypothetical: how do they come up with ground truth when studying this kind of thing? Seems difficult unless you witness the person interacting in the real world.
- notahacker 7y agoThe BBC actually exchanged messages with some of them. People on Facebook in particular use real names and have profiles on other websites, including places where they and their family work and can be contacted using real contact details. And there's some extent of life history faking that bot creators aren't going to go to just to be one of dozens of people posting 'Good job Boris' a decade after the account's first formed. Obviously it's more difficult on Twitter when accounts tend to be anonymous, connections are one-way, a lot of activity is retweeting and very little of it is personal photos, and many real accounts have been around for a lot less time.