Spot the Bot
By: That S Jacqueline
Tags: Politics, Security, Social Media, Internet Safety, Bots

Spot the Bot

Photo by Canva

It recently became extremely important to me to be able to spot a bot. The reason why is for another article but I can tell you that everyone should learn how to spot a bot for their own online safety.

There are many reasons for bots to exist. Some exist to harass. Some exist to sway public opinion. Some exist to gather information. Some exist to prop up persons of interest such as politicians, celebrities, and other public figures. The common thread is that they all exist to deceive.

Profile- What do the banner, profile picture, and bio look like on the account — is it a generic picture, an animal, or a cartoon image? Does it have a seemingly unrelated banner such as a stock nature scene? Does the profile name either have a lot of numbers behind a name or have an indistinguishable name? Does the bio list a lot of qualifications that don’t seem to line up with what the person is posting or seem too impressive? Is the account less than a year old? Are the website links listed seemingly unrelated to the profile? All of these are potential signs of a social media account that may be a bot. Posting- Is the account older but has no recent posts? Does the account have large gaps in posts over several months or even years? Are there no original posts besides adversarial responses to certain accounts? Do the posts seem to focus on only one subject or one political candidate or celebrity? Are the posts very generic or repetitive of a certain point of view that has recently trended attacking a specific person or cause? Do you notice the account posting too much or at all times of day and night? Followers- Does the account have a small ratio of followers or does it disproportionately follow a lot of people while having a low follower count? Have you noticed that it only interacts with those it’s not following or seems to attack those it does follow regularly? Associations- Does the account only associate with other accounts that also have generic profiles or low follower counts? Do you notice the account working in unison with other similar accounts then dropping off social media for large periods of time? Have you ever recognized it using the same phrases as other comparable accounts or dropping the same links with no comment? Does it only respond to certain hashtags or subjects?

Some of these behaviors may be present in any social media account. However, if you can identify a dozen of these behaviors or a repeat of the same tactics with no real personality behind the account, chances are that you have spotted a bot. The good news is that as more people become aware of the strategy of bots and trolls they can report them or just not interact with them to lessen their affect.

Social media platforms are working overtime to create algorithms that track and attack bots and trolls, removing them from their platforms and blocking their return under new account names. If we are vigilant in our online habits, we can avoid most of the pitfalls bots lay out for us to fall in. Whether that be disinformation, false propping up of a public figure or cause, or just information gathering — a bot’s job is to cause harm. The next time you’re online, I hope you’ll think about these things and successfully spot the bots.

My next article is going to be on defeating trolls. Come back and check in for that. Stay safe out there.