You may have noticed a recent surge in stories about the use of bots and automation on social media platforms. That’s because these platforms and their companies have decided to take a stand against the use of these technologies and the harm they are inducing.
Twitter has been at the forefront of the latest crackdown, of course, largely due to the fact that it has received the most abuse by automated accounts. They recently released a new set of guidelines in February that prohibits developers from using the Twitter API (Application Programming Interface) to allow simultaneously posting identical or similar content to multiple accounts. The new guidelines also hit on performance actions such as likes, retweets, or follows from multiple accounts and prevents users from using any form of automation (e.g. scheduling tweets) to multiple accounts through third-party platforms or a company’s own TweetDeck.
Now, Twitter generally allows automated accounts and automated tweeting, as this is how companies are able to keep their feeds fresh with information throughout the night and on weekends when no one is there to make these updates. However, it has become widely apparent that not all automated accounts are being used for good and this basic intent. These accounts are known as bots, and they have sparked this crack down across all social media channels.
The new guidelines aim to prevent users from creating and controlling a set of organized accounts whose sole purpose is to achieve a certain goal, such as making a particular point of view appear to have more support and carry more weight than it actually does. This, unfortunately, has been a continuous vulnerability.
With crack-downs now being put in place, platforms can start to rid their sites of bots and automations that seek to increase the manipulation of social media and its users through misinformation. Of course, these are just the first steps in what is sure to be a long, drawn-out battle, as people with mal-intent will continue to seek more sophisticated measures to manipulate these platforms. They will find new ways to automate, or they will simply start to write their own software to override each platform’s specific programming.
The spark that really lit the fire in this latest social media battle came when The New York Times published an investigation into a company that was said to have handled 3.5 million bot accounts. The article also says that one particular company sold fake followers to customers, including celebrities, athletes and media users who wanted to pad their social influence.
When the article came out in January of this year, Twitter quickly decided to take action against tactics like the ones described in the Times’ article, and thus, the social media crack-down began. But, it was not simply this one company’s actions that has brought attention to this need to rid social media sites of bots and automation. It has been widely believed and studied for some time now that the use of these bots has also influenced the dissemination of slanted information concerning political parties and affiliations, possibly even elections. Due to the severity of consequences that can come from such spammy, abusive behaviors, social media outlets are making it their priority to purge their sites of fake accounts.
It is not yet clear just how many social media accounts have been affected and removed from each site, nor is it clear that this crack down will fully put a stop to bots and automation, as data is still being collected. This will be an ongoing issue. But, one thing is for sure – social media will no longer tolerate the spreading of mal-intended information that aims to dupe the user and the public.
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