this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Around 95% accounts are bots. Around 90% if we are positive and assume that a lot of redditors joined since the bot farming started.
So what are the Bots doing? Who created them and why? I don't understand the purpose of bots.
Currently nothing but once activated they may start spamming stuff everywhere. Owners can decide what gets upvotes and what gets downvotes which gives you a lot of power on a platform where downvotes/upvotes mean everything.
Still don't get it - someone makes a comment, bots upvote it so it gets seen by more people. Not really going to change the world.
Sure, but do you like ads that masquerade as posts? Because if you do then you'll love the delicious taste of Diet Coke, grab one today! (16900 upvotes)
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Companies advertising on here through AMA's should also be prevented because it's just advertising
They don't want to change the world. They want to let you know about hot singles in your area
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Many of them are doing nothing so far.
No doubt they are available for sale to some company or individual that wants to buy them wholesale and start spamming or astroturfing.
People wanting to sell them for $$ mostly. In some cases, people biding their time to use them for mass spam, social misdirection, opinion forming, etc.
In social media, a common and concerning use of them is to use them wholesale (comments, posts, and votes) to try and sway mass opinion on some issue to something the person responsible for the bots wants.
Thats seems bad. I know some bots are hepful. But 1 million bots seems like they for something nefariously.
Like trying to keep people on reddit?
I'd go to Facebook first
Or just too generally troll the fediverse.