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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit are increasingly infested with bots and fake accounts, leading to significant manipulation of public discourse. These bots don't just annoy users—they skew visibility through vote manipulation. Fake accounts and automated scripts systematically downvote posts opposing certain viewpoints, distorting the content that surfaces and amplifying specific agendas.

Before coming to Lemmy, I was systematically downvoted by bots on Reddit for completely normal comments that were relatively neutral and not controversial​ at all. Seemed to be no pattern in it... One time I commented that my favorite game was WoW, down voted -15 for no apparent reason.

For example, a bot on Twitter using an API call to GPT-4o ran out of funding and started posting their prompts and system information publicly.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/chatgpt-bot-x-russian-campaign-meme/

Example shown here

Bots like these are probably in the tens or hundreds of thousands. They did a huge ban wave of bots on Reddit, and some major top level subreddits were quiet for days because of it. Unbelievable...

How do we even fix this issue or prevent it from affecting Lemmy??

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[-] Resol@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago

Create a bot that reports bot activity to the Lemmy developers.

You're basically using bots to fight bots.

[-] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago
[-] Resol@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago

Love that name too. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

[-] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 weeks ago

While a good solution in principle, it could (and likely will) false flag accounts. Such a system should be a first line with a review as a second.

[-] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

It's reporting activity, not banning people (or bots)

[-] UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 weeks ago

Are you willing to sift through all the reports?

Cause that's gunna be A LOT of work

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 weeks ago

Let AI do it! See? Easy!

[-] Resol@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

Whenever I propose a solution, someone [justifiably] finds a problem within it.

I got nothing else. Sorry, OP.

this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
567 points (96.2% liked)

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