New study finds bots and fraud farms responsible for 73% of web traffic::undefined
The fact that this post is by a bot makes it sound so ironic
Holy shit, thinking of all the resources that are just wasted for this shit… Imagine you could just slash all web infrastructures by two thirds.
I really hate the phrase “bots” because it gives the appearance that they’re all useless and malicious. I guarantee you they lumped in the following extremely valid uses of “bots”:
- Automated personal scripts that many programmers use, these are technically bots. Hell, I use a “bot” to auto-clip digital Safeway coupons
- Moderation bots on sites like Lemmy/Reddit
- Archive efforts
Are AI chatbots bots? If they use a loose enough definition all this means is humans utilize fuck tons of automation over the Internet, both programmers and not.
I use a “bot” to auto-clip digital Safeway coupons
How?
They go, “hey bot, would you please clip me some Safeway coupons?”
Then the bot goes and gets their little bot scissors and their bot newspaper, then clips up some coupons and hands them to OP.
It’s a pretty endearing sight.
Then the bot goes and gets their little bot scissors
But digitally.
and their bot newspaper,
But digitally.
then clips up some coupons
But digitally.
and hands them to OP.
But digitally.
They said we’d all be living in a VR world by now back in the 90s!
I had some good times with your mom last night. But digitally.
Yeah dead internet. And I hope this news will kill online marketing for good
As long as real users exist on the internet, marketing will follow. If centralized social media will be even more of a shithole than already is, then they will slowly target the decentralized. You won’t escape marketing.
But if 73% of traffic is fake, and they monitor traffic to determine sentiment and marketing strategies, then who are they actually marketing TO?
Those left over who are still human.
But you do bring up a great point, what happens when the Internet is nothing but bots/shills?
More evidence for the Dead Internet Theory
Not yet but soon it will be
Death by a thousand
cutsbot/shill posts.
“73% of web traffic” does not mean 73% of comments, posts, content, etc.
It amazes me when I spin up some random server on a cloud provider and it’s immediately getting tons of traffic from bots searching for insecure ssh servers and default WordPress admin credentials and then like. If that’s the short of stuff they’re counting, I’d believe it. But yeah, it’s not like all the commenters on this post are bots.
But yeah, it’s not like all the commenters on this post are bots.
What percentage would you guess that are bots as commenters?
100% on Twitter, 150% on Facebook. Or maybe the other way around 🤷
How are you about to do that on Facebook? I can’t even sign up without it asking for my ID
I had an account for about 10 years which I never used at first, then a fair bit for 3-4 years, linked it to Instagram and WhatsApp. Then I didn’t sign into Facebook for 2-3 years and when I tried, despite having the same email and using the linked IG accounts, they demanded my drivers license. Uh, no way in hell I’ll ever do that, so guess I’m not signing into stupid Facebook. Not sure who the hell they think they are or why they believe I’d consider their awful website so important as to send them my ID.
I didn’t sign into Facebook for 2-3 years and when I tried, despite having the same email and using the linked IG accounts, they demanded my drivers license. Uh, no way in hell I’ll ever do that, so guess I’m not signing into stupid Facebook.
Curious if you give Discord your phone number?
