this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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New study finds bots and fraud farms responsible for 73% of web traffic::undefined

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"73% of web traffic" does not mean 73% of comments, posts, content, etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

But yeah, it’s not like all the commenters on this post are bots.

What percentage would you guess that are bots as commenters?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

More evidence for the Dead Internet Theory

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not yet but soon it will be

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Death by a thousand ~~cuts~~ bot/shill posts.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

100% on Twitter, 150% on Facebook. Or maybe the other way around 🤷

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How are you about to do that on Facebook? I can't even sign up without it asking for my ID

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

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?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah dead internet. And I hope this news will kill online marketing for good

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But if 73% of traffic is fake, and they monitor traffic to determine sentiment and marketing strategies, then who are they actually marketing TO?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

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?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use a "bot" to auto-clip digital Safeway coupons

How?