May 30: How to Spot a Bot
United24 gives advice on spotting bots that litter our feeds.
United24: How to Spot a Bot!
Russian bot farms use paid individuals to spread misinformation, continuing KGB-style “active measures” from the Cold War. Here’s how you can spot them!
To Summarize:
Profile Picture: Bots often use stolen or stock images. Use reverse image search to check if the photo appears elsewhere.
Username: look for random letters or numbers like “John_xyz_987”—typical bot patterns.
Account Age: New accounts created after February 2022 with unusually high activity are suspicious.
Posting Behaviour: Bots post constantly, repeating identical messages or retweets many times a day.
Engagement: Likes and retweets often come from other bots; genuine comments and conversations are rare.
Language Quality: Poor grammar and awkward phrasing are signs of automated or non-native content.
Topics and Hashtags: Bots focus on divisive, political subjects, frequently using trending hashtags to spread their reach.
Shared Links: They often share dubious or low-credibility sites pushing misleading or inflammatory content.
Followers and Networks: Bots follow many accounts but have few followers, often connected to other bots or Russian propagandists.
Detection Tools: Use tools like Botometer or browser extentions to detect likely bot accounts.
Thank You!! still revisit Kremlin Files on my mobile! Amazing xxx
These are great tips! Some of them I was aware of but not others. Thanks for sharing!