Bots and trolls and how to deal with them

Sadly, one of the less welcome developments, recently, have been the advent of bot and troll accounts.

Bots

A bot is a fake account which runs on a computer programme and which generates messages. If you are familiar with the term it’s a kind of modern-day version of the “Turing Test” (look it up if you don’t know what this is).

Essentially these programmes set up accounts and can generate messages within certain limits. One way in which these are used, is to create the false impression of support for certain politicians. There was once a newspaper article, which suggested that Nigel Farage may have up to half a million bot accounts following him and generating fake replies, liking and commenting positively, on his tweets. Other major politicians will have many of these, also. The high number of likes and retweets are often bolstered by bots.

Bot trolling is often tied to emotive tweeting - less hassle, if you are very matter of fact. Some don't have much of a problem with them but, occasionally, may get an arguing bot trying to waste thir time - but the abuse bots - no. The people that do are, generally, people who tweet about being emotionally vulnerable. And, often, who make a point about being women. 

Other than that - they go after the famous - they mark them like football players - most famous people have at least 3 regulars. OTOH there are huge blocks of bots that support and reinforce and follow Johnson/Farage etc - nearly all their followers are bots - perhaps over 90% are - as with Trump. Also, unless you get into long arguments (factional or otherwise) they will not come after you.

Trolls

A troll is an account, where the writer is human. Some are just poisonous individuals, who write on their own behalf. Some are allegedly paid to target people, who support topics they are opposed to e.g. pr-EU supporters. These folks are usually indicated by their vicious use of language and personal attack on targeted individuals and are a major source of online bullying. Many are even paid to do this task.

Romance Scams

Another online hazard is what may be called a “romance scam” account. As you check your new followers, you will occasionally find that you have been apparently followed by a nubile young lady who doesn’t like too much clothing or is a “God-fearing woman” and so on. Many female tweeters tell that they get followed by alleged US surgeons or 4 star generals. These accounts are usually invariably scams. They are typically very recently set up, have minimal followers, minimal bio information (if you are a male, the minimal clothing is intended to distract you from noticing this). I recommend you do this once to prove the point. One time when you get followed by a romance bot just once follow back. You will almost invariably receive a Direct Message, within minutes, trying to strike up a conversation. Computers don’t have to sleep, so if you follow back an apparently beautiful blonde Californian babe, you will find that she will still happily message you instantly at 4 am Pacific Time. Be brutal, block and report them on sight.

There is another option on Twitter called muting. Muting an account means that they can still interact with your content but you don’t see anything they write about your tweets. Personally, I am not a fan of muting. If I feel I need to limit someone’s access to my comments then I will stop them altogether.