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If not malicious, most would at least argue that socialbots are unethical. After all, there whole point of social networking is for actual humans to connect. Whether or not a socialbot actually steals data or is just done for amusement of the creator, the fact of the matter is that a socialbot needs to trick a real user in order to spread. It's not as if they can draw on their real life connections and experiences! Socialbots are most common in Twitter, though there also have been experiments with Facebook bots. Given the design of Twitter with short messages, re-tweeting, following etc., it's actually not too difficult for a socialbot to appear human. Identity theft is a huge concern with socialbots, but what really differs from other forms of malware is the trust factor that exists in social networks.

This can serve to help the socialbot spread, but also brings up questions as to whether a botnet of socialbots could influence external events. Imagine if a coordinate attack was released prior to an election. Given the prevalent use of social networking by politicians, could such an attack influence voters enough to sway results?

Since the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, many Americans have expressed about the presence of misinformation online, particularly on. Recent and investigations by and have suggested that one factor in the spread of misinformation is social media bots – accounts that operate on their own, without human involvement, to post and interact with others on social media sites. This topic has drawn the attention of much of the public: About two-thirds of Americans (66%) have heard about social media bots, though far fewer (16%) have heard a lot about these accounts. Among those aware of the phenomenon, a large majority are concerned that bot accounts are being used maliciously, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted July 30-Aug. 12, 2018, among 4,581 U.S. Adults who are members of Pew Research Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel (the Center has previously and the ).

Eight-in-ten of those who have heard of bots say that these accounts are mostly used for bad purposes, while just 17% say they are mostly used for good purposes. To further understand some of the nuances of the public’s views of social media bots, the remainder of this study explores attitudes among those Americans who have heard about them (about a third – 34% – have not heard anything about them). While many Americans are aware of the existence of social media bots, fewer are confident they can identify them. About half of those who have heard about bots (47%) are very or somewhat confident they can recognize these accounts on social media, with just 7% saying they are very confident. In contrast, 84% of Americans expressed confidence in their ability to recognize made-up news in an earlier.

When it comes to the news environment specifically, many find social media bots’ presence pervasive and concerning. About eight-in-ten of those who have heard of bots (81%) think that at least a fair amount of the news people get from social media comes from these accounts, including 17% who think a great deal comes from bots.

How to wipe clean passport for mac. And about two-thirds (66%) think that social media bots have a mostly negative effect on how well-informed Americans are about current events, while far fewer (11%) believe they have a mostly positive effect. While the public’s overall impression of social media bots is negative, they have more nuanced views about specific uses of these accounts – with some uses receiving overwhelming support or opposition. For example, 78% of those who have heard about bots support the government using them to post emergency updates, the most popular function of the nine asked about in the survey.

In contrast, these Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to the use of bots to post made-up news or false information (92%). They are also largely opposed to bots being used for political purposes and are more split when considering how companies and news organizations often use bots.