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submitted 6 months ago by LemmyQuest@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

I’ve started to realize that every social media platform, including Facebook, Telegram, Twitter, etc., has issues with bot spam and fake follower accounts. These platforms typically combat this problem by implementing various measures such as ban waves, behavior detection, and more.

What strategies/tools did Lemmy employ to address bots, and what additional measures could further improve these efforts?

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[-] otter@lemmy.ca 37 points 6 months ago

Currently, it's mostly manual removals which isn't sustainable if the platform grows. Various instances are experimenting with their own moderation tools outside of Lemmy, and I don't think Lemmy itself has any features to combat this. Moderation improvements is something that's been talked about with Sublinks.

What additional measures could further improve these efforts?

Having an 'automod', similar to but more advanced than Reddit, would help a lot as the first step. No one likes excess use of automod, but not having it at all will be much worse. Having an improved automod system with guides and tips on how to use it effectively, will go a long way towards making moderation easier.

[-] hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

I think the right strategy is providing all the tools, and then the instances themselves have to stay attractive. That's not on the developers, that's on the instances themselves.

[-] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 24 points 6 months ago

We're not mainstream enough to have many bots yet. I think some instances needed to deal with bot spam, but I haven't seen any in the community I moderate.

[-] HubertManne@kbin.social 5 points 6 months ago

I don't know if its lemmy or other parts of the federation but I see plenty of drug and other stuff that I guess could be manually done but my guess is its bots.

[-] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 months ago

That's a kbin thing. I have never seen 'buy cheap Viagra, Oxycontin, etc.' on Lemmy. It probably exists, but whenever I block and report a user they're from kbin.

Id change it to "it's not financially viable to have many bots yet".

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 24 points 6 months ago

By not being popular enough to attract the majority of them

[-] Resol@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago

We don't, because bots don't know about us.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 months ago
[-] Resol@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Why did I forget to mention that?

[-] EmilyIsTrans@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 6 months ago

As a moderator of a couple communities, some basic/copypasta misbehaviour is caught by automated bots that I largely had to bootstrap or heavily modify myself. Near everything else has to be manually reviewed, which obviously isn't particularly sustainable in the long term.

Improving the situation is a complex issue, since these kinds of tools often require a level of secrecy incompatible with FOSS principles to work effectively. If you publicly publish your model/algorithm for detecting spam, spammers will simply craft their content to avoid it by testing against it. This problem extends to accessing third party tools, such as specialised tools Microsoft and Google provide for identifying and reporting CSAM content to authorities. They are generally unwilling to provision their service to small actors, IMO in an attempt to stop producers themselves testing and manipulating their content to subvert the tool.

[-] guy@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago
[-] FerdinandSon@feddit.ro 2 points 6 months ago

Using hard af Captchas

[-] nom_nom_nom_9999@ani.social 1 points 6 months ago

it welcome bot

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

Personally I just block them

[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 months ago

You can filter bots that identify as such in your account settings.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago

Except nobody with a bot farm will do that.

[-] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

a bot farm can't get past the register captcha. only individual bots can with help of their owner and so far they check the bot box.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

It's cute that you think that.

[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Those bots are misclanious tools people have developed, such as the one for YouTube to Piped links.

OP is talking about spam bots that won't be kind enough to tell us they are bots.

this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
67 points (91.4% liked)

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