567

Bots are running rampant. How do we stop them from ruining Lemmy? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

300 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit are increasingly infested with bots and fake accounts, leading to significant manipulation of public discourse. These bots don't just annoy users—they skew visibility through vote manipulation. Fake accounts and automated scripts systematically downvote posts opposing certain viewpoints, distorting the content that surfaces and amplifying specific agendas.

Before coming to Lemmy, I was systematically downvoted by bots on Reddit for completely normal comments that were relatively neutral and not controversial at all. Seemed to be no pattern in it... One time I commented that my favorite game was WoW, down voted -15 for no apparent reason.

For example, a bot on Twitter using an API call to GPT-4o ran out of funding and started posting their prompts and system information publicly.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/chatgpt-bot-x-russian-campaign-meme/

Example shown here

Bots like these are probably in the tens or hundreds of thousands. They did a huge ban wave of bots on Reddit, and some major top level subreddits were quiet for days because of it. Unbelievable...

How do we even fix this issue or prevent it from affecting Lemmy??

(page 5) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

To help fight bot disinformation, I think there needs to be an international treaty that requires all AI models/bots to disclose themselves as AI when prompted using a set keyphrase in every language, and that API access to the model be contingent on paying regain tests of the phrase (to keep bad actors from simply filtering out that phrase in their requests to the API).

It wouldn't stop the nation-state level bad actors, but it would help prevent people without access to their own private LLMs from being able to use them as effectively for disinformation.

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] AlexanderESmith@social.alexanderesmith.com 1 points 2 months ago

Maybe stop letting any random person create an account with no verification whatsoever

load more comments (9 replies)

load more comments

this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024

567 points (96.2% liked)

Technology

59674 readers

1878 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS