{"id":62739,"date":"2018-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2018\/01\/08\/irl-how-to-spot-a-bot\/"},"modified":"2018-01-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T00:00:00","slug":"irl-how-to-spot-a-bot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/irl-how-to-spot-a-bot\/","title":{"rendered":"3 ways to spot fake Twitter accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most website visitors aren\u2019t human. They\u2019re bots. Today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2017\/01\/bots-bots-bots\/515043\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bots make up 52% of all web traffic<\/a>. And these automated accounts have had serious, real world impact \u2014 from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/11\/18\/technology\/automated-pro-trump-bots-overwhelmed-pro-clinton-messages-researchers-say.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 election<\/a>, to the FCC\u2019s recent, controversial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/bots-broke-fcc-public-comment-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">net neutrality vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In this week\u2019s episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/irlpodcast.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IRL podcast<\/a>, we explore the rise of political bot networks and how they\u2019re warping and rewiring conversation online.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.simplecast.com\/17f3cc4b?color=f5f5f5\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Of course, not all bots are bad. Automated accounts can <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tinycarebot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">remind us to take better care of ourselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"> : please dont forget to take a bit of time to eat something nutritious<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 here&#8217;s your reminder (@tinycarebot) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tinycarebot\/status\/948844258924130304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>They can make us <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EmojiAquarium\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">laugh<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"> \u3000 \u2004 \u2009 <\/p>\n<p> \u3000\u3000\u3000\u2009 \u3000\u3000\u2002 <\/p>\n<p>\u2693\ufe0f \u3000 <\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emoji Aquarium (@EmojiAquarium) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EmojiAquarium\/status\/949317949407416320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And they can force us to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thinkpiecebot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ask hard questions<\/a> about the culture we\u2019re creating.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Well, Fascism Is Normal Now, Let&#8217;s Talk About Moon Lawyers Instead<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Thinkpiece Bot   (@thinkpiecebot) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thinkpiecebot\/status\/945567673513074689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But when bots are used as a tool to amplify political messaging, it gets weird and dangerous. More so, because most of us assume that we\u2019d be able to tell the difference between a bot and a human on social media. Sometimes, <a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2017\/08\/21\/donald-trump-bot-twitter-retweets-fake-news\/#X2V51z.0MOqB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">it\u2019s not so obvious<\/a>. : \/<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/benimmo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Nimmo<\/a>, Senior Fellow at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalsherlocks.org\/dfrlab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlantic Council\u2019s Digital Forensic Research Lab<\/a>, stopped by our podcast to share his guide to Twitter botspotting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Bots post. A lot. <\/strong><br \/>\nIf you suspect an account might be a bot, the first and easiest thing you can do is check their Twitter activity. Go the the account\u2019s profile page, and see how many tweets they\u2019ve posted since their account was created. A human Twitter user might post 10-15 times a day. A bot account will post with high frequency, up to 2,000 times a day. That\u2019s more than a tweet a minute, every minute, for 24 hours. Not even the worst human is capable of this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Bots love anonymity. <\/strong><br \/>\nOnce you\u2019re on the profile page, look at the account details. Is the handle a real human name, or does it just have a scramble of letters and numbers? Is the profile picture an image of a person, or is it a generic landscape? Is it an egg? In general, the less personal information the profile gives, the more likely the account is a bot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Bots live to amplify.<\/strong><br \/>\nOne of the main roles of bots is to boost up the message of other bots. A typical bot will retweet and quote links, instead of creating original posts. Scan your suspected bot\u2019s account. If it\u2019s an endless stream of retweets, it\u2019s behaving like a bot.<\/p>\n<p>No single factor can reliably identify a bot. According to Nimmo, it\u2019s the combination of these three indicators that\u2019s most revealing. The most important thing is awareness. If you can identify a bot, you\u2019re less likely to be influenced by it (or awkwardly retweet it). For more on how to spot bots out in the wild, check out DFR Lab\u2019s handbook, <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/dfrlab\/botspot-twelve-ways-to-spot-a-bot-aedc7d9c110c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"button\" href=\" https:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/firefox\/?utm_source=blog.mozilla.org&#038;utm_campaign=internet_citizen&#038;utm_medium=referral\">Download Firefox<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most website visitors aren\u2019t human. They\u2019re bots. Today, bots make up 52% of all web traffic. And these automated accounts have had serious, real world impact \u2014 from the 2016 election, to the FCC\u2019s recent, controversial net neutrality vote. In this week\u2019s episode of IRL podcast, we explore the rise of political bot networks and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1521,"featured_media":20647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 ways to spot fake Twitter accounts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most website visitors aren\u2019t human. Before you get too excited, they\u2019re not aliens, either (probably). They\u2019re bots. 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