Almost every social media platform has a bot problem, especially since they're not exactly easy to get rid of. After measures are put in place to eradicate them, there's always a new way to circumvent those policies. They can be a risk to real users, so here's how you can spot them.
How Can a Bot Account Be Risky?
Bot accounts serve a lot of purposes. Some are created for the sake of inflating follower numbers and engagement. Real users might purchase them for the sake of looking popular, or they want to drive up revenue if they are content creators.
Compared to other functions, this is almost harmless. Automated social media accounts can be programmed to do worse things. For instance, some advocate ideas that might be hateful in nature, and they leave comments and posts randomly.
Others are programmed to generate messages. You might've already received a strange online message from someone you don't know. If it seems like a promotion or is asking for your personal information, chances are the account is a bot and is being controlled by bad actors.
The best thing you can do if you spot a bot account is to report it and then block it. However, you should know how to properly determine whether the user really is a bot, so you won't accidentally report a real user.
How To Spot Bot Accounts
There are many ways you can spot bot accounts, whether it's on Facebook, X, Instagram, or other social media platforms. Some are obviously automated accounts while others appear more authentic to avoid being flagged.
The first thing you can check is the username. If it consists of a set of random numbers, it's likely a bot account. The same goes for usernames that have names at first followed by several random digits, and you'll likely find an account that follows it.
For instance, if you find a potential bot account called @john12345, you can try and search for @john12346. If an account's digits follow a numerical order with other accounts, it's almost a guarantee that all of them are bots.
You can also see it through the profile photos. Some accounts don't bother adding profile photos, given that it would be a tedious task adding one for hundreds if not thousands of automated accounts, although some already put in the work to make bots look more convincing.
If you're still not convinced, you may look through the account's activities, which are usually dead giveaways. Bot accounts, depending on what they are programmed to do, can sometimes post more than 20 times a day, maybe even more. The posts are usually repetitive as well.
You can also check the comments or replies it has published. If you see that it has the same reply several times in a row or simply just generic responses, it's probably a bot that is programmed to either promote products or spread ideas throughout the platform.
Bot accounts tend to overuse hashtags in order to manipulate certain topics. If you find that an account shows excessive use or spam of certain keywords, they might've been created to create visibility for certain topics.
