My guess: it is a low hanging fruit and then they can say "Look! We blocked X million bots! So you can trust the users that are left...... please don't look into it any more"
because people used to do this all the time with ads: serve up an ad click, get paid… so spin up a bunch of clients and have them click ads on your site, easy money!
shareholders want real users, not bots. Facebook has to tell shareholders that real eyeballs are looking at ads, not virtual ones. Facebook is an adtech company—all tech they develop further establishes their advertisement empire, if advertisers (or more specifically, investors) find out ads on facebook aren't worth their value, then facebook dies.
Absolutely but so does reddit, they all make a great effort to not notice bot accounts.
It would be easy to identity many bots by their browsing habits and other digital markers but they obfuscate all data that may give an indication of real users because, as you say, any drop in reported users is a drop in ad value.
Stick around long enough and pay attention and you’ll see.
Things relating to: Israel, Gaza, discussions of capitalism, “east” vs “west”, USA imperialism, the Uyghur Genocide, the genocide of the Palestinian people, the cultural revolution, great leap, Soviets, etc
^ suddenly there are a lot more people on Lemmy when these topics come up. Voting is transparent.
You're looking at 7x14 cellphones per rack and at least 5 racks. So 490 phones. Each of them will have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and so on installed. A setup like that will give you the power to immediately downvote a Reddit post 500 times or to sell 500 followers on Instagram, boost a TikTok video with 500 views or post 500 comments to YouTube. You can play your YouTube video 500 times and earn money by doing that. Or you could totally kill every Lemmy post critizising the communist party of China by downvoting it 500x and posting 500 negative comments.
And yes, there are thousands of those operations around
I agree with this. I'll even say fine follow the ugly conventions in those spaces and use watermarks to push people to leftist channels on those platforms.
That said, we are deep in the trenches here in this Lemmy community, not in the friendly outreach programs, so when dropping your meme here specifically, crop that bullshit out.
This is what I fucking hate about these dumb cunts. They're all like "BOF PARTYS DUH SEYM!", and they vote for the objectively worse alternative every single time.
One guy is a middle aged state clerk doing what he can.
The other guy is a serial repeat offender rapist burglar violent pedophile that shits in your mouth and tells you to like it or gonna shoot you.
And without fail you vote for the rapist burglar violent pedophile every single time. "Both parties" my cunt, you're just a fascist bootlicker and for some reason you can't even admit it or stand for your beliefs, you are so pathetic you try to excuse the vomit that infests your soul by blaming others for not being as big of a degenerate as you are.
It's so fucking obvious that we only have one real choice, because of FPTP! Someone who's doing what he can should voice any opposition whatsoever to this blindingly obvious problem.
Any degenerate who pretends to not know what FPTP forces us to do is clearly in favor of its fascist result.
47 Comments
tuff_wizard@aussie.zone · 73 pts · 258d
I do find it interesting that thousands of discrete devices is somehow easier than them virtualising them devices.
Album@lemmy.ca · 46 pts · 258d
Virtualization is easily detected.
tuff_wizard@aussie.zone · 39 pts · 258d
Yeah but why would facebook/x bother to check? Engagement is engagement. They already know there are millions of bots and don’t care.
Tanoh@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 258d
My guess: it is a low hanging fruit and then they can say "Look! We blocked X million bots! So you can trust the users that are left...... please don't look into it any more"
pupbiru@aussie.zone · 17 pts · 257d
because people used to do this all the time with ads: serve up an ad click, get paid… so spin up a bunch of clients and have them click ads on your site, easy money!
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 257d
shareholders want real users, not bots. Facebook has to tell shareholders that real eyeballs are looking at ads, not virtual ones. Facebook is an adtech company—all tech they develop further establishes their advertisement empire, if advertisers (or more specifically, investors) find out ads on facebook aren't worth their value, then facebook dies.
tuff_wizard@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 257d
Absolutely but so does reddit, they all make a great effort to not notice bot accounts.
It would be easy to identity many bots by their browsing habits and other digital markers but they obfuscate all data that may give an indication of real users because, as you say, any drop in reported users is a drop in ad value.
mirshafie@europe.pub · 5 pts · 257d
They obfuscate for us. There is no way they don't know. But bots do drive engagement.
krox@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 257d
Pretty sure they only care because they could get in trouble for shareholder faud
tuff_wizard@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 257d
No that’s why they never release any data about bots. That way they can pretend every account is a real user.
uncouple9831@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 255d
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 254d
And, i assume, those devices have each different WAN addresses
It would be to obvious, if all of them would have the same..
zurohki@aussie.zone · 39 pts · 257d
Probably it's cheaper to get 60 used low-end devices than one device that can run 60 copies of the Facebook app.
fartographer@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 257d
Bingo. People treat phones like they're disposable, and buying pallets of old functional phones is shockingly affordable
squaresinger@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 257d
People trade their old phones in when they buy new ones or donate them to random causes.
This here is where those old phones end up.
robocall@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 258d
Forgive my ignorance, why is there a wall of cellphones?
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 73 pts · 258d
This is what a bot farm looks like
aka this is who you’re arguing with online.
This is what a lot of Lemmy traffic comes from.
Dialectical_Specialist@quokk.au · 37 pts · 258d
-This comment brought to you by a bot™
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 25 pts · 258d
beep boop
tomiant@piefed.social · 5 pts · 257d
Giving helpful instructions is not among the activities bot farms are involved with.
TheOctonaut@mander.xyz · 24 pts · 257d
There's more phones on that rack than active Lemmy accounts
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 6 pts · 257d
This is the .ml server
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 258d
I prefer the Superman version:
https://youtu.be/P7Ceon2WLpA
Naich@lemmings.world · 5 pts · 257d
How is it used? Are they remotely controlled by computer somehow or do they need someone going from phone to phone, putting stuff in manually?
freebee@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 257d
Low wage employees go over the boards of phones all day
tomiant@piefed.social · 1 pts · 257d
Things phones and humans have in common in Asia: they're very cheap to procure.
It is sad, and heartbreaking, and true.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 257d
How much is a lot in this context?
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 2 pts · 257d
Stick around long enough and pay attention and you’ll see.
Things relating to: Israel, Gaza, discussions of capitalism, “east” vs “west”, USA imperialism, the Uyghur Genocide, the genocide of the Palestinian people, the cultural revolution, great leap, Soviets, etc
^ suddenly there are a lot more people on Lemmy when these topics come up. Voting is transparent.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 257d
I wish we could locally delete votes from specific instances with our clients.
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 2 pts · 257d
Lemmy is almost designed to be able to be astroturded.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 254d
Do you really believe, that lemmy is big enough for them to care?
JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org · 34 pts · 257d
You're looking at 7x14 cellphones per rack and at least 5 racks. So 490 phones. Each of them will have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and so on installed. A setup like that will give you the power to immediately downvote a Reddit post 500 times or to sell 500 followers on Instagram, boost a TikTok video with 500 views or post 500 comments to YouTube. You can play your YouTube video 500 times and earn money by doing that. Or you could totally kill every Lemmy post critizising the communist party of China by downvoting it 500x and posting 500 negative comments.
And yes, there are thousands of those operations around
KeenFlame@feddit.nu · 29 pts · 257d
It's sadly very wrong.
The person selling the hat is also making fun and laughing at you. And has your personal information
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip · 22 pts · 257d
That's not wrong. Just incomplete
Vespair@lemmy.zip · 24 pts · 257d
A watermark and a social media user, gross.
Back in my day we had standards and people were expected to crop out all that bullshit before posting a meme.
pupbiru@aussie.zone · 14 pts · 257d
and not just any social media: threads
ameancow@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 257d
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 257d
The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. Reach them in the workplace, at home, in actual reality.
ameancow@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 257d
Vespair@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 256d
I agree with this. I'll even say fine follow the ugly conventions in those spaces and use watermarks to push people to leftist channels on those platforms.
That said, we are deep in the trenches here in this Lemmy community, not in the friendly outreach programs, so when dropping your meme here specifically, crop that bullshit out.
tomiant@piefed.social · 2 pts · 257d
You should watch the film "Threads" from 1981 I think.
Everyone should watch "Threads", the film from 1981 I think.
butwhyishischinabook@piefed.social · 13 pts · 258d
Oh man, good thing they changed colors and bolded part of it. I would have been totally lost.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 257d
Can I get a useless red circle? Totally lost over here.
tomiant@piefed.social · 2 pts · 257d
No arrows? Downvote.
tomiant@piefed.social · 3 pts · 257d
Man I should build a pyramid.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · -19 pts · 257d
I bet OP believes that being the 2nd worst political party in the nation makes the democrats the good guys.
::: spoiler Electoral Reform Videos
First Past The Post voting (What most states use now)
Videos on alternative electoral systems
STAR voting
Alternative vote
Ranked Choice voting
Range Voting
Single Transferable Vote
Mixed Member Proportional representation :::
FatVegan@leminal.space · 14 pts · 257d
They're both bad so why not vote for the pedo fascist
tomiant@piefed.social · 8 pts · 257d
This is what I fucking hate about these dumb cunts. They're all like "BOF PARTYS DUH SEYM!", and they vote for the objectively worse alternative every single time.
tomiant@piefed.social · 8 pts · 257d
One guy is a middle aged state clerk doing what he can.
The other guy is a serial repeat offender rapist burglar violent pedophile that shits in your mouth and tells you to like it or gonna shoot you.
And without fail you vote for the rapist burglar violent pedophile every single time. "Both parties" my cunt, you're just a fascist bootlicker and for some reason you can't even admit it or stand for your beliefs, you are so pathetic you try to excuse the vomit that infests your soul by blaming others for not being as big of a degenerate as you are.
Just get fucked, we're done playing that game.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 257d
It's so fucking obvious that we only have one real choice, because of FPTP! Someone who's doing what he can should voice any opposition whatsoever to this blindingly obvious problem.
Any degenerate who pretends to not know what FPTP forces us to do is clearly in favor of its fascist result.