How can regular people spot a BOT on Twitter or elsewhere if skilled folks cannot?

[efhmc]

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/liberal-blogger-horrified-discover-duped-russian-trolls-tumblr-help-trump/

[Farmer-Rick]

1. I know, I was thinking the same thing.

I thought all those anti Hillary and anti Democratic Party comments everywhere, constantly pounding away at liberals were real people. Part of it was that they did it in secret and we didn't know they were out there. Knowing you are being targeted for manipulation can help you resist the manipulation.

But there are still liberal Russian deniers out there who refuse to admit that Russia had any influence on them and that Russia is NOT actively attacking our democracy. One thing I noticed was some of the bots were really bad with the English language. They first post liberal like stuff to get into your good graces then they start disrupting. Some bots also have very RW links all time on their posts.

But if they are being disruptive that is probobly someone you should NOT take at face value.

Good luck out there.

[efhmc]

4. I would be very suspicious of any "liberal Russian deniers".

nt

[NewJeffCT]

2. "regular" folks normally don't get hundreds of new followers every day

however, if you're even a minor celebrity, you could potentially get hundreds or thousands of new followers per day. Not to mention scores of unfollowers. Very hard for anybody to track these things, even with apps that help you track followers.

[efhmc]

3. On tweeter, I see people saying different

people are bots. Do they have inside info or are they simply bots themselves or just spouting off because they do not like someone's rhetoric?

[NewJeffCT]

5. there is a difference between a bot and a troll

bots tend to just tweet and/or retweet articles/comments with certain hashtags attached. IF they want something negative about the Democrat in the news this week (Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, etc) - they'll tweet out a fake news article slamming the person in question and add in hashtags like #<insert Democratic name here>Sucks or whatever, and then the other bots will pick it up and retweet it, creating a trending topic on twitter.

Trolls are different - they will interact with users in the guise of a Trump supporter, a Bernie Supporter or a Clinton Supporter. Hard to pick them out unless they make mistakes (don't change their location from Russia)

[beachbum bob]

6. for an educated person, its not difficult...

[efhmc]

7. Thanks. Nice to be called dumb. Most helpful.

nt

[Dr Hobbitstein]

10. The opposite of educated is not dumb. nt

[efhmc]

12. Ignorant then. The point was/is that I was asking to be educated and

I am smart enough to know when I am being maligned.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

13. I think the poster was implying that thetlyre easy to spot

if you are educated in how to look for them. That is not maligning, that is a factual statement.

[NatBurner]

8. they're pretty easy to spot on facebook

no personal posts or pics, just shares and memes. the profile pic is usually a bathroom mirror selfie likely lifted from instagram, or a meme (flags, eagles, guns, etc)

incongruous friends list- a hodge-podge of random profiles, also with no personal touches

if the "character" is Black, the username will be stereotypical- jamaal jackson, khalil jenkins, etc

hit & run posts- drop a flamer and leave. no dialogue at all

sentence structure and syntax virtually screams "english is not my first language"

[efhmc]

9. Don't do facebook. It is tweeter I am

wondering about. Someone will id someone as BOT and people will agree or disagree when the only comment that the "BOT" posted was something totally inane. I guess I was thinking there is some secret info I do not have.

[silverweb]

11. Exactly.

Also, they tend to use common names, so that if you search for their name in the search bar, it's not listed at all. The other thing is that they often post ambiguous comments, which fits with their playing both sides of the fence to throw people off.

When I have time, I check out anyone who posts an ambiguous or obviously RWNJ kind of comment, then gleefully block them if confirmed to be a troll or bot. My blocked list is very, very long and it makes FB a lot more pleasant.