It's really easy to game Twitter. We're talking dollars for followers. You literally pay whatever dollar amount you pay and the next day you have that number of followers. With 8,000 plus followers, you become more popular and more real in the eyes of the flesh and blood people who are now scoping you out. But all the bots that are also on the network, they see you now the same way, more popular, more real.
To Bot or Not? That’s the big question for Data Scientist Gilad Lotan. His research suggests we may be damaging our online reputations if we choose not to play the fake follower game. Jason Q Ng, author of the book Blocked on Weibo, tells us why the Chinese government hates fake bots and why they targeted Black PR companies last summer. And your host imagines a future were humans are forced to shower their new Bot Overlords with unwavering attention. *********Click on the image for the whole story about this week’s installment**********