Are Bots Bad for Free Expression?
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Are Bots Bad for Free Expression?
Moment 183
Elon Musk has been wrangling with Twitter, trying to get a handle on the percentage of users that are real versus bots.
But, are bots even bad? I talk about it in Moment 183…
This “bot” Moment above pairs well with West Coast IPA and the “anonymous accounts” Moment below…
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Bots are bad if for no other reason than they add an inorganic weight to the system even if its nothing more than being a non-active account that follows just 1 other person. They are as serious threat because of how they can be weaponized like zombie computers where the few or the one has control over the many and can thus create a false level of influence or impact. Twitter already does this via its tweaked algorithms, promoting in an inorganic way ideas it wants to push as being widely shared. They kind of have to because of the nature of online interactions were if let unaltered and were able to be restricted to real people only those in power would be exposed for it wouldn't take long for the public to realize just how much they've been lied to and manipulated until now.
The key to control is making anyone who challenges the approved narrative feel like as if they are the exception, the outsider, the one who goes against the majority. If that isn't enough to coerce them into group compliance it is often enough to get them them to stand done, stop challenging the narrative. Its small percentage of the population that can't be easily manipulated and who can see BS when its deployed because that type of person has to be one who doesn't care if they are a part of the majority and that runs counter to our inner biology where there is safety in numbers.