Most Twitter users are familiar with followers who have odd names and avatars. Everybody knows that they are probably automated bogus accounts, known as bots.
Its true users Twitter they often discard these bots when they decide to tidy him up a bit account their. But an English researcher believes that there are many more bots out there than we think and that we see from time to time in our account.
The bots are with you
Juan Echeverria, a computer engineer at UCL, has published a paper on one network 350.000 Twitter bots as he calls it Star Wars botnet. He thinks that they can send spam, to manipulatetreatmentσουν την κοινή γνώμη, και να μολύνουν το Twitter API stream. Τα bots δημιουργήθηκαν και ελέγχονται κεντρικά από ένα botmaster. Η έρευνά του ξεκίνησε από το κοσκίνισμα ενός δείγματος ίσο με το 1% των χρηστών του Twitter με σκοπό να κατανοήσουν καλύτερα πώς οι άνθρωποι χρησιμοποιούν το συγκεκριμένο μέσο. Αλλά στην πορεία, η έρευνα αποκάλυψε πολλούς συνδεδεμένους λογαριασμούς, πράγμα που σημαίνει ότι ένα άτομο ή μια ομάδα εκτελεί το botnet. Οι λογαριασμοί αυτοί δεν συμπεριφέρονται όπως τα περισσότερα bots εκεί έξω.
Echeverria and his colleagues found that Star Wars Bots:
- They send quotes from at least 11 Star Wars novels,
- Each tweet contains only one offer, often with incomplete sentences or broken words at the beginning or end
- Bots never do retweet.
- Bots only choose “Twitter for Windows Phone».
Echeverria and colleagues have started one by clicking here and one Twitter account called "That is a bot!", where real users can report the Bots they have seen and help raise awareness.
May The Force Be With You.
