Social bots: who, how and why use bots?

I want to start the article right away from the point, so that it is clear what I want to tell. For this, I need you to answer a number of questions for yourself honestly:

• Where do you get the information from?
• How do you check it?
• How does information affect your opinion or actions?
• How much time do you spend on social networks?

Personally, I was surprised to find that 90% of the information I get from the Internet and about 30% of this from social networks. I belong to the generation that caught DialUP modems and the connection speed of 22 kb / s. At that time, in order to “kill” the site and throw out some article, knowledge and experience were needed and it was necessary to invest at least a little money in it (for hosting). Therefore, I knew that any material from the Internet should have been of at least some value, and its author should not be a completely stupid person.
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Then there was no news in the style of “SHOCK”, SEO was only emerging, and no one heard about SMM at all. News and information from the Internet could be relatively trusted. Reading the review article about the “rating” of the most popular books for programmers, I had no doubts about its objectivity and I did not think that the author could benefit from selling books on the CPA model or simply promote some brand.

All this has passed ... The era of social networks, likes, reposts and tons of meaningless information has come, pushing you to this or that conclusion or action. I want to tell and try to classify social bots as a tool for human exposure.

Social bots in e-commerce. Sales bots

Today, any “top” or “rating”, like any information from the Internet, needs to be questioned and searched for by interested parties. The choice of goods should be made not according to the “reviews” published on the seller’s website, but according to the reviews of eminent experts. In this light, the first and most obvious category of bots in social networks are sales bots who have the sole purpose of sending you a product or service.

As a rule, they are managed by living people - sellers, and the most simple and popular scheme for their use is as follows. For example, you went to the site of a company that sells information security services, read a couple of articles and came out. But the “focus”, just a couple of minutes after you closed the site, your friends account in the social network is breaking the account of the same company, and in personal messages you see something like “You visited our site, but nothing ordered, can I help you with something? ”. Everyone has long known that such “chips” are implemented through “clickjacking” ( an article on Habr ) and there are already entire services for tracking users from social networks who have visited your site. I will not advertise them.

Identifying feature: stylization for the service of its owner.

SEO bots, likes, cheaters and reposters

In my opinion, another obvious category of social bots is bots, the purpose of which is to cheat up basic indicators on third-party sites, inside groups on social networks and even on third-party voting services. Accounts for this kind of bots are easy to buy through special BuyAccs stores or on forums like Antichat. As a rule, bots are controlled by simple programs (do not count for advertising): Viking Botovod, Plusmo, Olike and other consumer goods. They do not have message response functions.

Identifying feature: a huge number of groups (subscriptions) and reposts with the almost complete absence of personal publications.

CPA Multi-Event Bots

Slightly more complex type of social bots, created for the classical purpose of “pushing”, but by a more complex scheme. These bots have SMS activation and the author values ​​them, filling them with photos and information in the first stage manually or using slightly more expensive programs: Xrumer + Social Plagin, ZennoPoster or others. Such bots are divided into the necessary classes of promoted products.

For example, CPA bots, bots of beautiful girls will be filled with a large number of sexy photos and nude photos if the bot is designed to promote any dating site, a site with intimate goods or even individual services. The bot will be subscribed to a large number of topical public dating, flirting, and even groups with erotic content. Such bots post in communities looking for “looking for dating”, “I'm so lonely” and so on, wanting to draw attention to your profile.

The same bots “beautiful girls” or “beautiful boys” can promote anything according to the same scheme, for example “sports betting” or “casino”, then the author “signs” such a bot on gambling publics and the same scheme that described above. Such bots can be easily repurposed to any CPA offers, products or services.

Identifying feature: an active link to a third-party service right in the profile or on the user's wall with the postscript “rarely come here, look for me (link)”.

From obviously commercially profitable bots, we smoothly move on to the “elite” of boto-farming:

Political social bots trolls and opinion leaders

The most difficult category of social bots is political. These bots are usually “nurtured” for months and sometimes for years. Bots are used in the interests of political forces, governments, and represent the "opinion leaders" of a certain social stratum (political electorate).

Here you can find a bot disguised as a simple taxi driver who regularly publishes his personal opinion along with personal photos and publications. There are elementary school teachers who speak about the simple and familiar problems of secondary education, appealing to the most important things in life for everyone - children, and as a result, to their parents. Such bots have a large number of friends (subscribers), their posts are “accelerated” by SEO bots and “Likelivers” and carry a hidden message or “slightly disguised”.

Identifying feature: not explicitly expressed, maximum correspondence to the real account. As a rule, such bots are connected to AI communication systems and can even respond to your messages in monosyllables. From personal experience: sometimes owners of such bots use photos “under an open license” for the “leaders” of their bots, fearing complaints about the use of other people's photos.

In different countries, these bots even have their own name.

• In the Russian Federation, according to legends, there are “Trolls from Olgino”, allegedly created in order to create the illusion of ultra-high support for the power of the people. Get their name for the place of their primary location. ( article about this )
• In Ukraine, according to the legends, there are “Powdered Sounds” aimed at supporting the President. The origin of the name is obvious. ( mention of this )
• In the United States, an authoritative motherboard magazine and other publications have said that social bots are used in the camps of both (then still) presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. ( article about this )

For objectivity and honesty, it should be said that almost all the significant world leaders resort to the help of high-tech companies engaged in botting. I added the phrase “according to legends” for the mass of the population that refutes state intervention in the privacy of its citizens, social networks and a direct impact on people's opinions. These technologies are used by political technologists of all countries. And companies servicing such “shares” receive substantial checks.

This article does not pretend to the role of complete guidance on the classification of social bots, but is only a reflection of my personal opinion. During my work in the field of information security, I came across, and why should I conceal, I tried to use almost all the above described categories of bots, both individually and in conjunction, testing them for the amount of attracted traffic and feedback (likes, reposts), but this completely different story.