About a month ago, Admiral Patrick from dubvee.org investigated a thing and made a discovery: there appear to be bots on Lemmy manipulating votes. While the full extent of this issue remains murky, several key points stand out:
* The bots have randomly generated usernames, most of which are exactly eight characters long.
* None of these accounts have commented, posted, or set up avatars or bios.
* They predominantly upvote and downvote a specific group of users involved in U.S. politics and news.
* The bots are distributed across various instances, primarily on those that do not require manual approval for signups.
* Instance administrators have confirmed that many of these accounts were created using disposable email addresses.
Although these bots are quite basic, their discovery was somewhat accidental.
At first, I thought this would turn into a major story. While bots are common on the internet, that doesn’t necessarily mean Lemmy has issues exclusive to Lemmy; however, it’s still a potential problem for the community. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the situation escalated into a flame war.
The conversation appears to dissipated quickly, and I’ve only heard it referenced once since the original thread was closed. I don’t hold it against the mods; political discussions are challenging enough for users, let alone for those trying to manage them. Still, I’m surprised that my post is the first instance I’ve seen of it being mentioned outside the community. So, I figured I’d create a blog and talk about it myself. Maybe somebody will find it useful or it will be an excuse to stick around and blog in the future.
The Opinion Corner
Bots are ubiquitous, so it’s no surprise they’ve made their way to Lemmy as well. Their presence was only noticed by chance, as they were clearly identifiable as bots. I have a few theories about their existence.
Firstly, Lemmy may have reached a size that makes it a target for adversaries in the West. While it might not be a full-scale bot invasion, maybe it could be enough to prompt some bot activity by the usual bot makers’ intern. These adversaries benefit from fostering isolation and echo chambers among users.
Alternatively, Lemmy users might have created bots to manage the growth of the platform’s user base. Some admins and users hold very specific views, and they may want to ensure their opinions remain prominent despite the influx of new members.
Another possibility is that big tech is involved. They might be trying to deter newcomers by scaring them off the platform, and getting hit by downvote bots could scare wide parts of the political spectrum away.
I wish I had a solution for the bot issue, but unfortunately, I don’t. In any case, let’s take a moment to appreciate the admins; they not only have to deal with us but now also contend with bots.
Sources:
Original Thread on Lemmy: dubvee.org/post/dubvee.org/187…