{"id":35539,"date":"2018-10-08T15:20:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T13:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/?p=35539\/"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:39:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T12:39:43","slug":"quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook recently stated that it identified and deleted over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.recode.net\/2018\/5\/15\/17349790\/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-fake-accounts-content-policy-update\">1.3 billion fake accounts over the past 2 quarters<\/a>. Twitter regularly deletes inactive and fake accounts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/gadgets-and-tech\/news\/twitter-fake-followers-lost-delete-accounts-cull-a8444236.html\">deleting on average 6% of all accounts per cleanup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So how can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? When should you react?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fake profiles can also be used in malicious activities or be a part of modern, hybrid warfare (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/social-media-hybrid-warfare\/\">we were part of a team researching propaganda during the 2014 Russian-Ukrainian conflict<\/a>). The problem of fake accounts is real and it\u2019s not only in politics. Malicious competition can hire bots and trolls to spread fake news about your company, product or service. They were even used in bashing Star Wars: The Last Jedi on the internet, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2018\/oct\/02\/star-wars-the-last-jedi-rian-johnson-abuse-politically-motivated-russian-trolls\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">according to a recent study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\" class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\"><span id=\"hs-cta-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\" class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\"><!-- [if lte IE 8]><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div>\n\n\n<![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/3842881\/4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"hs-cta-img-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\" class=\"hs-cta-img aligncenter\" style=\"border-width: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/3842881\/4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb.png\" alt=\"Analyze your social media performance\" \/><\/a><\/span><script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> hbspt.cta.load(3842881, '4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb', {}); <\/script><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><\/p>\n<h2><strong>How to recognize a bot on Twitter or Facebook<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not hard to be honest. But it isn\u2019t always easy to know whether or not a particular account is indeed a bot. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, there are a few factors that point to a fake account. Just keep in mind that the presence of one of these factors isn\u2019t enough to identify a bot. Only a combination of several indicators warrants labelling a particular account as fake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first indicator of a fake account is the profile picture. <strong>Not setting a profile picture is suspicious.<\/strong> If you suspect that an account is fake, you can always do a reverse image search of its profile. If it turns out that the same profile picture appears on different accounts, the chances this is a troll or a bot are high. The same applies to instances <strong>when you find out that the image used is of another, real person or stock photo<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, it\u2019s worth looking at the user name. <strong>Lots of numbers, some gibberish like \u201cXsthasco\u201d or \u201cStephen983539\u201d can indicate that this is a fake account<\/strong>. BUT remember that some people don\u2019t want to change the default handle Twitter gives them, and it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they\u2019re paid Russian trolls.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On to the stronger indicators &#8211; <strong>account behavior<\/strong>. Check how often the account tweets or posts. Do they tweet in an irregular manner, months-long silences interrupted by eruptions of tweets? Do they tweet in second-long intervals? If so, you probably just identified a bot. Hurray?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still not sure? Check what they post. Do they post in different languages? Not like Canada\u2019s Prime Minister, who tweets in English and French &#8211; both are official languages of Canada and he tweets the same message in two languages. Lots of people speak fluently in more than one language. <strong>If the account has bursts of tweets in one language, then starts tweeting in another language, then another &#8211; it\u2019s probably a bot for hire<\/strong>. Some of the most active Twitter accounts during the protests against judiciary reform in Poland were bots previously tweeting in Indonesian, Chinese, and Portuguese. If a majority of tweets are just retweets without any comment or just mentions of other accounts &#8211; that\u2019s another indicator of fakeness. This tactic is used to get to the Most Popular tab on Twitter, creating the impression that this is what the majority thinks or that this issue is important. This happened with The Last Jedi &#8211; half of the negative opinions of the film and its director were fake.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What to do with fake accounts?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The solution is easy &#8211; if you spot a troll or bot (or you\u2019re almost certain of it), <strong>the best and easiest way to deal with them is to flag and report<\/strong>. The rest will be taken care of by the social network itself. Also, if you identify an account as a troll or bot &#8211; just stop answering its posts, comments etc. It\u2019s a waste of your time, so don\u2019t hesitate to ban them. The old internet saying &#8211;<strong> Don\u2019t feed the troll<\/strong> &#8211; remains ever relevant.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\" class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\"><span id=\"hs-cta-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\" class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\"><!-- [if lte IE 8]><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div>\n\n\n<![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/3842881\/4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"hs-cta-img-4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb\" class=\"hs-cta-img aligncenter\" style=\"border-width: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/3842881\/4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb.png\" alt=\"Analyze your social media performance\" \/><\/a><\/span><script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> hbspt.cta.load(3842881, '4a49e300-05d6-42ee-a1c5-b83db19b4bfb', {}); <\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><br \/>\nInterested in identifying trolls among your audience? We have experience in this kind of research, too. Drop us a line at <a href=\"sales@sotrender.com\">sales@sotrender.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook recently stated that it identified and deleted over 1.3 billion fake accounts over the past 2 quarters. Twitter regularly deletes inactive and fake accounts, deleting on average 6% of all accounts per cleanup.\u00a0 So how can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? When should you react?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":35545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1779,1783,1785,2103,3266],"tags":[753,2857,2859,2861,2863,2865,2867],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? What are the most common indicators? When should you react?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? What are the most common indicators? When should you react?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sotrender Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sotrender\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-08T13:20:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-16T12:39:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3872\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/eveningo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Sotrender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/\",\"name\":\"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-08T13:20:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-16T12:39:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/48ed6f8ff39863778de8dd32f58467f5\"},\"description\":\"How can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? What are the most common indicators? When should you react?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":3872,\"height\":2592},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Sotrender Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/48ed6f8ff39863778de8dd32f58467f5\",\"name\":\"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65ceb2020aa2338488b9c5f33c10137f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65ceb2020aa2338488b9c5f33c10137f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek\"},\"description\":\"Baltic linguist, marketer, and music journalist in his free time. A big fan of good food and even better music.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michaldwieczorek\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/eveningo\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/author\/micha_wieczorek\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media","description":"How can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? What are the most common indicators? When should you react?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media","og_description":"How can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? What are the most common indicators? When should you react?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/","og_site_name":"Sotrender Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sotrender","article_published_time":"2018-10-08T13:20:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-16T12:39:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":3872,"height":2592,"url":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/eveningo","twitter_site":"@Sotrender","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/","name":"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg","datePublished":"2018-10-08T13:20:19+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-16T12:39:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/48ed6f8ff39863778de8dd32f58467f5"},"description":"How can you identify fake accounts, bots and trolls in social media? What are the most common indicators? When should you react?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sergi-kabrera-705414-unsplash.jpg","width":3872,"height":2592},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/quick-guide-identifying-bots-and-trolls\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Quick Guide to Identifying Bots and Trolls on Social Media"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/","name":"Sotrender Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/48ed6f8ff39863778de8dd32f58467f5","name":"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65ceb2020aa2338488b9c5f33c10137f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65ceb2020aa2338488b9c5f33c10137f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Micha\u0142 Wieczorek"},"description":"Baltic linguist, marketer, and music journalist in his free time. A big fan of good food and even better music.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michaldwieczorek","https:\/\/twitter.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/eveningo"],"url":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/author\/micha_wieczorek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35539"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37399,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35539\/revisions\/37399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}