Twitter has proven to be an invaluable tool for communication during breaking news intense periods of political unrest. When thousands of people tweet, the outside world gets a chance to understand events on the ground. But what if none of those thousands of people were real, and the events never happened? A malicious puppetmaster could create hundreds of Twitter bots, letting them live perfectly normal and believable lives for months while they build up followers. Then one day, a careful crafted false story unfolds on the stage of social media, played out by a single director with hundreds of actors. Real world Incidents have shown that powerful stories can become widespread before there is time for fact checking. Before anyone realizes all the TwitPics are faked, the false news will have made international headlines.
Social Robots challenge our preconceived notions of what social media can be used for. They present a dangerous threat to the news industry, but also a powerful opportunity to help people.
11. "Jakarta tsunami tomorrow" - AndiArief Indonesian Presidential Special Staff for Social and Disaster Assistance http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/25/hacker-spreads-jakarta-tsunami-warning-from-government-advisors-twitter-account/
37. Social Robot Competitions 1pt for follow-back 3pts for @replies -15pts if bots caught http://www.webecologyproject.org/2011/01/help-robots-take-over-the-internet-the-socialbots-2011-competition/
44. Open Source Social Robots http://ca.olin.edu/2008/realboy/code.html http://www.webecologyproject.org/2011/02/complete-source-code-from-socialbots-2011/
54. Social Robots can’t be detected like Spambots Spam Bots Follow many random people Tweet a lot at once Tweet links
55. Social Robots can’t be detected like Spambots Spam Bots Social Robots Follow many random people Follow connected people Tweet a lot at once Tweet at normal pace Tweet links Tweet like real people
58. Gepetto’s Army: Creating International Incidents with Twitter Bots#twitterbots | @gregmarra Mar Launch Bots Apr - Jul Build Audience, Credibility Script Fake Event Aug Play Out Script 14 Mar 2011