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There are bots that tweet random sentences, bots that report earthquakes, bots that report journalistically on congress, bots that spread false information, bots that encourage political transparency, bots that do nothing other than appear comically inhuman, and bots that perform so many other varied functions on the internet (particularly twitter). The article “How to Think About Bots” mentions several of these bot species, for lack of a better phrase, in its analysis of the bot infested social media world we now live in. Yet the article does not come up with a seemingly obvious conclusion. If the bot world is so complex and varied, shouldn’t we just deal with them on a case by case basis???
The authors state, “Platforms, governments and citizens must step in and consider the purpose, and future, of bot technology,” as if some legislature or rulebook could possibly cover all possible actions bots will make in the future (Wooley, Boyd, & Broussard 2016). The truth is, it is impossible to predict precisely what semi-autonomous bots will do, and this ambiguity makes any type of preemptive policy pointless. A better solution would simply mirror the steps taken towards the accounts of actual humans who tweet dangerous or libelous things.
Source: https://leapfroggr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/new-twitter-account-suspended.png
If a real person tweets something incredibly offensive or blatantly false, Twitter can simply look at the tweet as a case by case event and delete the tweet. If the real person repeatedly tweets inappropriate material, Twitter can suspend the account. Why not follow the same steps towards bots? If a bot tweets something illegal, Twitter can delete it. If it keeps tweeting illegal things, Twitter can delete the account.
Sources:
Wooley, Samuel, et al. “How to Think About Bots.” Motherboard, 23 Feb. 2016, motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkzpdm/how-to-think-about-bots.
Posted from My DIG 101 Blog by Matt B.