Bluesky, a social media platform popular among leftists, is facing a surge in bot and impersonation accounts, posing a challenge to its user experience and future.
Bluesky , a social media platform that gained popularity among leftists following the election of Donald Trump, is facing a surge in bot and impersonation accounts as Trump assumes office. Despite its success in attracting users seeking an alternative to platforms like X and Threads , Bluesky is grappling with a growing problem of spam accounts and impersonators.
This influx of malicious accounts is a consequence of the platform's increasing popularity, but it's causing frustration and concern among users about the future of their social media experience.In recent weeks, Bluesky users have reported an increase in bot activity, including duplicate accounts pretending to be real users and porn bots disseminating explicit content. Patrick George, a journalist specializing in the electric vehicle industry, encountered an impersonation bot despite having a relatively small following of 4,000. The bot contacted one of George's sources, attempting to continue an unrelated conversation. Although George reported the account and had it deactivated, the experience left him uneasy.An analysis by Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, revealed that 44% of the 100 most popular Bluesky accounts have at least one doppelganger, but only 16% of these accounts are clearly identified as impersonators. V.S. Subrahmanian, a computer science professor at Northwestern University, suggests that smaller accounts like George's are attractive targets for malicious actors because they can more easily integrate into the platform and avoid detection. Bluesky's bot problem highlights its growing influence in the social media landscape. The platform's user base has nearly doubled from 15 million in mid-November to 27 million currently, primarily driven by users leaving X following Elon Musk's controversial involvement with Donald Trump's presidential campaign. However, the rise in bots presents a significant challenge for Bluesky, which lacks the financial resources of its competitors. The platform's current verification method, which involves linking one's profile handle to a custom web domain, is somewhat technical and may not be sustainable as the platform expands. Mantzarlis argues that this method is easily replicated by malicious actors, making it an inadequate solution for a platform aspiring to compete with Threads and X.As Bluesky navigates this complex situation, it will need to invest more in developing robust systems to identify and combat bot accounts. Subrahmanian suggests that the company must build training sets encompassing both bot and genuine accounts to facilitate easier distinction between the two
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