YouTube has over a billion unique visitors every month. Do you really think they’re all humans? There are many bots out there that automatically search and submit video clips from other websites.
Bots are software programs designed to mimic real human behavior or perform automated tasks. And yes, these are much more common than you might imagine – especially on YouTube. In fact, researchers at Google found that YouTube accounts for roughly 40% of the total Internet bot traffic.
There’s nothing wrong with that, though. After all, they’re simply doing their jobs. However, a large number of bots on YouTube has been the cause of many problems – especially for small channels.
The problem
The problem is that many bots are programmed to automatically subscribe to a channel and then leave a comment that says “cool video!” or something similar. This is more than annoying; it’s spammy.
Bots can also be used to generate fake views for a video. In this case, the video will show up as high on the list of videos, regardless of how many people actually viewed it. That’s why you should always pay attention to the statistics in the description box of your video – the number of likes and dislikes and the number of views.
The good news
The good news is that YouTube has been trying to reduce the impact of these bots by cracking down on spammy comments and fake views. However, there are still plenty of these bots out there and they still have enough power to hammer small channels into oblivion – at least until Google takes action against them.
The solution
If you want to avoid any problems with them, you should use a bot catcher like TubeBuddy (which we’ll cover in more detail later on) to prevent these bots from gaining access to your channel.
How Many Bots Are On Facebook?
There are hundreds and hundreds of millions of active users on Facebook every month – but how many are real people?
Well, we do know that there are many bots that are designed to send automatic messages and post status updates in a very subtle manner – so subtle that most users would never notice anything suspicious about them.
Gullible users
While it’s true that most people won’t fall for these scams, there will always be some gullible users who will give away their private information or even end up sending money to an untrustworthy person or website.
The political bot
However, there’s another type of bot that’s even more dangerous: the political bot. These types of bots can spread propaganda like wildfire across social networks. They’re actually programmed to fight for specific political agendas and opinions – regardless of whether they’re right or wrong (in fact, they often promote both sides of an argument).
They’ll try to manipulate public opinion by posting false yet convincing stories and links across social networks. Some may even go as far as creating fake profiles pretending to be real people who support their cause.
Bots and social networks are a dangerous combination.
The best way to avoid any problems with them is to be aware of them. And if you see something suspicious, report it and block it as soon as possible