bots on websites, on apps on forums, has anyone found a real solution to getting rid of bots? and bot accounts? if so id love to know any solutions
bots on websites, on apps on forums, has anyone found a real solution to getting rid of bots? and bot accounts? if so id love to know any solutions
Pick two.
Arguably you could use some digital ID like the EU, that identifies you as a human but not which human, using fancy cryptography. With worldwide rollout this would give you all 3
If anonymous and available to everyone, what would prevent people from acquiring an ID and passing it on to a bot, or from acquiring multiples?
That’s probably why the EU is doing the remote attestation thing. You can have software freedom but with bots or you can have no bots but with software bondage.
The government would keep track of whether or not they issued you an ID, so that you can’t acquire multiple. You’ll probably be responsible for not losing it, or maybe there’s ways to revoke lost ones without compromising the privacy of it.
As for humans passing their token to a bot, that’s not really solvable by any system. There is always a possibility that a human is just talking to a bot and then typing out the post themselves. But the human is still the one with the authority, and chooses to delegate to the bot.
Indeed. Which is (part of) why I wrote, “pick two”.
Which is what we already have today.
Your original “pick two” comment implies that you can pick “anonymous” + “free of bots”, or “available to everybody” + “free of bots”. I can’t think of any system that would satisfy those.
What we have today is only “available to everybody”. The token/ID system adds anonymity
The former can be had on a system accessible only by a restricted group of people, through terminals that have no automation interfaces. Think of a local private library with a bulletin board: Only members can enter, and once inside, anyone can post using the provided tools, but there are no tools that bots could use, and there’s nothing connecting an individual to what they post on the board. Of course, a system like this would not be available to everyone; it wouldn’t work as an internet service, for example.
The latter can be had by requiring an access token issued to each user. Bots could then be either ejected quickly by revoking their owner’s token when discovered, or prevented early by requiring all access to be through public terminals that have no automation interfaces. Of course, any system that issues an access token to an individual cannot be anonymous if revocation is to be meaningful.
I wish that were possible, but no, it is not. If a government (or any other authority) keeps track of whether they issue someone an ID, then they must also have the ability to connect IDs to individuals. Such an arrangement can only be anonymous if everyone involved is a good-faith actor choosing not to abuse that ability, which history demonstrates is not a realistic assumption.
If people still have access to general computation (for example a computer at home), somebody could just run a bot at home, ask beforehand what the bot wants to post, then go to the terminals.
One the other hand if we assume it’s feasible to ban all general computation, then you can achieve all three “anonymous”, “available to everybody”, and “free of bots”. Just use the postal mail system.
Simple idea off the top of my head, building off GNU Taler. Citizens are allowed to get one Taler wallet from a central authority. The wallet is pre-loaded with $1 of a special currency. That currency can only be used to buy a social media account from the government for $1. Since GNU Taler transactions keep the buyer private, the government doesn’t know who bought which account. The government can still ban accounts, without knowing who is behind them.
And sure somebody could give their account to somebody else. But the system still satisfies the “anonymous” and “available to everybody” requirements.
Edit: formatting
Rate-limiting ID acquiring and having them to be short-lived deals with malicious parties. Having for example a token that proofs that you’re a legitimate person for 1 day, but your identity is tied to it for the duration means that you can only abuse the system only so for so long. For longer periods e.g. a month, half a year, you can provide pseudoanonymity, and it poses bigger issues with privacy, but a person who is willing to be subjected to be identified for a certain period of time gains certain privileges.
Sounds very dystopian though, but not having ID won’t stop the tech giants from profiling you anyways.
This doesn’t disprove what I wrote, as it’s not anonymous.
Pseudoanonymity is not anonymity, regardless of how any given person chooses to define that nebulous term.
My “pick two” stands.
Then it’s not anonymous.
Hence the pseudoanonymity.