[HN Gopher] Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
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       Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
        
       Author : collate
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2021-06-08 17:38 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (syntheticmessenger.labr.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (syntheticmessenger.labr.io)
        
       | WalterGR wrote:
       | This is insane. Check out the live feed of a bot in action - a
       | browser being automated, with various photos of human hands
       | clicking the ads, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEHgOTgtGso
       | . It may or may not be broadcasting but you can seek to the past.
       | 
       | "Scroll scroll scroll... click click click click..."
        
         | jaywalk wrote:
         | Incredibly creepy.
        
       | ipsum2 wrote:
       | I upvoted this because its an amazing example of a project
       | achieving the exact opposite of what it aims to do (bring
       | money/views to positive climate change). Remarkably, these are
       | professors at NYU and UT Austin.
        
       | digilypse wrote:
       | I want to like this as an art project but just can't.
       | 
       | Yes, it's interesting to point out that manipulating content
       | algorithms to favor special interests is a reality. It would have
       | been nice to at least acknowledge that this is generally not
       | employed for wholesome causes.
       | 
       | Mostly, though, this just literally doesn't work.
        
       | PaulHoule wrote:
       | This is bad. Publishers could get kicked off the ad networks as a
       | result of this activity.
        
       | disposekinetics wrote:
       | So the rate of ad-fraud on climate news will be higher?
        
       | jlj7 wrote:
       | I... don't know what to say about this right now. I'm reading the
       | AdNauseam paper, to see whether that helps.
       | 
       | This has... disturbed me.
        
       | h2odragon wrote:
       | Cool! Activism as a service; offer a subscription and let people
       | pay for bot clicks for keywords ... like advertising backwards!
       | 
       | With AI written stories and automated engagement, literacy is
       | superfluous, all us meat bags need do is sit back and let the
       | decisions of our betters propagate through our lives.
        
       | arthurcolle wrote:
       | Is this created by the oil lobby to increase click fraud for
       | climate change articles? Lmao
        
       | clircle wrote:
       | For what purpose...?
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-08 23:03 UTC)