Bot Farms Infiltrate Social Media Platforms to Manipulate Public Opinion

The insidious rise of bot farms is reshaping social media manipulation, allowing coordinated campaigns to artificially inflate the popularity of ideas, stocks, and political narratives on an unprecedented scale, cybersecurity experts warn.

Unlike conventional software bots, modern bot farms employ racks of actual smartphones in data-center-like facilities, making them nearly impossible to detect. These sophisticated operations use SIM cards, mobile proxies, IP geolocation spoofing, and device fingerprinting to create the appearance of authentic human engagement.

“We know that China, Iran, Russia, Turkey, and North Korea are using bot networks to amplify narratives all over the world,” says Ran Farhi, CEO of Xpoz, a threat detection platform that uncovers coordinated manipulation campaigns.

These operations exploit social media algorithms by generating artificial engagement – likes, shares, and comments – to make posts appear to be trending. Meta refers to this as “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” a phenomenon that tricks platforms into showing content to more real users.

“It’s very difficult to distinguish between authentic activity and inauthentic activity,” explains Adam Sohn, CEO of Narravance, a social media threat intelligence firm whose clients include major social networks. “It’s hard for us, and we’re one of the best at it in the world.”

While manipulation of public perception isn’t new, the scale and sophistication have reached unprecedented levels. Financial markets have become particularly vulnerable to this type of manipulation, with bot networks targeting investment forums like Reddit and Discord with fake enthusiasm for certain stocks.

“We find so many instances where there’s no news story,” says Adam Wasserman, CFO of Narravance. “There’s no technical indicator. There are just bots posting things like ‘this stock’s going to the moon’ and ‘greatest stock, pulling out of my 401k.’ But they aren’t real people. It’s all fake.”

The problem extends far beyond financial markets. These same techniques are being deployed to influence elections, incite social unrest, and shape public perception on geopolitical issues.

Jacki Alexander, CEO of pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting, points to changing information consumption habits: “People under the age of 30 don’t go to Google anymore. They go to TikTok and Instagram and search for the question they want to answer. It requires zero critical thinking skills but somehow feels more authentic.”

Meanwhile, major platforms appear to be retreating from the fight against misinformation. X (formerly Twitter) dismantled much of its anti-misinformation team after Elon Musk’s takeover, Meta is reducing third-party fact-checking, and YouTube has rolled back features designed to combat false information.

Bot operators have grown increasingly sophisticated in their methods. They establish dormant accounts months or years before activation, complete with realistic profiles and behaviors. These bots strategically infiltrate interest communities aligned with certain biases, earning trust through participation before activating for specific campaigns.

“Bot accounts lay dormant, and at a certain point, they wake up and start to post synchronously,” explains Valentin Châtelet, research associate at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council. “They like the same post to increase its engagement artificially.”

The integration of AI has further advanced these capabilities. Bot operators now use platforms like ChatGPT and Claude to generate personalized, convincing content that sounds authentically human. As Pratik Ratadiya, a researcher who leads machine learning at Narravance, notes: “Social media algorithms are not evolving quick enough to outperform bots and AI. In the game of cat and mouse, the mice are winning.”

Commercial bot farms have emerged as a thriving industry, charging approximately one cent per action to like posts, follow accounts, or leave comments. These services advertise on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, often under euphemistic labels like “growth marketing services.”

The consequences of these campaigns can be far-reaching. During the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Russian and Iranian bot networks flooded social media with false claims suggesting the attack was an Israeli inside job. Bot farms also amplified misleading information about hospital bombings in Gaza, creating narratives that persisted even after corrections were published.

In the entertainment world, similar tactics have been deployed in celebrity disputes. Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni alleged the use of bot farms to manipulate public sentiment against her during a promotional dispute over their film “It Ends With Us.”

As bot farm capabilities continue to evolve, distinguishing authentic discourse from manufactured sentiment becomes increasingly challenging. “We think most of what we see online is real. But most of what we see is deceptive,” warns Ori Shaashua, chairman of Xpoz.

In this environment, traditional metrics of online popularity – likes, shares, star ratings – have lost much of their meaning, especially on contentious topics where passion and manipulation often intersect.