What percentage of tweets come from bots? How can we trust the information spreading about COVID-19 on social networks? Is Twitter focusing on the right problem? The following is an excerpt from an article written by Om Malik discussing these questions:

Twitter (and Facebook) can do their very best to label the information on their platforms, but the real problem is not of fake news and manipulated information. It is about bots and fake accounts. These bots and fake accounts exist for the sole purpose of spreading misinformation With enough likes, retweets, and re-shares, what is clearly fake becomes increasingly ambiguous, and then it enters the mainstream conversation (often with a big boost from boosters and detractors in the mainstream media). As a consequence, we are all left scratching our heads and wondering what the hell is going on. We are all suddenly surrounded by the fog of lies and half-truths.

Read the full piece here.

Follow Om Malik on Twitter here.

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