shareholders want real users, not bots. Facebook has to tell shareholders that real eyeballs are looking at ads, not virtual ones. Facebook is an adtech company—all tech they develop further establishes their advertisement empire, if advertisers (or more specifically, investors) find out ads on facebook aren’t worth their value, then facebook dies.
Absolutely but so does reddit, they all make a great effort to not notice bot accounts.
It would be easy to identity many bots by their browsing habits and other digital markers but they obfuscate all data that may give an indication of real users because, as you say, any drop in reported users is a drop in ad value.
shareholders want real users, not bots. Facebook has to tell shareholders that real eyeballs are looking at ads, not virtual ones. Facebook is an adtech company—all tech they develop further establishes their advertisement empire, if advertisers (or more specifically, investors) find out ads on facebook aren’t worth their value, then facebook dies.
Absolutely but so does reddit, they all make a great effort to not notice bot accounts.
It would be easy to identity many bots by their browsing habits and other digital markers but they obfuscate all data that may give an indication of real users because, as you say, any drop in reported users is a drop in ad value.
They obfuscate for us. There is no way they don’t know. But bots do drive engagement.