From AI Overview:
A bot farm is a large-scale operation that uses a network of automated internet bots to perform online tasks, which can be used for malicious purposes like spreading misinformation and fake reviews, or for more benign tasks like managing customer service. These farms manipulate online content and traffic to create artificial popularity or influence opinions, and they can be employed for advertising fraud, political propaganda, or to boost ratings on app stores and social media platforms.
Uses of bot farms
Spreading misinformation and propaganda: Bot farms, also called "troll farms," can be used by governments or organizations to spread political propaganda, attack critics, and manipulate public opinion, often influencing elections.
Click fraud and advertising manipulation: They can be used to artificially inflate the number of clicks or likes on advertisements, defrauding advertisers. For example, some advertisers claim a significant percentage of their ad clicks are fraudulent.
Artificial popularity and reviews: Bot farms can manipulate positions in online app stores, generate fake positive reviews, and increase fake "likes" or followers on social media to make a product or service seem more popular than it is.
Price scraping and automated trading: Some bots are used for legitimate purposes like automated trading or finding "bargains," but this can also be used for unfair competition.
How bot farms operate
Automated accounts: Bot farms control thousands of automated accounts that can mimic human activity.
Coordinated activity: These accounts often work in a coordinated manner to flood platforms with content, comments, or likes from multiple sources simultaneously.
Infrastructure: They require significant infrastructure, including a large number of devices, IP addresses, and software, to manage the vast number of fake accounts and their activities.
Examples
Russian "web brigades": An example of a coordinated state-sponsored effort that used fake accounts to spread pro-Russian content during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Fake likes: A case where a company's product was found to have thousands of fake Facebook likes added by a "click farm".
Betting and trading bots: A betting exchange company, Betfair, saw a large volume of bot traffic and created an API for bots to interact with its system, acknowledging the role bots play in its market.
