Communications
Labelling Bots on Social Media
Labelling Bots on Social Media
Right now, when you scroll through posts or read the comments, you often don’t know if you’re hearing from a real person or an automated account.
Bots can post around the clock, start arguments, and amplify hateful views to seem more popular than they really are.
That’s why we should label bot accounts on social media platforms.
Labelling bots wouldn’t stop anyone from speaking. It wouldn’t delete content or shut down debate.
If you know a comment is coming from a bot, you can consider that context – instead of assuming it reflects genuine public opinion.
It wouldn’t ban content or censor free speech, it would just mean that when you go onto social media, you’re informed about what posts and comments are being made by real people, and which ones are made by robots.
Rather than relying on enforcement, it helps people make informed decisions for themselves.
It’s the same principle why we need better digital literacy education. We should be giving people the tools to understand the information they’re seeing, rather than blanket bans on content and the government choosing what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
When people understand how automation and manipulation work online, they’re more equipped to think critically, and less likely to be pulled into hate or violence.
Labelling bot accounts on social media platforms just makes sense.