Bots and timers: a brief history of their online presence
18There has been a lot of talk today about "social media bots," specifically on Twitter and politically motivated bots, as part of concerted campaigns to deliver biased information or harass people from multiple accounts. But where does this system come from?
The first signs of bots on sites like Twitter and Facebook have been reported on a large scale since 2016, as a prelude to the US presidential elections. In addition to real people posting content, bots can be programmed. These are accounts that don't have a real person, but are used to replicate or repeat a message or idea.
From then on, they are used almost similarly to a person who constantly seeks to gain support or antagonize another person with political messages, such as "a bot," regardless of whether it is a real person or a programmed client.