Doug Bock Clark's 'The BOT Bubble'

In the cover story, “The BOT Bubble” (New Republic, 2015), author Doug Bock Clark raises a compelling point about the value of popularity on social media, and how easily it is to be manipulated. “From 2005 to 2012, the percentage of Internet-using, American adults on a social media platform mushroomed from 8 to 70 percent.” (Clark,2015) With the introduction of Facebook’s ‘like’ button in 2009, many celebrities and companies have found that social media has quickly become a favorite platform for marketing. Higher amounts of likes and followers will bring more attention to brands and businesses, through brand endorsements. Therefore, resulting in higher product exposure to consumers, which would result in an increased chance of those products

They are run by smaller teams that manage a software used to create and give life to digital accounts (Clark, 2015). Some online stores include professional services such as, promo newsletters, subscription packages, and even 24-hour customer service (Clark, 2015). The market is in the multi millions for social media influence. Many international corporations, celebrities and even public figure heads use click-farms to increase their popularity among consumers. Facebook’s terms of service create rules that ensure the realism of Facebook. The accounts that are created and sold violate this mainly by the one person, one account statement as well as by providing false information. The main idea of social media is that it is an extension of the physical world, so there is a high expectation to social media platforms to keep true to authenticity (Clark, 2015). The effects that click-farms make on the foundation of social media can be threatening, as they ultimately undermine advertisers goal to reach “real” people, and lower the quality of experience for users. Facebook Terms, however aren’t international law, thus providing jobs and income to workers in high unemployment