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    Malicious bots now account for a third of global internet traffic, and in countries like Ireland and Germany, they account for around 70% of internet traffic.
    Futurology

    Malicious bots now account for a third of global internet traffic, and in countries like Ireland and Germany, they account for around 70% of internet traffic.


    Malicious bots now account for a third of global internet traffic, and in countries like Ireland and Germany, they account for around 70% of internet traffic.

    https://www.imperva.com/resources/resource-library/reports/2024-bad-bot-report/

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    1. lughnasadh on

      Submission Statement

      In case you are wondering, the report defines ‘bad bots’ as software applications that perform automated tasks with malicious intent. In 2024 bot activity was almost half of all internet traffic, in 2025 it will exceed human traffic. AI is likely to accelerate this trend.

      [Dead Internet Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory), once considered a fringe idea, actually seems to be coming true.

      It’s striking too that $71 billion in global ad spend is just bots scamming the advertisers. Meta and Google make their money from advertisers, but they are arguably helping scammers by filling the internet with more and more AI-generated slop.

      [Forbes article with more information.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2024/04/16/yes-the-bots-really-are-taking-over-the-internet/)

    2. Triboluminescent on

      Much of the cost of this is spread across all of us as well. Few selfish groups are ruining the internet for all of us, while we foot some of the cost.

    3. upyoars on

      i wonder if/when there would ever be some kind of alternative to the internet and maybe even computers once dead internet theory makes the internet basically unmonetizable, it would eventually be nothing but a virtual encyclopedia/library for informational purposes

    4. bogglingsnog on

      This is naturally what you get when everything is built on modularity and APIs for automation. I miss web 1.0.

    5. p4ttythep3rf3ct on

      Dead Internet. Another third is paid trolls and influencers. The West lost the Information War. Time to regroup…

    6. Circaninetysix on

      So, how do we go about getting rid of them? It’s awful to think about how much waste this produces having so many nonhuman actors just wasting bandwith. For what? To advertise to us? This level of waste actually hurts the planet, but I have no idea how we can undo the damage now.

    7. AThousandBloodhounds on

      Feels like Reddit definitely contains a very unhealthy percentage of AI driven bot traffic now and growing.

    8. Photodan24 on

      I believe it. At least 75% of Facebook content is generated by bots, ads or suggested content. It’s useless for everything but closed groups and messenger.

    9. TerriKozmik on

      The west needs something like the blackwall in cyberpunk to block all traffic into the EU internet.

    10. Goldelux on

      Is there a way to create an ecosystem without bots or AI? Could you blockchain authenticity in social media so that everyone you speak to is accountable for their actions and can have meaningful conversations?

    11. Ejacubation on

      Look at right wing twitter. Theres no way most of those accounts are real people. They’re getting easier to spot but that platform will never rid of them.

    12. oxooc on

      I wonder how much energy is used for this, it sure has a measurable impact on global warming