{"id":127151,"date":"2025-04-14T15:29:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127151"},"modified":"2025-04-14T15:29:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:29:25","slug":"bots-are-killing-social-media-but-decentralization-can-save-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127151","title":{"rendered":"Bots are killing social media, but decentralization can save it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsOpinion by: Leroy Hofer, co-founder and CEO at Teneo Protocol
\nAs the old wisdom goes, nobody knows you\u2019re a dog on the internet. Often enough, nobody knows if you\u2019re a bot either, to the point where the dead internet theory sometimes feels disturbingly tangible.\u00a0
\nBot traffic share hit its highest level in 2024, up 2% on the year before, according to the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report. The bot pandemic is ravaging the Web. People are taking notice \u2014 people like Chanpeng Zhao, for example, who recently urged Elon Musk to ban bots on X. He\u2019s not the only one in the Web3 community to call for such measures, and rightly so.\u00a0
\nFrom artificially inflating engagement metrics to orchestrating scams, bots are quickly drowning out real human interactions \u2014 and it\u2019s at a time when our lives drift more and more into the online world.\u00a0
\nWhile platform owners continue to roll out AI-driven moderation and paywalls to curb bot activity, these solutions fail to address the root problem. Moderation tools also regularly operate with minimal transparency \u2014 incorrectly flagging legitimate content without users knowing why.
\nUsers also often have to surrender personal data to prove they are not bots, raising privacy concerns and creating barriers to participation. More problems are being made, and a decentralized approach is the only viable path forward.
\nIf left to fester, the rise of bots will create repercussions that go way beyond social media. Companies pouring money into digital marketing will see their budgets wasted on fake engagement. It\u2019s even possible to imagine a dirty trick where a rival would use bots to waste the competitor\u2019s money by feeding them fake impressions \u2014 this already happens in the digital ad space.
\nPeople are \u2014 and will continue to become \u2014 more suspicious of online interactions, making it harder for authentic creators and businesses to earn trust. The user experience also suffers. As automated noise drowns out meaningful discussions, users may eventually abandon social media for good. We need to deal with the bot problem for all these and other reasons \u2014 once and for good.
\nThe limits of centralized solutions
\nSocial media giants have been using centralized moderation strategies to tackle the bots issue for quite some time. AI-driven detection systems serve as the first line of defense. They\u2019re far from perfect. Bots are getting smarter, often slipping through the cracks by mimicking human behavior and bypassing safeguards. On top of that, false positives can lead to unfair restrictions on genuine users. Oh, the mighty banhammer, a weapon from a more civilized age.\u00a0
\nRecent: CZ urges Elon Musk to ban bots on the X social media platform
\nAnother common tactic is the implementation of paywalls, like X\u2019s verification fees, which require users to pay for authentication. This method raises the financial hurdle for bot operators but also creates a two-tiered system that disadvantages users who can\u2019t \u2014 or won\u2019t \u2014 pay. Paywalls do little to deter well-funded bot farms that can easily overlook these costs. While these measures are well-meaning, they often miss the mark when balancing security with user accessibility.
\nA decentralized solution
\nA decentralized model hands the reins back to the users and offers an alternative to having centralized entities decide what\u2019s real and what\u2019s not. Using blockchain-based decentralized identity (DID) and reputation systems, platforms can verify real users without compromising their privacy. Decentralized solutions reduce the need for unclear moderation policies and empower people to control their own digital reputations across different platforms.
\nDID solutions enable users to verify their authenticity through cryptographic attestations, so intrusive Know Your Customer processes are unnecessary. Reputation-based systems can help to strengthen bot resistance by rewarding verified users with more social credibility while shrinking the impact of suspicious accounts. The real advantage here is that these systems operate transparently, preventing centralized authorities from imposing rules that may prioritize corporate interests over user rights.
\nFixing social media\u2019s bot problem without breaking it
\nThe bot problem isn\u2019t just a hassle \u2014 it\u2019s a fundamental threat to the integrity of social media. The challenge is finding a solution that gets rid of bots without getting rid of free speech and user control. Centralized solutions are failing. Even worse, centralized systems also introduce new problems under the guise of security. A decentralized, data-driven approach enables people to authenticate themselves on their own terms, making bot-driven manipulation much harder.
\nWe urgently need to move beyond the current system and push for decentralized solutions that protect users and bring authenticity back to social media. If social media is to be a space for genuine human interaction, it has to go decentralized before the bots make it useless.
\nOpinion by: Leroy Hofer, co-founder and CEO at Teneo Protocol.
\nThis article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author\u2019s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsOpinion by: Leroy Hofer, co-founder and CEO at Teneo Protocol As the old wisdom goes, nobody knows you\u2019re a dog on the internet. Often enough, nobody knows if… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127151"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}