Internet bots are software applications that are automatically programmed to perform simple, repetitive tasks. The first internet bot can be traced back to 1988 when it was used by a small group of developers. Nowadays, internet bots can easily be found and bought on many different websites. Internet bots are essential for internet search engines as they are used for web crawling, a process that allows companies to analyze millions of data on servers. However, internet bots can also be malignant when developed by cybercriminals. DDoS attacks and email spams are classic examples. Since 2016, using internet bots has become a common strategy for profit. This article will explore the use of bots in social media and the resell market.
With social media’s growing impact on our society, it has become the main platform for “influencers” to earn profits by promoting sponsored products. Social media influencers have developed various methods to expose their posts to more people. Using bots has become one of the most effective ways as they can perform simple assigned tasks much faster than humans. These automated accounts continuously comment, post, and text to a large list of targeted users. Although most people choose to ignore bots, their works lead to an exponential increase in the exposure of the influencer’s account which in turn increases the number of their followers or leads to an increase in sales. As these bots started to grow out of hand, social media platforms have developed programs to distinguish and eliminate bots. The developers of bots have started to program them to act more and more like  humans. Now, they comment on short phrases or emojis and use safe proxy server sites. We can still distinguish them by how fast they post comments, or the unusual number of likes on their comments, but separating these bots from real people will become more challenging in the future.
Although spam comments and posts seem harmless, it can be used to achieve various purposes, and can have a negative impact on society. For instance, social media bots were used to impede the 2012 Arab Spring movement by purposely pushing down messages from protestors and activists by uploading countless meaningless posts with the same hashtag. In addition, a study by Dr. John Ayers stated that because these bots are not aware of the content of their posts or hashtags, it leads to the spread of misinformation. Furthermore, researchers at Indiana University concluded that because the bots on Twitter were programmed to retweet posts that roused the most attention, they were responsible for spreading 20 to 30% of wrong information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. 
There are also bots in other fields that are used for profit. Brands that produce a limited number of sneakers and apparel now organize online raffles to select a small number of customers to give them the chance to buy their products. Despite the effort to only accept real users, people have developed programs that automatically make accounts and submit forms with realistic information. Then they make a profit through reselling the products. People were outraged when Hypebeast shared a tweet about a person that submitted 32,000 raffle entries and won 87 pairs of the recent Nike shoes made in collaboration with Travis Scott, Fragment, and Jordan. They were released at 265 USD but due to high demand and the limited number of products, they are currently priced around 4,000 USD on StockX, a famous reselling website. Many expressed concern that these bots were ruining the online raffle culture as these bots can be easily bought on the Internet, and demanded Nike to come up with a solution. Bots are also used to buy tickets for concerts and products that come in limited numbers. If this problem remains unsolved, bots to buy limited resources may become a necessity sooner or later.
Of course, bots can bring positive effects to our society as well. Many companies have introduced chatbots, an AI program that can simulate a conversation with customers to answer simple questions or guide them with simple procedures. Chatbots are in service 24/7 and greatly benefit the company since they reduce the cost of human labor. Although current chatbots can provide answers for questions programmed in advance, they are projected to have more complex conversations with users through the use of big data analysis. Some people have raised their voices with concerns about automation, but it seems clear that these bots will play a more important role in the future.