Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
Do you know who you are talking to on social media? Are they trustworthy, or do they harbour nefarious, hidden agendas?
Nearly half of all internet traffic is believed to be driven by bots mimicking human behaviour, learning and growing smarter by the day.
Estimates suggest there are between 500 million and a billion bot accounts on social media, many being used to spread disinformation and manipulate social narratives that shape beliefs and influence online and offline behaviour.
Notably, these bots, deployed by Russian agents, polarised political discussions around the 2016 US presidential election. In South Africa, they drove social divisions for the Guptas during the white monopoly capital campaigns run by disgraced former public relations firm, Bell Pottinger.