New Knights In Tech Armor Attack Click Farm Companies That Game Social Network Platforms

Click farms allow people who pay to game the social media platforms.  They brought in over $500 million (U.S.) in 2013.  Now there are knights in tech armor aiming to take them down.



Online security researchers based in Italy did a study which found that the enterprise of creating phony Twitter followers generated $40 million and $360 million in 2013. Phony activity on Facebook generated about $200 million. In click farms in India workers sit all day at desks repeatedly clicking the "Like", "Follow" or "Plus One" buttons for the seemingly measly sum of $0.05 per click. Now there are knights in tech armor going after these companies that make their money gaming the social media platforms. 

Martha Mendoza from the Associated Press did an entire article on Click Farms and Robin Young from NPR's Here and Now interviews Martha to get the article's highlights.

Among the companies that purchase clicks are the U.S. government.  Among the types of clicks purchased are, who knew, listens on SoundCloud in order to make record companies think that there is interest in an artist's music.

The article quotes experts talking about the reasons companies should not purchase social media cache.  And there are also reasons given why individuals should not purchase networks on LinkedIN (because one way to look LESS employable is to have a potential employer hire an expert to review the social media backgrounds of potential hires and then that expert finds out your popularity on LinkedIn is phony).  But the article really does not give reasons why individuals should not purchase social media cache.  

Click Farms Let Users Purchase Social Media Cache by Adreana Langston on Mixcloud