In today's world, social Media numbers have become a measuring tool for popularity and success online, both for the young, average and also old. Many people believe that those who have hundreds of thousands of followers and million of views are more talented and trustworthy than those with little numbers follower. With that type of influence.
It is also an advantage because brands also check the number of followers, views and engagement from a person before choosing an influencer. Now you see one of the reasons why people are determined to grow their social media accounts fast, by any means they can, and one of the easiest ways to do so is by buying the numbers they need.
Truly, growing a social media account can be hard and frustrating Sometimes. you might not get noticed for some months, no matter how much effort you put into your content. But still, buying those numbers is like cheating, and it also has some kind of effect which I will be talking about.
Buying social media numbers can destroy a person's social media account because when the system detects such activities, they ban the account, and all that time, effort, and resources will be gone forever. It also reduces the value of genuine growth and achievement, and it also puts pressure on people who want to grow genuinely, so they think growing genuinely is a wait of time and impossible.
Now, people notice they can buy numbers to boost their accounts, which gives them reason not to put more work into their content online. And you just can't tell who grew their account genuinely and who followed a shortcut, because they all look the same.
Some people never knew about this bot, but they were influenced by a friend or an idol, and they want to follow too. They also want to be go get lot of followers and go viral, get to sign some deals with brands and companies, they want to show others that they are better than them.
Many people are just desperately looking for a way to satisfy their ego. Making it look as though they are working hard and have put more effort into their account than those whose accounts existed before theirs.
Don't get me wrong, they are genuine growth on social media, but it's rare. Fake growth doesn't physically hurt anyone, some people see it as a way to grow without much stress. It just requires your funds.
But it's harmful because it can damage someone's reputation. If people notice that all a person's growth and views are fake and bought, the trust that person gain is likely to fade away, and there is a great chance of the person being called a scammer, even if their motive for using bots is not bad, but because they were caught or noticed, they lose all trust from people and brands.
And also, honest content creator lose opportunities because of their low followers and views, it's keeps them discouraged. To me, it's can only be called a fraud if the person uses it to gain contracts or in becoming a brand influencer to gain capital, which is one of the major reason people use these bots. So my answer is yes, it can be criminalized.
All this bots will make it hard for people to differentiate between real engagement and fake engagement. Brands are also like to lose their advertising money for those who grow through shortcut.
Thank you for reading...
