A software application that runs automated tasks over the internet.
Commentary:
- Typically, bots (or “robots”) perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone.
- A “robot” user account could be used for publishing content or interacting with other user accounts in response to some triggering event.
- Depending on the rules of a given service, and the nature of a bot’s activity (which could be benign, harmful or neither), a bot account may be allowed or disallowed, and may be labeled as a bot account.
- “Botnets” are large, coordinated networks of bots, run by a “botmaster.”