The Architecture Of Lies: Bot Farms Are Running The Disinformation War
Help Net Security, Tuesday, October 7th, 2025
Bot farms have moved into the center of information warfare, using automated accounts to manipulate public opinion, influence elections, and weaken trust in institutions.
Thales reports that in 2024, automated bot traffic made up 51% of all web traffic, the first time in a decade it has surpassed human activity online.
As bots become more common and harder to tell from real users, people start to lose confidence in what they see online. This creates the liars dividend, where even authentic content is questioned simply because everyone knows fakes are out there. If any critical voice or inconvenient fact can be dismissed as just a bot or a deepfake, democratic debate takes a hit.