With over 2.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in the world. On Facebook, users can post status updates, share photos and videos, and interact with posts from friends, family, public figures, businesses, and organizations by liking, commenting, and sharing. This high level of engagement is what makes Facebook so appealing both for regular users looking to connect with others and for businesses and brands looking to market themselves and build an audience.
But it’s not just real people engaging on Facebook – there are also bots that like, comment on, and share posts algorithmically. This raises some interesting questions around whether these bots should be allowed to interact with Facebook content in the same way human users do. In this article, we’ll look at whether bots can like Facebook posts, the reasons bots are used, and the implications around bot activity on the platform.
Can bots technically like Facebook posts?
The simple answer is yes, bots can be programmed to like Facebook posts. When you like a post on Facebook, you trigger a request to Facebook’s API (Application Programming Interface) to register your like. Bots can send these same requests to Facebook’s API to like posts from their accounts. So technically speaking, there is nothing preventing a bot from being able to like posts on Facebook.
Ways bots can like Facebook posts
There are a few different ways bots can go about liking posts on Facebook:
- Connecting to the Facebook API directly – The Facebook API allows developers to build applications that interface with Facebook. Bots can use the API directly to like posts.
- Using third-party services – There are services available that will provide likes from bots by connecting to the Facebook API on your behalf. This allows people without direct coding knowledge to buy Facebook likes.
- Browser automation – Automated browsing scripts can be used to login to Facebook and like posts through a browser. This mimics a real user scrolling through their feed and liking posts.
So in summary, bots have several avenues available to them to algorithmically like content on Facebook through both Facebook’s own interfaces and third-party services.
Why are bots used to like Facebook posts?
Now that we’ve established bots can like Facebook posts, the next question is – why are they used for this in the first place? There are a few motivations behind using bots to like Facebook posts:
Increasing engagement
One of the main reasons bots are used on Facebook is to increase engagement on posts and pages. When a post gets more likes, it shows up higher in News Feeds and gets seen by more people. Bots are an easy way to quickly accumulate likes to try and boost engagement.
Influencing popularity
Related to engagement, some users employ bots to try and make their posts appear more popular than they really are. When people see a post with hundreds or thousands of likes, they intuitive think it must be higher quality or more important content. Bots provide an artificial way to inflate this perceived popularity.
Driving revenue
For businesses and influencers, likes generally translate into more eyeballs on content. More eyeballs leads to more potential customers and revenue. Bots are utilized as a growth hack strategy to try and jumpstart traction for monetized Facebook accounts and pages.
Vanity metrics
For some individual users, accumulating likes on Facebook posts can simply serve as a vanity metric to make them feel more popular. Even if the likes are artificial, the number going up provides a psychological boost.
So in summary, the main motivations behind using bots to like Facebook posts boil down to engagement, popularity, monetization, and vanity. The common thread is that likes are seen as valuable, so bots provide a synthetic way to accumulate more of them.
Are bots allowed to like Facebook posts?
Even though it’s technically possible for bots to like Facebook posts, are they actually allowed to do this under Facebook’s policies? Let’s look at what Facebook’s terms state related to bots and fake accounts.
Facebook’s terms and authenticity policy
Facebook’s terms of service state: “You will not collect users’ content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our prior permission.”
This means that according to the terms, bots should not be accessing Facebook or collecting data without express permission from Facebook. And Facebook’s community standards around authenticity state: “We don’t allow people to misrepresent themselves on Facebook…”
Based on this, it seems clear that Facebook does not want bots or other fake accounts interacting with the platform, as that would be misrepresentation.
Efforts to limit fake accounts
In line with these policies, Facebook does make substantial efforts to limit fake accounts and bot activity on the platform. For example, Facebook frequently runs bot-detection algorithms to identify and remove accounts exhibiting suspicious behavior. And when very large spikes of activity are detected, those likes, comments, and shares will get deleted.
So in summary, while Facebook’s terms prohibit bots and fake accounts, the platform’s sheer scale makes enforcement difficult. The best practices for brands and users is to grow organic engagement from real humans.
Implications of bots liking Facebook posts
Given that bots can like Facebook posts and have incentives to do so, but aren’t officially allowed under policy, what are the implications of this bot activity?
Impact on integrity of platform
Widespread bot activity undermines the integrity of interactions on Facebook. Real users can’t fully trust that likes and comments on a post are from real people interested in the content. This makes Facebook less useful as a genuine social platform.
| Year | Users | Fake accounts disabled |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.8 billion | 1.7 billion |
| 2021 | 2.9 billion | 3.2 billion |
As seen in the table above, Facebook disables billions of fake accounts each year in an attempt to fight against bot activity and maintain integrity.
Unfair advantages
Bots give an unfair advantage to those using them over genuine users. When bot activity is used to drive revenue, it squeezes out real engagement. And those employing bots to appear more popular gain undeserved social status.
Legal and ethical concerns
The use of bots also raises legal and ethical issues. Generating artificial engagement may constitute fraud if used excessively. And many view extreme manipulation of social platforms to be unethical, even if not strictly illegal.
In summary, widespread bot activity on Facebook harms the usefulness of the platform, creates unfairness between real and fake accounts, and raises significant legal and ethical concerns.
Best practices
Based on everything we’ve discussed, what are some best practices around bots on Facebook?
Avoid using bots
First and foremost, brands, businesses, and regular users should avoid the use of bots on Facebook altogether. Seeking real engagement helps build genuine communities and trust.
Focus on high quality content
Rather than looking for synthetic engagement, concentrate efforts on publishing high quality content that brings in real, organic reach and engagement.
Facebook’s guidance
When in doubt, consult Facebook’s policies and guidelines around authentic behavior. Make sure to report suspect bot activity when you see it.
Be patient
Growing a real audience and following takes time and consistency. Resist the urge to inflate popularity overnight with questionable bot tactics.
In summary, there are no worthwhile shortcuts when it comes to social media – do the hard work needed to grow real communities and engagement organically.
Conclusion
Bots technically can like Facebook posts by accessing Facebook’s APIs and simulating user engagement. However, this practice is prohibited under Facebook’s terms of service due to undermining the authenticity of the platform. While bots may provide short term vanity gains, they cannot substitute for genuine communities and connections.