There are billions of human beings using social media, there are also millions of robots, or bots, residing within. Bots help to propagate fake news and inflate the apparent popularity of fake news on social media. Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) have become home to millions of social bots that spread fake news. There have been several reports on creating fake profiles in social media. There have been several police complaints on fake profiles. People with a massive following on social media nowadays get demigod status, and this has also become the latest tool to measure their importance, their popularity, and their influence. The truth behind this virtual reality may disappoint you, as the majority of followers of these stars and celebrities are fake and they are facilitated through certain companies. Under this social media scam, influential people buy a large number of fake followers to flaunt their popularity and star status. This is a business model to facilitate followers after charging money to promote a product or to speak in favour of any person. There were cases reported , the Mumbai Police has found over 200 high-profile people, including some Bollywood celebrities, sportspersons, and social media influencers, who allegedly paid money to get fake or ghost followers. The investigation has also revealed that these companies tamper with servers related to social media platforms to facilitate a surge in the number of likes, comments, and followers.

Artificial intelligence allows bots to simulate internet users’ behavior (e.g., posting patterns) which helps in the propagation of fake news. For instance, on Twitter, bots are capable of a number of social interactions that make them appear to be regular people. They respond to postings or questions from others based on scripts that they were programmed to use. They look for influential Twitter users (Twitter users who have lots of followers), and contact them by sending them.