More than half of Internet Traffic is Bots

Super fact 66 : Bots make up more than half of all internet traffic surpassing human activity for the first time in 2024. The 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report found that bots accounted for 51% of all web traffic. Human activity accounted for 49% of all internet traffic, malicious “bad bots” accounted for 37%,  and 14% of traffic comes from “good bots,” such as search engine crawlers.

What made me look up this information is that I’ve recently seen a lot of idiotic and inflammatory comments, as well as inappropriate laughing emojis on social media pages and posts. The pages that seem to be targeted the most by this abuse seems to be pages related to things like climate change, clean energy, EV cars, evolution, vaccines, modern medicine, modern physics, geopolitics, information on political issues, etc. However, those topics might reflect my interests. Perhaps all topics are targeted by this growing strange abuse.

It looks like those among us who slept through the science classes in high school now think they are the real experts and have declared war on all science nerds. The question that arose in my mind is, are these keyboard warriors humans or are they bots? It is true that Artificial Intelligence does not (yet) demonstrate true independent intelligence, but that is true for many people as well. So, how do you know the difference? Anyway, that is the background to why I investigated this issue.

I looked it up and found that bot traffic has been increasing and is now the majority of all internet traffic according to, for example, the 2025 Imperva Bad Bot Report. You can read more here. Facebook is not an exception. 40% of all posts are machine generated. These bots/fake accounts spread a lot of misinformation, inflammatory comments, and some are scams.

Many people are also spreading false information and some of them are scammers, but the fact that machines do it as well add to the problem. It is also very common for bots and fake accounts to leave reactions on Facebook posts, which might be what I saw, but I am not sure. What is certain is that I have come across a lot of false information on Facebook, as well as scams and deep fakes, and Meta/Facebook is obviously not able to clean it out. There are also bots that are remotely controlled ransomware, computer viruses, spyware, and other malware.

A picture of giant computer screen with a red warning triangle containing an exclamation mark. Underneath the triangle is the text “System Hacked” | More than half of Internet Traffic is Bots
Warning of a system hacked. Virus, cyber attack, malware concept. Asset id: 1916985977 by Sashkin

Why I consider this a super fact is because it appears to me that people underestimate the influence of malicious bots. If you had asked me before I looked this up how common bot traffic was, I might have said a few percent. After all streaming, youTube, gaming, etc., require a lot of bandwidth. Considering all the fake stuff and nonsense that is spreading partially with the help of bots, this is dangerous. We know the bots make up more than half of all internet traffic, and bot traffic is growing faster than human traffic, it is important information, and I think it is surprising information to a lot of people, thus making it a super fact.

Fake Nonsense on Facebook

This section is not directly tied to the super fact above, but it concerns a related topic and is based on my personal experience with the social media platform that I have used the most, Facebook. Instagram seems to be even worse, but I am not using it as much. Why I am bringing this up is because increased bot traffic and the increased presence of fake accounts and deep fakes on social media can make this a lot worse. Combined with our gullibility and lack of critical thinking as well as the failure of social media platforms to keep after this, we are facing a serious threat.

Gullible Planet

It is well known that there are a lot of nonsense posts on Facebook (and elsewhere). The fact that we so easily fall for it and don’t check with reliable sources is a big problem. When I see something fake, I often post corrections, for example, using sites like snopes. Sometimes people are grateful, sometimes they get angry, and I’ve even been blocked and lost friends just by posting a snopes link. A lot of the fake stuff is posted by people, but a lot of posts, comments and reactions are posted by bots, and this is becoming more common. With increased malicious bot traffic, AI and deep fakes, we must improve our critical thinking skills.

Below are some examples of fake stuff I’ve come across on Facebook

Did you read that viral article on Facebook claiming that they found 20 feet humanoid skeletons in Turkey? The article stated that archeologists think that they might be fossilized Nephilim, the giants mentioned in the Old Testament. If so, did you doubt the accuracy of the article? If you did, you did good. It was based on an article in a satirical website called World News Daily Report. However, judging from the comment section, including the comments of some of my friends, most people didn’t doubt the article’s accuracy.

How about the story from a purported science magazine that scientists had just discovered that the Easter Island statues/heads have bodies/torsos below the ground. The article stated that this was a revolution in archeology that forced a reevaluation of history. The commentors were amazed over this discovery and some pointed out that not realizing this sooner was a big failure on the part of archeologists and scientists. Well, that the Easter Island statues/heads have bodies/torsos below the ground has been known all along.

How about the story about the lunch lady named Aileen G. Ainuse who poisoned the water supply at Sunnydale High School in Goobersville, Indiana, killing over 300 students and staff. It was accompanied by a scary photo of a starving lady. The readers were shocked and appalled, but not many bothered to verify the story, for example, with the help of snopes. The story was false.

Another article stated that the fact that there were no stars in the black sky in a photo allegedly taken on the moon was proof that the photo was fake and that the astronauts were never on the moon. First of all, it was day, the sun was out. When the sun is out it is very difficult to see the stars because the sun’s light is a million times brighter than the light from the stars and in addition the bright sunlight reflected off the surface of the moon dims the stars. In addition, the cameras used had short shutter speeds for picking up the bright light, not faint stars. Seeing stars in a daytime photo taken on the moon is not something you should expect. Several commentors pointed this out but most other commentors didn’t pay attention and were fooled.

I’ve also seen the opposite, people refusing to believe a true story because they fundamentally misunderstand something. Below is a youTube video showing an animation composed of actual satellite photos by NASA. Many commentors seeing this video insisted that it was a hoax because the back side of the moon is dark. But it is not. When the side of the moon that is turned towards us (the near side) is dark (a new moon) the back side reflects the sun’s light (like a full moon). The backside (far side) of the moon also looks different from the side turned towards us. In the video below the sun is behind the camera and shines on earth as well as the backside of the moon.

A final example is a deep fake Ad featuring Meryl Streep and Dr. Sanjay Gupta promoting an Alzheimer’s cure. I saw it on Facebook several times over a period of several weeks. It looked very real to me, but something felt off, so I fact checked. It turned out that Meryl Streep and Sanjay Gupta had nothing to do with the video. They were AI generated likenesses promoting a scam product. The video used all the typical polemic tricks such as “a cure that the billion dollar companies don’t want you to know about”, “buy now before they take our website down”…. We need to get better at protecting ourselves and believing 20 feet skeletons on Facebook are real is not the way to do it.

To see the other Super Facts click here

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

80 thoughts on “More than half of Internet Traffic is Bots”

  1. Have you also seen more views from China in your WP stats? I never get views from China but suddenly in the last few weeks I have been. I think this might be AI training. Unfortunately, the U.S. and China are the two worst culprits when it comes to deep fakes, bots and AI misuse. Furthermore, Trump is refusing to regulate AI/digital tech and we were recently forced into dropping our regulations because of Trump trade threats.

    There are those who industriously circulate misinformation through whatever means, technical or otherwise, but there is also a very dangerous contingent out there who believe that facts are nothing but elitist intellectual propaganda designed to control those who do “real work.” Trump and people like him prey on them and use them to control those who try to spread truth rather than lies. Every despot ever born seems to automatically know how to do this.

    The EU regulated AI but is extremely concerned about the lack of AI regulation in N America and particularly the laissez-faire attitude to the inherent dangers. Then there are the scammers everywhere. I remember thinking many years ago that the potential for tech abuse was huge but no one wanted to consider that and now it seems to be (or will soon) getting away from us. Here’s an article you might find interesting. https://techpolicy.press/europe-wrote-the-ai-rulebook-can-it-deliver-on-its-ambitions

    An interesting and very important post, Thomas. All of us need to be much more alert about this super fact than we have been.

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    1. Thank you so much Lynette, and thank you especially for the interesting article. It is difficult being the only who wants to be the only one regulating AI. Sky-Net seems to be getting closer. About your question, I have not seen more views from China on any of my two blogs. China is very low on the list. But that doesn’t mean that you aren’t targeted by Chinese AI training alogorithms. I’ve also come across a lot of people who out of hand dismiss research at and studied by academia and laboratories as elitist intellectual propaganda. People with a paranoid and even delusional worldview who are unwilling to consider evidence while promoting nonsense, and unfortunately we see on display with our politicians and talk show hosts as well. Our world is getting increasingly confusing to people and authoritarians thrive on that like you say..

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  5. The tip of the iceberg, Thomas. A severe toll. For those who used organic traffic to promote their books, Google AI has destroyed the clicks to the authors’ sites. Even name-brand publishing houses have seen enormous drops. The decline in actionable traffic includes big product retailers, too. A copy of a copy is the equivalent of a lie, just as averaging averages produces a false result. No need to coach fools; it won’t help.

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    1. I agree this is a big problem. False information need the gullible for widespread acceptance. Truth require work, study, analysis, comparison, it is rarely simple. Unfortunately, a lot of people rely on their biases and emotional reactions instead of rational thinking. It appears it is especially my generation that is especially prone to blindly accept nonsense while rejecting good evidence.

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  8. Sorry to jump into the conversation. I have had a huge increase in viewers from Singapore, less from China, but also from there. But I think they use a VPN because WP doesn’t show those countries as high views, but Google Analytics does. I’m sure they are bots, but can’t figure out what to do, or if I should. Any thoughts Thomas? Maggie

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    1. I have to admit that I don’t know. I don’t use Google Analytics, just the WP stats. But a sudden increase in views from one country sounds like the issue Lynette brought up above, AI training. I should say AI training using bots is not considered malicious. They are good bots, but we may feel different.

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  10. Yikes imagine losing friendships over posting a correction over something wrong. That’s a good thing to remember about bots. Maybe that’s why certain people receive an onslaught of weird messages all of a sudden.

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    1. Yes, it is surreal but some people cannot accept a friendly correction even when they finally see the problem themselves. Some people are so wedded to their agenda that contradiction makes them angry. I think you are right about the onslaught. In many cases the hostile comments and inappropriate reactions seem coordinated and happening at the same time. It made me think of bots.

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  11. Yep, I’m quite aware of this, Thomas. It’s very disturbing. As a researcher, I tend not to believe anything until I’ve researched it myself. When there’s a major catastrophe or incident, I will go to X and to Bluesky to look for actual footage from bystanders. I prefer that to commentaries. As for Facebook, it’s only family and nature photographers for me — I ignore the rest or block them. Folks are so, so divided right now that it pains me deeply. I do what I can to build bridges, and often that means I embrace silence. 💙

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  14. That statistic is pretty shocking Thomas! 🫨 Then again, I have noticed a huge increase in AI generated content on all social networks. It’s getting to the point where we can’t believe anything we read online. 😟

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  15. thanks for info. I have been disbelieving a lot of stuff I see on the internet. I keep getting an email saying I owe money for my cloud storage account and I don’t have a cloud storage account.

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    1. Yes the same things is happening to me. I get a lot of other spam too. Some of it is obvious but some of it is pretty tricky.I was just watching Michio Kaku the famous physicist and string theorist, making a speech demanding that Meta and other social media take down the deep fakes of him speaking and saying outrageous things he would never say.

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  16. This super fact is startling and scary, but very important. It occurs to me that it possibly explains some odd behavior I’ve encountered from new followers on X and their somewhat baffling direct messages. The accounts purportedly belong to professional authors and they begin their message threads by asking some very basic authorial questions. After a while, it occurred to me that they were learning more about me than I was learning about them — also it seemed like much of what they were learning could actually be gleaned from my website and blog. Still, soon afterward, I began receiving very targeted ads for advertising services for books. I don’t have direct evidence of a connection, but it’s suspicious and if those accounts were run by advertising company AIs, it could explain much.

    I have tentatively scheduled a post largely addressing direct messaging on social media as a response to these odd direct messages. I hope you don’t mind if I include a link to your post. It’s very eye-opening about how prevalent bots are becoming!

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    1. Thank you David, it is a bit unsettling and it is becoming difficult to know whether you are interacting with a bot or a human. Also the deep fake I mentioned, with Meryl Streep, I was suspicious because she said things I don’t think Meryl Streep would say but it looked very real. There are a lot of deep fakes circulating of Michio Kaku and he has pleaded with Meta and other social networks to take them down, because those videos are depicting him saying things he would never say. Anyway, you can of course add as many links as you wish to any of my posts.

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      1. Thank you, Thomas. I think I’ve found a good way to raise the issue of AI deep fakes and chatbots becoming more prevalent on the web and how they’re used to garner information. I’ve added a link to your interesting blog post on the subject.

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  17. This is an insightful and important post, Thomas — thank you!🙏🏻
    It touches on something many of us have intuitively sensed but haven’t taken the time to explore deeply. We definitely need to stay more alert to this crucial reality than we’ve been so far.

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        1. Yes I agree, and I saw the deep fake of Meryl Streep circulating on Facebook for several weeks despite everyone eventually figuring out it was a deep fake. Michio Kaku the famous physicist and string theorist have to publicly ask Meta/Zuckerberg and X/Musk to take the down deep fakes of him because they are ruining his reputation. They easily remove a regular guys picture of a beer, accusing them of trying to sell beer, but let this stuff be.

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            1. You are right. 40% of posts on Facebook posts are machine generated but they remove some of beer review posts because they incorrectly think I am selling beer. I am administrating beer review groups and they are putting about 90% of all posts in the potentail spam folder when they are not spam, and I have go in and approve them all manually, dozens every day. It’s like they are really tough on people but bots get a free pass.

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              1. That’s so crazy and I think this is one of the main issues with catching spam. They need actual people to review it and see what’s spam and what isn’t. Doing it automatically gets it wrong so many times.

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  19. I’ve cut way back on my social media time because I see it as a waste of time. Twitter was riddled with bots, and I didn’t see X as much different, so I deactivated my account. Then there’s the romance scammers and fake accounts and hysterical people who insist on spreading false information and propaganda. I’m sick of it. I take everything I read, see, and hear with a grain of salt because nobody can be trusted anymore.

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  21. This is a timely post in many respects, as I have recently cut back massively on social media and also taken as many steps as possible to add extra security (and blocking) measures to my various accounts (email, WordPress etc). I had to reluctantly keep Facebook as it is my bridge to most of my family and old friends. But my god what a load of old drivel you get on there. While much of what you say is not all that surprising, the sheer number of bots is alarming / depressing. A very good piece Thomas packed full of information that everyone needs to absorb and take forward during daly online activities.

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    1. I have also cut a bit on social media. No X, a bit less Facebook, and Instagram I’ve never engaged that much with. I still use Facebook to keep in contact with people far away but Facebook is increasingly annoying me. I also get a lot of spam in text, direct messenging, and a ton of it in my email, and a lot of it looks like bots. Just curious can you block people on WordPress? Thank you so much for your kind words Leighton.

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      1. Well, you could block individual commenters on WordPress until very recently when WP removed that function, if you can believe that. Now, you can only mark them as spam, which means you need to keep checking and emptying your spam folder. Mine fills up with around 12-16 spam comments every 24 hours. Nice one, WordPress.

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    1. That is a good question Java Bean. I don’t know the answer, but just be nice to Dada and maybe he in turn can be nice to the robot overlords. Or maybe he should fight them like in Terminator.

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  23. Yikes! This is an example of not good news we need to know. We need to improve critical thinking skills and also trust our gut if it seems off or desperate – playing on our fears. I remember reading that Meryl Streep article with interest but eventually realized it was bait.

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  24. Like you Thomas I check everything or I did until it became a full time job…now I ignore unless it is something of interest to me..I have noticed a huge increase in views from China I suppose its a comfort that it’s AI training…It effects recipes a lot I suppose I notice that because I am interested but often images don’t match the recipe or you get half a recipe so I just block those sites now …its the absolute untruths that annoy me though particularly about our Royal family… I can’t believe the untruths and the vitriol sometimes and cannot fathom why its not stamped out by the owners of these sites i.e Zuckenberg…A good post Thomas.

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    1. Thank you so much Carol. Yes the AI training bots are not considered malicious bots, even though it can be annoying, but the bots spreading false rumors, misleading posts, divisive comments and reactions, viruses and worms, etc., are malicious, and unfortunately the majority of bots. Meta/Zuckerberg could do better. I’ve seen both Michio Kaku and Neil De Grasse Tyson pleading with him to take down deep fakes of them, deep fakes that have been circulating for months. I saw one deep fake of Neil De Grasse. A very life like Neil De Grasse Tyson (and convincing to those with not much knoweldge of astronomy) was arguing that earth was flat after all. It hurts his image as an astronomer.

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      1. By taking no action against these malicious bots it begs the question of why they are taking no action it’s almost as if they wish to cause divisive comments and encourage both malicious behaviour plus make people more vulnerable to suggestion …dumb down our curious natures and be accepting of untruths a bit like the Trump scenario he still has many who blindly follow him and don’t question what they know is wrong…Something bigger at play here…Scary!

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  25. Thomas, your clear and honest insight brings much-needed clarity in this noisy digital world. You show us how half the online space is run by robots, reminding us gently to guard our digital boundaries and stay alert while appreciating the value of your surprising “super facts.”

    Beyond moderation costs and engagement concerns, there’s another layer worth noting: divisive bots often create highly emotional data that becomes valuable fuel for training AI. This toxic content helps models mimic human polarization, supporting your hope that we avoid a gullible planet shaped by manipulation.

    Your writing reveals something bigger behind platforms tolerating chaos—hidden profit rather than simple incompetence. You lift the curtain with sharp clarity. May your goal of inspiring smarter, more critical communities be fully achieved, Thomas. Keep sharing those super facts.

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      1. Thank you for such a thoughtful reply. I truly appreciate the care you brought to it. Your reflections always sharpen the conversation and remind me why these exchanges matter. I’m grateful for your encouragement, and I value the clarity and sincerity you consistently bring to the table.

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