tod222

You'd think Google would get this right.

Merriam-Webster's definition[1]:

  3: an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer
  4: a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system

Google's definition[2]:

  1. a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data.
  informal
  an enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user.

Google declares the original meaning to be informal and subsidiary to its corrupted definition. Surprising!

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=define+hacker

This afternoon, while searching Twitter on the string "Le’Veon Bell" in the wake of his injury, I saw that the live results returned a large number of bot accounts spamming the same headline and link to a story on the site Bleacher Report. [1]

A subset of the bot accounts that spammed that story have Bleacher Report URLs in the majority of their links. [2]

Bleacher Report is owned by Turner Broadcasting System whose corporate parent is Time Warner.

What's going on here?

Is it an independent action by a Twitter bot operator unconnected with Bleacher Report? It's hard to believe that an outfit with corporate roots as deep as Bleacher Report's would stoop to Twitter spam. Has some Bleacher Report employee gone rogue and hired a Twitter bot spammer to tout BR's articles?

How is Twitter supposed to sell advertising when it appears that major potential ad buyers are instead paying spam services?

[1] http://imgur.com/a3JbLls

[2] http://imgur.com/a3JbLls