Meta platforms have a bot problem. In June, Johnny Palmadessa posted a theory as to why this bot problem may be so rampant, and how it may play into Meta's plans. These bots don't post or comment or sell anything, they just sit in your follower list. His argument was that if a platform ranks your posts partly on how your followers engage, then followers who never engage drag your reach down without anyone taking anything away.

Our largest following is on Threads, which is owned by Meta. Our monthly views fell from over 70 million to four million. Over the same stretch our following almost doubled, our reach on other networks increased and our website faced record views. A following that grows while views collapse is what his theory would produce, and the opposite of how the Threads algorithm is supposed to behave. When we scanned that out we found tens of thousands of accounts that look like bots.

We ran our own audience through a bot check, and if you scroll down, you can follow our lead.