4.2.5. Vote bots

Another issue that takes place on YouTube is what the community calls ‘votebotting’; which is similar to flagging campaigns, except for it being done by bots and not users and it is not misusing the flagging system, but the rating system instead. Resulting in a video receiving for example 9000 one star votes in order to lower the average rating. All of which can be monitored by the user through the ‘Insight’ feature. This analytical feature on every YouTube account contains detailed statistics about the videos they upload, such as viewer demographics and ratings. ‘Votebots’ are often mentioned in combination with ‘flagging campaigns’ by users, and is therefore thought of as targeting the same sort of accounts. In general these are the accounts that hold an outspoken opinion about debates such as Atheism/Christianity, Pro-life/ Pro-choice and Creationism / Evolution theory or accounts that represent a minority amongst the community, such as Scientology. The reactions from the community to ‘votebotting’ do not necessarily address these subjects, but more the fact that the system is flawed and misused. These reactions from the community range from videos complaining about ‘votebotting’ up to entire accounts against the practice, such as ‘BotAttack’ and ‘justsaynotobots’ . These accounts approach the issue the same way as flagging campaigns are organized. They use multiple platforms to spread the word and to mention all the accounts that got ‘votebotted’. This way the viewers can counter-attack the ‘votebots’ and rate the videos a five star rating.
Different aspects of this ‘votebotting’ debate draw my attention. Firstly, the fact that the system is hacked and therefore appropriated for other means can be seen as a characteristic of grassroots convergence. And secondly, the same goes for the way in which the community addresses this issue by self-organizing efforts to stop it. Both sides can be interpreted as a demand for control and a bigger role of participation on YouTube. The hacker has found a way around the system and the community is using the system to be heard.