Farming

From the IFTAS Moderator Library, supporting Fediverse trust & safety

Updated on 2024-03-30

Definition

Content farming involves creating online content for the sole or primary purpose of attracting page views and increasing advertising revenue, rather than out of a desire to express or communicate any particular message.

Background

Content farming involves the mass production of online content, often of low quality, designed primarily to attract search engine traffic and generate advertising revenue. These operations prioritise quantity over quality, employing SEO techniques to rank highly in search results. Content is typically generated based on trending topics or keywords with high search volume, leading to articles, videos, or posts that provide minimal value, are sometimes misleading, or even plagiarised from legitimate sources.

Challenges

The sheer quantity of content produced by farms can overwhelm moderation efforts, making it difficult to maintain quality across a platform. Identifying content that originates from a farm is challenging, as it’s designed to mimic legitimate content. Content farms constantly evolve their strategies to bypass detection, including using AI to generate content or changing hosting domains.

Look out for accounts that are created with a very quick turnaround of a logo, a link, and a short description to an online business, and do not otherwise engage.

Example Rule

Our community prohibits the use of content farming tactics, including the mass production of low-quality, SEO-targeted content aimed primarily at generating ad revenue or user clicks. We reserve the right to remove content that violates these guidelines or diminishes the user experience.

Discussion

Discuss this label in the Farming forum

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