What Is A Cancelbot?

Date First Published: 25th April 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Topic: Network Software

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 6/10

Learn more about what a cancelbot is in this article.

A cancelbot is a program that automatically sends messages to bulletin-board Usenet internet newsgroups to delete certain postings, such as spam, duplicate content, undesirable material, and other unwanted content.

Cancelbots can work in both ways. For example, in September 1996, there was a cancelbot that was believed to have deleted 25,000 messages in an unreasonable way. There are other versions of cancelbots that have been introduced for the preferences of a single user. But, system administrators like to be capable of having certain methods of selecting listings with cancelbots.

Note:

Usenet is an early form of a forum system on the internet that is built on a command-line interface, meaning that it is necessary for users to use and remember commands in order to perform an action and it is text-only. Usenet was developed in 1980 and allows users to read and post messages. It bears a resemblance to a bulletin board system and is the predecessor to internet forums.

History

The earliest use of a cancelbot was to delete anonymous postings in science newsgroups by a microbiology professor, Richard DePew. An early use of a cancelbot that is more well-known is in June 1994 by Arnt Gulbrandsen within a few minutes of the first post of Canter & Siegel’s second spam wave. Usenet spammers have claimed that cancelbots are a tool of the symbolic Usenet cabal.