It's an old saying that you can't believe everything you hear. But the Internet is rapidly expanding that to include photos, videos, and even online biographies and social media profiles.

A new report by New York magazine has found that more than 40 percent of all Internet traffic is produced by computer programs called "bots." While some of bots are legitimate, like the ones used by Google to efficiently catalog websites for its search engine, others exist solely to make websites look more popular than they actually are in an effort to trick advertisers into paying for ad space. As reporter Max Read told WNYC host Jami Floyd, that poses a big problem for people concerned with creating trustworthy online institutions.

"Business models that are based on these kinds of metrics, which are always going to be able to be faked, are always going to be in danger of being undermined," Read said.

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