On Friday, Technology Billionaire Elon Musk announced that it would close the $ 44 billion transaction to buy Twitter. He said the reason was the ongoing disagreement over the number of spambot accounts on the platform. Now, the issues that make up a spambot account and the numbers that currently exist on Twitter can be central to the battle between Mr. Musk and Twitter.
What is a spambot?
Sometimes referred to as “bots,” “spam,” or “fake accounts,” they all refer to fraudulent accounts that mimic how people use Twitter. Some are automated spam accounts, while others are human-controlled, which complicates detection.
Bots can tweet to others, share tweets, follow others, and follow them.
Why are spambots a problem?
Musk has been expressing concern about spambots on Twitter for years. In 2020, he appeared at an event for Twitter employees, urging the company to do more to prevent and remove spambots.
Since announcing his intention to buy Twitter in April, Musk has repeatedly tweeted about spambots on the platform. In May, when Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted about how the company could detect and fight spambots, Musk responded with a Pile of Poo emblem.
of 6 paragraph letter On June 6, Musk’s lawyer requested more information from Twitter, stating that the company “rejected Musk’s data request” to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. It was a “clear and serious breach” of the contract, and the lawyer said he had given Mr. Musk the right to terminate the contract. The next day, Twitter agreed to give Mr. Musk direct access to “Fire Horse,” a daily stream of millions of tweets flowing through the company’s network.
Since its launch in 2013, Twitter estimates that about 5% of accounts are spambots. On Thursday, the company told reporters that it would delete about one million spambot accounts daily and lock millions more accounts a week until the people behind them could pass anti-spam tests. Told.
However, the company allows spambot accounts that prefer to call them automated bots that run services. Twitter recommends that many of these accounts label themselves as bots for transparency. The company claims that many of these accounts are running useful services.
How are spambots used on Twitter?
Twitter defines a good spambot as an automated account that “helps people find useful, interesting, and relevant information.” For example, @ mrstockbot provides an automatic response when asking for a stock price, and @ earthquakebot tweets around the world when an earthquake of magnitude 5.0 or greater occurs.
However, other spambots are used by governments, businesses, or malicious individuals for many fraudulent purposes. In the 2016 US presidential election, Russia used spambot accounts to impersonate Americans and attempt to disperse divisions among US voters.
Spambots involved in fraud are often found on Twitter trying to convince people to send crypto or digital currencies to online wallets of non-existent prizes. Spambots can also be used to attack celebrities and politicians, and to create hostile environments online.
Kate Conger contributed to the report.
