What Are Spam Bots and Why They’re an Issue in Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal

In a six-paragraph letter on June 6, Mr. Musk’s lawyers demanded more information from Twitter, stating that the company was “refusing Mr. Musk’s data requests” to disclose the number of fake accounts on its platform. That amounted to a “clear material breach” of the deal, the lawyers continued, saying it gave Mr. Musk the right to break off the agreement. The next day, Twitter agreed to allow Mr. Musk direct access to its “fire hose,” the daily stream of millions of tweets that flow through the company’s network.

Since it went public in 2013, Twitter has estimated that roughly 5 percent of its accounts are spam bots. On Thursday, the company told reporters that it removes about one million spam bot accounts each day, and locks millions more per week until the people behind the accounts can pass anti-spam tests.

The company does, however, allow spam bot accounts, which it prefers to call automated bots, that perform a service. Twitter encourages many of these accounts to label themselves as bots for transparency. The company argues that many of those accounts perform a useful service.

How have spam bots been used on Twitter?

Twitter defines good spam bots as automated accounts that “help people find useful, entertaining and relevant information.” For example, @mrstockbot gives people automated responses when they ask for a stock quote, and @earthquakebot tweets about any earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 or higher worldwide as they occur.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/09/technology/elon-musk-twitter-spam-bots.html