On Friday, technology billionaire Elon Musk announced that he terminated its $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. According to him, the reason is the ongoing disagreement over the number of spam bot accounts on the platform. Now, the issue of what constitutes a spam bot account, and how many currently exist on Twitter, is likely to lie in at the center of the legal battle between Mr. Musk and Twitter on a tense deal.
What is a Spam Program?
Although sometimes referred to as “bots” or “spam” or “fake accounts,” they all refer to unauthenticated accounts that mimic the way people use Twitter. Some spam accounts are automated, but others are run by humans, making their detection complicated.
Bots can tweet with people, share tweets, follow and be followed by others, among other things.
Why is spam bots a problem?
Musk has expressed concern about the spam program on Twitter for years. In 2020, he appeared at an event for Twitter employees and encouraged the company to do more to prevent and eliminate spam bots.
Are from announced my intention to buy Twitter In April, Mr. Musk repeatedly tweeted about the spam program on the platform. In May, when Parag AgrawalTwitter’s CEO tweeted about how the company detects and fights spam bots, Musk responded with a poop emoji.
In a six-paragraph letter On June 6, lawyers for Mr Musk requested more information from Twitter, saying that the company was “rejecting Mr. Musk’s data request” to reveal the number of fake accounts on his platform. me. The lawyers went on to argue that it resulted in a “clearly serious breach” of the agreement, saying it gave Mr Musk the power to rescind the agreement. The next day, Twitter agreed to allow Mr. Musk direct access to its “fire hydrant”, stream of millions of tweets daily flowing through the company’s network.
Since it went public in 2013, Twitter has estimated that about 5% of its accounts are spam bots. On Thursday, the company told reporters that it deletes about a million spam bot accounts every day and locks down millions more each week until the people behind the accounts can pass anti-virus tests. spam.
However, the company allows spam bot accounts, which it likes to call automated bots, to 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 were spam bots used on Twitter?
Twitter defines a good spam bot as an automated account that “helps people find useful, entertaining, and relevant information.” For example, @mrstockbot gives people automated responses when they request a stock quote, and @earthquakebot tweets about any earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or higher worldwide as they happen. .
But other spam bots are used by governments, corporations or bad guys for some nefarious purpose. During the 2016 US presidential election, Russia used spam bot accounts to impersonate Americans and try to sow divisions among American voters.
Spam bots that engage in scams commonly found on Twitter try to convince people to deposit crypto, or digital currency, into online wallets for prizes that don’t exist. Sometimes spam bots are also used to attack celebrities or politicians and create a hostile environment for them online.
Kate Conger contributed reporting.
