Explained: What are spam bots and why are they a deal-breaker for Elon Musk
Musk stated that one of his top goals after declaring his ambitions to purchase Twitter will be to eradicate spam bots that promote bitcoin frauds and disinformation. He stated that one of his top goals after declaring his ambitions to purchase Twitter will be to eradicate spam bots that promote bitcoin frauds and disinformation.
FollowElon Musk, the world's richest person, is suffering from buyer's remorse. In latest development, he stated $44 billion acquisition of Twitter is 'temporarily on pause' pending information on spam and false accounts on the social media network.
Musk stated that one of his top goals after declaring his ambitions to purchase Twitter will be to eradicate spam bots that promote bitcoin frauds and disinformation. He stated that one of his top goals after declaring his ambitions to purchase Twitter will be to eradicate spam bots that promote bitcoin frauds and disinformation.
All you need to know about Spam bots
The first thing to remember is that there are two sorts of bot accounts: spam bots and automated bots. Bots on Twitter are automated accounts that can perform the same things as real people — they can send tweets, follow individuals, like things, and retweet other people's stuff.
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As a result, automated bots do not violate Twitter's rules. Indeed, many bots are utilised for good or humorous purposes - examples of 'good' bots include automated accounts that easily distribute news updates, warning individuals of traffic alerts, and even spreading positive news.
Good bots include @threadreaderapp, which can combine a series of tweets and follow-up answers into an one continuous, chronological thread.
Spam bots, on the other hand, are the automated bots' dark side, since they are utilised for deceitful, bothersome, or dangerous objectives. Spreading fake news while seeming to be actual humans, pushing attention to a certain website, or running phoney giveaways and financial scams are some examples.
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Meanwhile, Twitter has also issued certain guidelines for bots. The business revealed in a blog post that it prohibits Bots that:
- Malicious use of automation to undermine and disrupt public discourse
- Creating, soliciting, or acquiring fictitious engagements
- Using hashtags in a spammy manner, such as using irrelevant hashtags in a tweet
According to independent studies, from 9% to 15% of the millions of Twitter identities are bots. Twitter's official estimates are 5% of its daily active users (approximately 229 million people according to Twitter's most recent quarterly report). Musk, on the other hand, disputes these estimations and believes that Bot accounts on Twitter are far larger.
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According to the firm, Twitter isn't doing a good job of eradicating residual spam or harmful Bots from its site. It has repeated its efforts to distinguish between good and bad bots and to eliminate spamming accounts, but greater clarification is necessary.
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