The proposed purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk for $44 billion seems to be a shambolic move. Musk raised concerns about bots and inauthentic accounts on the social media platform. You've probably encountered a bot while you're on Twitter.
Musk stated Tuesday that his deal to purchase Twitter cannot proceed unless there is public proof that less then 5% of the accounts are fake or spamming, as reported by the company in a regulatory filing on May 2.
Musk has intensified his fight against bots in recent times, calling for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (USSEC) to investigate Twitter's claims and asking for feedback from his 93 million followers about their experiences using the platform.
Experts say bots can cause problems for many reasons. They can affect users' experience and negatively impact ad sales.
"It is vital for Musk to have an exact number of active, legitimate users because that's important to advertisers and how to make these people monetize," Christopher Bouzy, founder, Bot Sentinel, which tracks bots on Twitter, said to CBS MoneyWatch.
How can advertisers find out what they are getting for their money? This is crucial to Twitter's financial health.
Here are the facts about bots and Musk's obsession with them.
Bots are artificial accounts that mimic the way people use the blogging platform. Bots can tweet at other accounts, retweet tweets from users, and can also follow others.
Tamer Hassan (CEO of Human Security), who specializes in bot detection, stated that a bot is an online code piece that mimics human interaction.
Bots don't usually use Twitter to have an authentic conversation with people. They are there to accomplish a goal which can be beneficial or harmful.
There are automated bots that can perform certain services, such as the stock bot @mrstockbot which allows people to request a stock quote. The bot will provide the stock price, as well as other relevant information (as well the existential question "Am I a good bot?").
Malicious bots can also cause problems. Some bots can spread misinformation on important topics like election and COVID-19, while others harass and troll people.
Sometimes, the bots can be triggered by words that an actual person uses in tweets. This prompts them to send an automatic response. Bot Sentinel reports that other troll accounts can be set up to target specific people. For example, bots targeting Harry and Meghan, Duchess and Duke of Sussex.
Spam accounts can also be used to scam people or sell them things. Musk has recently called crypto bots the "single greatest problem on Twitter." Some bots may try to convince users to send cryptocurrency to their online wallets in exchange for a larger prize.
Hassan stated that "Everything boils down to the incentive." "The first is always financial and the second is stealing information -- the scraping profile information -- and the third one is influence. We see this more prominently on social media platforms."
This is the core of the dispute between Musk and Twitter. The company has long maintained that less than 5 percent of its accounts are fake.
Musk suggested that the share could be much higher. Musk tweeted Tuesday that 20% of fake/spam accounts were being reported, which is 4 times more than what Twitter claims. However, it could be even higher. My offer was based upon Twitter's SEC filings being correct.
This deal cannot be moved forward until Twitter's CEO proves that he has 5%.
Who is right? This can't be reliably measured from outside the company, according to Hassan. Bouzy however stated that his company believes bots account for 10% to 15% of Twitter users.
Bouzy stated that if you use Twitter to follow news or politics, then you are likely to encounter bots due to the incentive to influence people's views.
He said that people who tweet about cats and origami will probably never see authentic accounts.
If a user accounts tweets continuously or feels automated, it is easy to identify if they are bots. Bots are becoming more sophisticated and mimicking human behavior which can make it difficult to recognize them.
This brings us to another problem with bots in social media: If people lose faith and trust the service's integrity then it is detrimental to their value, Hassan stated.
He noted that trust is one of the most essential aspects of a social network.
