- The Twitter bots problem seems to have been partially solved after some key accounts were closed
- CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company had discovered the people responsible and taken action
- Musk added that Twitter would be “moving to prosecute scammers anywhere on Earth”
The scourge of the Twitter bot appears to be waning, at least temporarily, after the company located and shut down a small number of accounts responsible for a huge number of them. Some users with large followings tested out the suggestion that the bot problem had been drastically improved, with many reporting positively. Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the issue still remained, but that further action against scammers and bots was in the works.
Step in the Right Direction
Musk intimated that the bot plague would be dealt a severe blow when he tweeted last night that, “The bots are in for a surprise tomorrow.” Indeed, many big accounts tested out the suggestion that the bots were gone, with the general consensus being that there were far fewer showing up than previously, but the problem was far from solved.
Others found that the bot responses still show up on posts, but are very quickly removed. Musk then explained that Twitter had shut down a handful of accounts responsible for a huge majority of the bot posts, and then elucidated on what the platform was aiming to do going forward and how it would further crack down on scammers on Twitter:
They will try other methods, but we’re shutting them down as soon as they show up.
Twitter will also be moving to prosecute scammers anywhere on Earth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
Bot Issue Dates Back to 2018
Musk identified bots as a top priority when he was forced to follow through with his purchase of Twitter earlier this year, after leaning on the amount of fake accounts on the platform as the crutch he would use to get out of the sale. The issue of bots and spam replies on Twitter has become a plague that has made certain elements of the site simply unusable.
In fact, Elon Musk’s Twitter bot battle stems as far back as late 2018, when the Tesla and Spacex founder asked Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer if he could “help get rid of the annoying scam spammers, that would be much appreciated.” This was the first known occasion where Musk and Palmer crossed paths, and who knows, it may be what started Musk’s love affair with Dogecoin.
