Spam Bots and Why They Matter in Elon Musk's Twitter Deal

There are good bots and there are bad bots. The tech billionaire Elon Musk announced that he was terminating a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. The reason, he said, was an ongoing disagreement over the number of spam-bot accounts on the platform. Now, the question of what constitutes a spam bot account, and how many currently exist on Twitter, is likely to be at the center of legal battles between Mr. Musk and Twitter over the fraught deal.

Musk stated that his acquisition of Twitter cannot proceed unless the company provides public proof that less than 5% of its accounts are fake or spam, as reported in a May 2 regulatory filing. Musk has escalated his fight against bots in recent days, calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Twitter's claims and requesting feedback from his 93 million followers on their experience using the platform.

What are Spam Bots?

Bots are automated accounts that mimic how users interact with the blogging service. They can, for example, tweet at other accounts, send invalid traffic, retweet user tweets, and follow others.

"A bot, at its core, is a piece of code that mimics human interaction online," said Tamer Hassan, CEO of Human Security, a bot detection company.

Bots, on the other hand, aren't typically on Twitter to engage in genuine conversation with people. Instead, they're on Twitter to accomplish a goal, which could be beneficial or harmful.

What do Twitter bots do?

On the positive side, there are automated bots that provide a service. For example, consumers may ask the stock bot @mrstockbot for a stock quote. Aside from asking a somewhat existential question like "Am I a good bot?" the bot will reply with the stock price and some other pertinent information.

However, harmful bots can lead to a number of issues. Notably, some bots annoy and troll individuals, while others propagate false information, particularly on important subjects like COVID-19 and elections.

Another sort of bot is spam accounts, which might attempt to deceive people or sell them products. Musk recently referred to bitcoin bots as the "single most frustrating problem on Twitter." Some bitcoin bots will attempt to persuade users to send cryptocurrency to an online wallet in return for a larger prize, which is obviously unattainable.

Everything is determined by the incentive. The first one is generally money, the second is information theft or profile information scraping, and the third is usually influence, which is increasingly prevalent on social platforms.

How Twitter Can Improve Security?

Musk definitely appears to believe so. He stated in a statement on April 25 that he wished to enhance Twitter with "additional features, make the algorithms open source to build trust, fight the spam bots, and authenticate all people." Making Twitter's algorithms for tasks like content moderation open source might offer the service greater legitimacy by enabling anybody to analyze its code, find flaws, and make enhancements.

Increasing the usage of security measures like reCAPTCHA might aid in the fight against spambots. Twitter may expand the usage of multifactor authentication, a sort of identity verification in which users must verify their identity and that they are human using a different form of communication, like phone or email. Additionally, the business could increase its use of machine learning algorithms that can detect spam bots based on their Twitter behavior.

Why is Security for Twitter such a problem?

Security may be challenging for social media firms like Twitter that significantly rely on mobile app usage since applications are frequently more susceptible than websites viewed through an internet browser on a desktop computer or laptop. Google Chrome and other web browsers automatically update and enhance security without the user's knowledge.

Users frequently need to update mobile apps manually in order to make sure that a fresh security patch is installed. With larger dedicated security teams, more established IT businesses like Google and Microsoft are more secure than social networking startups.

What does Twitter have at Risk?

Whatever the outcome of the confrontation with Musk, Twitter may have to make some difficult choices regarding spam bots. If they expand further, the service may lose customers who are irritated, worried, or even hurt by bots that support fraud or disseminate false information.

Persistent security problems could also get regulators' attention more since they want to control Twitter and the larger digital sector. On the other hand, a harsher campaign against spam bots would reduce Twitter's overall user base by removing phony accounts, which might have a negative impact on its ad income.

Final Thoughts

So the battle of the bots is expected to continue on Twitter, even with Mr. Musk's withdrawal from the deal. The issue is whether Twitter can stamp out the bots and convince Mr. Musk that it can prevent them from being a nuisance to its users. And if it cannot, there will be questions over how well it can execute any large-scale takeover or merger plans in the future.