Bots can post and share tweets on Twitter about certain people and follow them, not to mention that there are good and bad bots.

In her article published by the American newspaper "NewYork Times", writer Shira Frenkel says that billionaire technology world Elon Musk announced last Friday that he had withdrawn from the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, stressing that the reason behind this was the ongoing dispute. About spam accounts on the platform and their number.

What are spam bots?

Sometimes called “bots,” “spam,” or “fake accounts,” these are non-genuine accounts that mimic how real people use Twitter.

Some spam accounts are subject to automation, while others are run by people;

Which makes discovering it complicated.

Bots can post and share tweets and follow others, and they can also have followers.

Why are spam bots a problem?

The author explains that Elon Musk has previously expressed his concerns about spam bots on Twitter years ago.

In 2020, while attending a Twitter employee event, Musk encouraged the company to do more to prevent and remove spam software.

Since revealing its intention to buy Twitter last April, Twitter has posted tweets on numerous occasions about spam bots on the platform.

In May, when Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted about how the company was detecting and combating spam, Musk responded with the poo emoji.

In a letter dated June 6, Musk's lawyers demanded more information from Twitter, noting that the company "rejected Musk's data requests" to reveal the number of fake accounts on its platform.

The lawyers added that this represented a "clear material breach" of the deal;

What gives Musk the right to terminate the agreement.

The next day, Twitter agreed to allow Musk direct access to the daily stream of millions of tweets across the company's network.


Since it became a social site in 2013, Twitter has estimated that roughly 5% of its accounts are spam bots.

On Thursday, the company said it was removing about one million unwanted bot accounts every day, and it was shutting down millions of them each week so that the people behind the accounts could pass anti-spam tests.

The author notes that the company allows spam bot accounts to be created, and encourages many of these accounts to label themselves as bots for the sake of transparency.

The company argues that many of these accounts provide useful services.

How are Twitter spam bots used?

Twitter defines good spam bots as automated accounts that “help people find useful, entertaining, and relevant information.

For example, Stockbot gives people automated responses when they ask for a quote, and Earthquickbot tweets about any earthquake of magnitude 5.0 or higher worldwide as it occurs.

In contrast, other spam bots are used by governments, companies or bad actors for a number of malicious purposes.

During the 2016 US presidential election, Russia used spam accounts to impersonate Americans and try to divide voters.

The writer stresses that spam bots are often involved in Twitter scams aimed at trying to persuade people to send cryptocurrency or digital currency online for bogus prizes.

Spam bots are also used to attack celebrities or politicians and to create a hostile environment for them online.