The presence of bots on social media is a pretty common sighting and you will see them pop up every now and then. The purpose of these bots will vary, with some designed to be scams, while others are designed to be used to push ads and spam users with marketing messages, but safe to say that these bots are definitely not welcome.
In fact to highlight how many bots are on social media, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey revealed that the company has to fend off about 500,000 bots and prevent them from logging in everyday. This was revealed when Dorsey was testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and where he was asked by Representatives Kathy Castor (D-FL) and Gene Green (D-TX) about bots.
In addition to revealing the staggering number of bots trying to log into Twitter’s platform on a daily basis, Dorsey also revealed that Twitter’s systems are challenging anywhere between 8-10 million accounts that are suspected of being bots and who might be spreading spam. He also stated that the company’s systems have improved over the years, where it is now capable of detecting three times as many suspicious accounts and blocking suspicious logins compared to a year ago.
Twitter is currently facing a lot of scrutiny over its practices and how it handles certain issues, such as abuse by users, fake news, and more. Twitter is of course not alone in this as Facebook has also in the past been questioned about their practices when dealing with such situations, such as election meddling where the company has reportedly built a “war room” to deal with such situations should they arise again.
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