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Twitter Reports 23 Million Users Are Actually Bots

Posted by Soulskill on from the probably-underreporting-by-a-lot dept.

An anonymous reader writes: In its most recent quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter disclosed that approximately 8.5% of its users are actually bots. Some of these 23 million bots were created to make revenue-generating URLs, others were created to collect followers that would later be sold to whoever needs a ready audience, and a few were created to mimic stereotypes just for fun. Now that Twitter is a public company, some wonder if these bots help or hinder Twitter's stock value.

7 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Why would this be good for Twitter's stock?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    some wonder if these bots help or hinder Twitter's stock value.

    Hmm. Are some of those that are wondering if it helps Twitter's stock actually bots themselves?

  2. Twitter Bots are GREAT by darkain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Twitter Bots are GREAT! Seriously, Twitter is the new RSS. This is honestly how I find out about the latest Slashdot articles, because their account is bot based to feed content from this site to their Twitter account. A huge chunk of the accounts I follow on Twitter are in this same category, just news services. Twitter has become the modern day RSS feeder, and I personally love it for this purpose.

    1. Re:Twitter Bots are GREAT by martin-boundary · · Score: 4, Funny

      You should write a bot that posts on slasdot for you. You know, cut out the middle man and all that :)

    2. Re:Twitter Bots are GREAT by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Twitter is the new RSS

      We replace a perfectly-good open standard with proprietary, centralized shit and you call it progress?!

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    3. Re:Twitter Bots are GREAT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I found your post about a book you should read very interesting. I laughed out loud when I read it!

      Check out this awesome web site that I got recommended to me while browsing forums like this: http://www.onlinecasino.com/

  3. Slashdot Bot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Natalie Portman. Naked, petrified and covered in hot grits.

  4. How can they be sure? by GearheadShemTov · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My question is, how could they tell? Could you decisively prove you're a human in only 140 characters?