Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Report: Up To 15% Of Twitter Accounts Are Bots (cbsnews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the am-I-bot-or-not? dept.

A team of researchers claim they can identify Twitter account activity that's posted by bots through their new web portal -- "Bot or Not?" -- leveraging "more than a thousand features extracted from public data and meta-data." And it turns out there are a lot of bots. An anonymous reader writes: "A study released by the University of Southern California reports that roughly nine to 15 percent of Twitter accounts...are so-called bots controlled by software instead of humans," according to CBS News. "Twitter boasts 319 monthly active users meaning that this recent revelation equates to nearly 48 million bot accounts, according the university's high-end figure." CNBC adds that "The research could be troubling news for Twitter, which has struggled to grow its user base in the face of growing competition from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others." In a 2014 SEC filing Twitter admitted that between 5 and 8% of their users were bots.
Twitter's response to this new report? "Many bot accounts are extremely beneficial, like those that automatically alert people of natural disasters ... or from customer service points of view."

39 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Mine! by peetm · · Score: 1

    Mine @peetm is partly a bot - tweeking for me.

    --
    @peetm
    1. Re:Mine! by peetm · · Score: 1

      Mine @peetm is partly a bot - tweeking for me.

      tweeking = tweeting + twerking

      --
      @peetm
  2. 319 monthly users by Calydor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    'Nuff said.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    1. Re:319 monthly users by Calydor · · Score: 2

      Moderated troll for quoting the summary, that's a new one!

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re:319 monthly users by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      There are dozens of them... DOZENS!

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  3. Sure are by OzPeter · · Score: 1

    Some people are saying that @realDonaldTrump is definitely a bot. But I wouldn't want to tell you that, you'll have to make your own mind up about it.

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    1. Re:Sure are by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      Some people are saying that @realDonaldTrump is definitely a bot. But I wouldn't want to tell you that, you'll have to make your own mind up about it.

      yup http://www.theverge.com/2016/3...

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:Sure are by gnick · · Score: 1

      Some people are saying that @realDonaldTrump is definitely a bot.

      No bot is that unpredictable.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Sure are by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure that it has real ppl behind it although maybe not the Real Donald. I know that most of the bots on twitter follow him though. The minute something is posted on that account it gets hundred of responses both negative and positive. They're almost all repetitive word for word each time with only the most minor of differences.

    4. Re:Sure are by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      So I'm not very innovative, creative, and original.

      Fuck Trump

      RT: Fuck Trump

      Rinse, repeat.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    5. Re:Sure are by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      It's a better bot than anyone else. The best bot. Not like the other bots. So sad.

      #MBGA

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    6. Re:Sure are by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      It's a little more creative than that but yes, repetitive.

    7. Re:Sure are by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      "Creative" and "repetitive" are mutually exclusive unless you're a cat in a box with a vial of poison and some radioactive material.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    8. Re:Sure are by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      I have not seen many of the tweets but the few that I have come across rerererepeated across the internet, whilst I doubt very stronly they were typed in by Trump, every indication is they most definately were dictated by Trump.

      Bots on twitter mean the death of Twitter, it will fill full of marketdroid bots, public relations bullshit bots and government propaganda bots, talking to each, generating hits so that twitter can scam advertisers into spending money on nothing, those bots are buying nothing.

      For real users trapped on twitter, it will become the digital equivalent of a Kafkaesque nightmare. They will trapped in between all those bots demanding all sorts of behaviour and responses, really sick stuff.

      The big thing up and coming thing on the internet identity verification and freedom from bots, marketdroids, public relations liars, government propagandists, a real end user system of tagging trolls.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    9. Re:Sure are by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      You believe in the Easter Bunny too? Every single type of social media on the internet has succumbed to some form of SPAM. Even Fidonet when I operated on Bulletin Boards in the days before widespread internet availability had some problems in this regard. Usenet and IRC fell to it and now the social media in this Era are being dragged under by it. Anonymity makes it impossible to control.

  4. My twitter posts by Dan+East · · Score: 1

    My system posts to twitter accounts automatically. I don't know if these are considered "bots" - they just post community alerts (weather and stuff), and that's all. However, I have noticed that within seconds of when my system tweets a URL, that URL is hit by upwards of 20 times (not by twitter) within a couple seconds. I presume these are the "bots" in question. Further, that happens to accounts that I just set up that don't even have any followers yet.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:My twitter posts by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Leverage that for sweet Google ad money. IIRC that's a penny for each 5 tweets. Setup bots to send 500,000 tweets/day and you're set.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:My twitter posts by darthsilun · · Score: 1

      Why don't you think your "system" isn't a bot?

      And yeah, maybe those things hitting your web site after your bot tweets are bots too.

      Some account has bots listening, that get your bot's tweets, posted from an account that has no followers? I'm not sure I understand that. Do the posts have hashtags? Could they be searching for those?

    3. Re:My twitter posts by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Want to have fun? Tweet out "retweet to win a (something obviously bogus here)" with some giveaway hastags and watch the bots pour in. Some people actually make decent hauls with giveaway bots on twitter.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    4. Re:My twitter posts by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      That classifies as a bot. If it operates without direct involvement. I used to have multiple bots on IRC channels that performed certain automatic tasks.

    5. Re:My twitter posts by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      I answered you via a tweet to @slashdot but you won't see it because I never get modded +1.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  5. Do the math by PuddleBoy · · Score: 2

    OK, so the summary says that Twitter boasts 319 monthly active users.

    One of them is Trump.

    At least 316 are hardcore Trump supporters.

    Who are these other two?

    1. Re:Do the math by BinBoy · · Score: 1

      OK, so the summary says that Twitter boasts 319 monthly active users.

      That number is wrong. A site like twitter probably has at least 1,000 users.

    2. Re:Do the math by Maureen+Base · · Score: 1

      One is my bot.

      --
      Would you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
    3. Re:Do the math by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      .@tweetbot1 & .@tweetbot2.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    4. Re:Do the math by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

      I think the article is poorly written - because it says just after that "equates to nearly 48 million bot accounts" - so we can assume they meant to type 319 million users.

  6. Only 15%? by Lorens · · Score: 2

    Only 15%? That should be *good* news for twitter! Unless it's 15% of 319 monthly active users, of course.

    (Spoiler: TFA title is 48M bots, which gives 319M users).

    1. Re:Only 15%? by tomhath · · Score: 1

      15% of "users", but what percent of tweets are from bots? As I understand it, most users only post one or two tweets and give up on it.

  7. Not a bad thing by darkain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This honestly isn't a bad thing. To a huge degree, Twitter has replaced RSS as a simplistic syndication service. For example: I follow @slashdot on Twitter. This account is a bot, not a human. The entire feed are headline posts from Slashdot's front page with links to the articles. Opening Twitter allows me to see Slashdot headlines intermixed with other headlines from other automated aggregate services which I follow. I personally believe that Twitter should embrace this type of connectivity further rather than only focus on human users.

  8. 15% by dav1dc · · Score: 1

    Seems kind of low to me... I would have expected that number to be much higher. Perhaps they are just being overly conservative with their confidence interval. ^_^

    1. Re:15% by Alumoi · · Score: 1

      Erm.. sorry folks, it was a typo. The tile should read 'Up To 15% Of Twitter Accounts Are Not Bots '

    2. Re:15% by dav1dc · · Score: 1

      Yes, that reads a lot better. Definitely. Thanks kindly for fixing that typo for us! :D

  9. Bot detection would be great for actual users by allo · · Score: 1

    With a better bot detection, twitter could stop flagging new registered accounts after the first few minutes and then requiring a mobile number to continue.

  10. 319 monthly active users by pipingguy · · Score: 1

    Intentionally putting in wrong stuff now, in order to get people to check and/or reply to point out the error?

  11. They're also easy to spot by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    They're the ones that can type legibly.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Bots vs Bots by lucm · · Score: 1

    I'd bet a dollar that the bulk of Twitter readers are also bots that look for keywords and trends; actual people interact with that data only via pie charts and summaries. Sure, a few accounts like Trump are actually followed by real people but that's a minority.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  13. Re:New by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    No... in fact, I've seen someone comment "Moderated troll for quoting the summary, that's a new one!", before. You must be new... 738835... oh forget it!

  14. I'm shocked by buss_error · · Score: 1

    I'm shocked at this number. Only 15%?

    --
    Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
  15. It's way higher than 15% by Hadlock · · Score: 1

    Number of bots owned by marketing and PR firms, probably make up between 25 and 40%. 15% is the rock bottom number. Keep in mind we're counting active monthly users, not total.

    --
    moox. for a new generation.