X recently announced a significant initiative to combat bots and spam accounts on the platform, following rising user complaints about these issues. The top 10 most-followed accounts on the platform, including Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Justin Bieber, saw a decrease in followers after the bot purge was implemented. However, some accounts, such as Kim Kardashian and the official X account, actually gained followers during this time. While the impact of this latest purge may not have been major overall, it is indicative of the ongoing challenges X faces with bots.
Bots have long been a problem for the platform, with Elon Musk criticizing past Twitter management for not adequately addressing the issue. Musk has been vocal about the prevalence of bots on the platform and has accused Twitter of falsely reporting its usage statistics to cover up the problem. In 2022, Musk claimed that Twitter’s active users were 20% bots, significantly higher than the reported 5%, which would equate to more than 47 million bot accounts based on the platform’s user count at the time.
Twitter’s management has been criticized for not taking sufficient action against bots due to concerns that it would decrease user numbers and negatively impact the company’s share price. Musk believes that the only way to effectively combat bots would be to take the company private to reduce scrutiny. Despite Musk’s efforts to address the bot issue after acquiring X, the platform’s user count has actually increased rather than decreased post-purge, raising questions about the effectiveness of these measures.
In order to determine if X has successfully eliminated bots at scale, analysts will look for a significant drop in the platform’s user count, which could indicate real action taken against bots. If the user numbers remain stable, it may be difficult for X to claim that they have made a significant impact. However, a drop in user numbers could lead to negative headlines and potential challenges in communicating the positive impact of reducing bots to advertisers and investors.
Overall, the ongoing battle against bots on X highlights the complexities involved in addressing this issue and the challenges in effectively communicating the results of these efforts. Despite efforts to purge bots from the platform, the full extent of the impact remains to be seen, and the company may face challenges in convincing stakeholders of the positive outcomes of these measures. Moving forward, X will need to continue to address the bot issue while also managing the potential repercussions of user count fluctuations.