'The Bots Are Angry...': Elon Musk Announces ‘Random Sampling’ Of 100 Followers Of Twitter

The decision came after the South African born entrepreneur sealed the deal with Twitter and stressed that one of his priorities would be to remove ‘spam bots’ from the platform.

Logo of microblogging site Twitter

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New Delhi: Tesla chief Elon Musk on Saturday announced that his team will do ‘random sampling’ of 100 followers of @Twitter, the social media giant's own account. The latest announcement comes after the world’s richest man said the $44 billion acquisition deal was being put on hold temporarily citing pending details on spam and fake accounts.

Musk, who has nearly 93 million followers now, invited other users to do the random sampling. “To find out, my team will do a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter. I invite others to repeat the same process and see what they discover…” 

To find out, my team will do a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter.

I invite others to repeat the same process and see what they discover …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022

“The bots are very angry at being counted,” Musk tweeted in a subsequent post.

The bots are angry at being counted 🤣

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022

The sampling is expected to estimate the percentage of spam or fake accounts out of the total 61.7 million accounts that follow Twitter.

The world’s richest man quoted a Reuters report that said according to the company's own calculations, false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of of its monetisable daily active users during the first quarter.

The report further added that the networking site, during this period, had 229 million users who were served advertising.

On May 2, Twitter had informed the stock exchanges that the fake or spam accounts on its platform represent less than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users during the first quarter.

The decision came after the South African born entrepreneur sealed the deal with Twitter and stressed that one of his priorities would be to remove ‘spam bots’ from the platform. Since 2013, Twitter has tried to downplay the spread of fake accounts on its platform, holding that "false or spam" accounts make up less than 5 per cent of its user base even as independent researchers said the number could be three times higher, news agency Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, going by the researchers estimate anywhere from 9 per cent to 15 per cent of the millions of Twitter profiles are automated accounts, or bots, based on one early study from 2017, and more recent research from a firm that monitors online conversations, according to Reuters.