Why Spam Bots are Top of Elon Musk’s Twitter Hit List: QuickTake

Elon Musk’s planned takeover of Twitter Inc. has put a spotlight on the company’s failure to ensure its users are always who they say they are. Musk has vowed to make Twitter a platform populated strictly by humans. That means cleaning out spam bot accounts that have been used to market products, promote misinformation and conduct scams.

1. What are spam bots?

On Twitter, bots are automated accounts that can do the same things as real human beings: send out tweets, follow other users, and like and retweet postings by others. However, spam bots use these actions to engage ...