A new report from Akamai Technologies has unveiled alarming statistics about the prevalence and impact of web scraper bots on businesses, particularly in the e-commerce sector. An astounding 42 percent of overall web traffic is now generated by bots, according to the cloud computing giant.
In a series of recent updates, Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) says it is taking significant steps to combat “bots and trolls” while also reinstating the blue verification checkmark for influential users that refuse to pay the platform for the privilege.
A new report from a cybersecurity firm finds that Elon Musk’s X/Twitter is overrun with fake accounts and bots following an analysis of recent traffic during the Super Bowl. According to the research, up to 76 percent of traffic to X/Twitter advertisers during the big game came from fake accounts instead of real people.
The FBI on Tuesday announced a successful multinational operation to take down a cybercrime ring known as “Qakbot.” The gang used an enormous botnet to spread ransomware through spam emails, inflicting hundreds of millions of dollars in damage on computer users around the world.
Despite Elon Musk’s claims following his takeover of Twitter, the social media platform continues to grapple with the persistent issue of fake and spam accounts, according to recent research. One Princeton professor explains, “It’s clearly the case that bad bots remain pervasive on Twitter.”
Elon Musk has made a number of decisions about the Twitter platform via polls posted on his profile, but ex-employees are warning that Twitter polls are a major target for bots and can be easily manipulated. Censor-happy Yoel Roth said, “Polls are more prone to manipulation than almost anything else.” Notably, Roth and the thousands of Twitter employees who have been laid off didn’t see to care much about the massive number of bots on Twitter until after Musk took over.
The German federal state is operating hundreds of fake far-right social media accounts online, a mainstream newspaper in the country has revealed.
A new report reveals that a huge amount of Web3 activity is significantly made of hordes of bots. Web3 is a term for new technologies built on the blockchain that are hyped to be the future of the internet — but most are overwhelmed with bot activity.
Elon Musk has reportedly been given access to Twitter’s internal data to independently review the number of bot accounts on the platform — but data scientists don’t think the information will provide conclusive answers for the billionaire.
Twitter has reportedly agreed to provide Tesla CEO Elon Musk with access to its internal data after the billionaire threatened to pull out of a deal to acquire the company due to a lack of transparency around bots on the platform.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation of Twitter on Monday over allegations that the company has misrepresented the number of bots on its platform, a claim that if true, would have harmed consumers and businesses that use Twitter.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk suggested recently that his $44 billion Twitter buyout offer may be cut in proportion to the real number of bots on the platform. Musk continues to express doubt about the platform’s outlandish claims of bots making up only five percent of its userbase.
Twitter has admitted it added its verification checkmark, meant to ensure the public that an account is authentic, to a number of fake accounts run by bots. The platform’s shoddy verifications come after the blacklisting of high profile conservatives such as James O’Keefe, who before his banning was refused verification by the platform despite a constant flow of fake accounts mimicking him to confuse the public.
A recent report from the Associated Press claims that an army of fake bot accounts have been boosting China’s messaging on Twitter, and the platform was slow to take action to stop the propaganda campaign.
An audit of the Wikipedia-affiliated dictionary Wiktionary for the Malagasy language, the national language of Madagascar, found the site to be littered with errors. The errors were attributed to bots mostly programmed by the site’s sole active administrator, which mass-produced almost all six million entries included on the Malagasy Wiktionary. Noting the problems were too comprehensive to be resolved manually, the audit recommended deleting most entries on the site.
President Trump takes Twitter seriously. After all, he can boast of having almost 60 million Twitter followers, and he has tweeted more than 41,000 times. Still, it was interesting to see, on the morning of April 23, that he tweeted out some considerable thoughts on the social-media platform
TEL AVIV – The mud-slinging between the two main parties vying for election victory next week continued Monday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Blue and White party of seeing Likud voters as “bots” rather than “real people,” amid reports of fake pro-Netanyahu Twitter accounts.
The New York Times published an article, Wednesday, raising questions over the wildly different estimates of fake users on the Facebook platform published by Mark Zuckerberg’s company.
A recent report from the legal research group Plainsite claims that as many as half of Facebook’s users are fake.
Social media bots helped failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton more than President Trump during the 2016 presidential election, according to a paper from an MIT associate professor.
Twitter will purge “tens of millions” of “suspicious” accounts on Thursday, according to a report.
Social media platform Twitter has revealed a number of steps it is taking to cut down on spam and “malicious automation” on the platform.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology fed some of the internet’s seedier bits to an A.I. and came out with something more than a little creepy.
A Cuban-American human rights group has documented dozens of Twitter accounts, allegedly belonging to young Cubans on the island, posting pro-communist propaganda and using photos of actors and models as their photos.
#TwitterLockOut became the number one trending hashtag on Twitter, Wednesday, after conservatives reported various account sanctions, including the loss of thousands of followers.
Halloween is a time for scary things. This year, one of the creepier sights was the scene on Capitol Hill as the big tech companies — Facebook, Google, and Twitter — testified before Congress this week about Russian efforts to use social media platforms to influence U.S. politics.
Google announced in a blog post that it will issue refunds to companies whose advertisements were viewed by bots instead of humans; some of its advertising partners will do the same.
The Los Angeles Times tweeted a warning Wednesday evening that a massive 6.8-magnitude earthquake had struck the region at Isla Vista, California. A short time late, it retracted and deleted the tweet, explaining that an automated program, or “bot,” had tweeted out the details of an earthquake that had indeed struck Isla Vista — in 1925.
Labour’s social media election campaign is being amplified by fake accounts pumping out positive messages about the party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
A study released last week by the University of Southern California and Indiana University claims that as many as 48 million Twitter accounts are bots. The study used more than 1,000 different features to find and identify bot accounts across Twitter.
Digital expert Matthew Brown told Full Measure host Sharyl Attkisson that users on social media were being misled about support for Obamacare by paid posters.
Wikipedia’s editing bots have become “locked in combat” over content in entries, according to a report by The Guardian.
