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> If elon removes bots I haven't received a good answer yet for how Elon would solve the bot problem. It's as if misinformation/disinformation/harassment are

> If elon removes bots I haven't received a good answer yet for how Elon would solve the bot problem. It's as if misinformation/disinformation/harassment are propagated only by bots and not real people, So would these people be blocked along with the bots? Would censorship be fine here then? Social media firms have turned a blind eye towards bots/click farms because it has helped them to exaggerate their engagement figures to the advertisers, Just like any other online-advertising firm. Then again, Elon seems to have expressed some views against advertisements on Twitter.

jen20 5y ago
You are letting perfect be the enemy of the good here. There are millions upon millions of bot accounts, trivially identifiable as “word647829585729” with a profile that reads “Soccer mom. Ohio. Loves baseball. Hates cheese.” or similar. Every single one of those could be removed and the problem would be improved even if not eliminated. Pick the low-hanging fruit first… That said I don’t imagine Elon Musk has any intention of doing that, and don’t intend to stick around on Twitter to find out.
- notahacker 5y ago
  There are also millions of people with low effort accounts that mostly just retweet stuff, often precisely the bot-amplified political topics that show up in their feed. Those people are going to whine just as loudly about censorship as the people kicked off because someone reported them. It's not like bot operators can't change handles or like the flags which would really catch them "engages on $politicalwedgeissue and amplifies "$particularpoliticalcause" are uncontroversial
- pmyteh 5y ago
  It's not at all trivial, and there's a surprising amount of academic research on whether it's even possible. Take the most extreme case: a bunch of new accounts with long-numbered names posting identical political messages. It turns out that many of these have (unique!) real people behind them. They're not bots, they're coordinated people who are part of a campaign that's either grassroots (sign up and make ourselves heard!) or AstroTurf (I've been paid by a PR company to...). Are these excluded as bots? After all, a lot of PR accounts are paid to post. Many other 'bot' accounts have scheduled high-volume posting, but are directly operated by a single human; they may be spammers, but they aren't anything other than who they claim to be. What about political clubs brigading? If I get my mates to set up alts and frequently shitpost about politicians we dislike, is that a bot army, or privacy-friendly political activism? In the end, you just have to take a view and decide what you're prepared to accept.
- evan_ 5y ago
  you do realize that "word2048962062" is the format of username suggested to you when you signup, right?

jen20 5y ago

You are letting perfect be the enemy of the good here. There are millions upon millions of bot accounts, trivially identifiable as “word647829585729” with a profile that reads “Soccer mom. Ohio. Loves baseball. Hates cheese.” or similar. Every single one of those could be removed and the problem would be improved even if not eliminated. Pick the low-hanging fruit first… That said I don’t imagine Elon Musk has any intention of doing that, and don’t intend to stick around on Twitter to find out.

notahacker 5y ago
There are also millions of people with low effort accounts that mostly just retweet stuff, often precisely the bot-amplified political topics that show up in their feed. Those people are going to whine just as loudly about censorship as the people kicked off because someone reported them. It's not like bot operators can't change handles or like the flags which would really catch them "engages on $politicalwedgeissue and amplifies "$particularpoliticalcause" are uncontroversial
pmyteh 5y ago
It's not at all trivial, and there's a surprising amount of academic research on whether it's even possible. Take the most extreme case: a bunch of new accounts with long-numbered names posting identical political messages. It turns out that many of these have (unique!) real people behind them. They're not bots, they're coordinated people who are part of a campaign that's either grassroots (sign up and make ourselves heard!) or AstroTurf (I've been paid by a PR company to...). Are these excluded as bots? After all, a lot of PR accounts are paid to post. Many other 'bot' accounts have scheduled high-volume posting, but are directly operated by a single human; they may be spammers, but they aren't anything other than who they claim to be. What about political clubs brigading? If I get my mates to set up alts and frequently shitpost about politicians we dislike, is that a bot army, or privacy-friendly political activism? In the end, you just have to take a view and decide what you're prepared to accept.
evan_ 5y ago
you do realize that "word2048962062" is the format of username suggested to you when you signup, right?