A team of researchers from the University of Southern Carolina and Indiana University set out to determine how many Twitter accounts were bots. It turns out, 15% of all accounts are not humans.
To do so, they created a framework to identify bot accounts. The framework itself utilised more than a thousand tools which looked at timing between tweets, sentiment, and tweet content. Presenting their findings, the researchers estimate that “between 9% and 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots.”
The figures may actually be even higher – the researchers advised that sophisticated bots may have been categorised as humans in their model, so 48 million bot accounts may well be a conservative number.
This new evaluation, is far higher than the figures previously released by Twitter. In a filing last month, the company said only 8.5% of all accounts do not showcase, in their own words, “discernible additional user-initiated action”.
A Twitter spokesperson commented that while bots have largely negative connotations, many are useful to “automatically alert people in case of natural disasters” or for customer service purposes. While the USC researchers supported that statement, they insisted that a large chunk of bot accounts perform toxic functions. Fake political support or promotion of terrorist propaganda are just two examples amongst many.
In recent weeks, Twitter has manoeuvred itself to make the reporting of abusive activity easier, providing more ways for users to rid Twitter of trolls and bots. However, considering that nearly 50 million accounts are not humans, Twitter has a real mountain to climb. And these new findings have made that mountain a lot higher.
You might also like
More from Twitter
Twitter Fleets Get A Stickers Upgrade
Twitter Fleets Stickers make Fleets a little more fun on Android and iOS, like Instagram and Facebook Stories.
Emoji Reactions And Downvotes Could Be Coming To Twitter Soon
Twitter is reportedly working on the rollout of Emoji reactions and a new downvote button, and no, still not an …
Twitter Tests Way To View YouTube Videos Directly In Timeline
Twitter has begun testing a new way to let you watch YouTube videos directly in the timeline, without having to …
Twitter Now Lets You Secure Your Account With Multiple 2FA Security Keys
Twitter has added support for multiple security keys on its app, and will soon letting you link more than one …
Twitter Spaces Lands On Android, Beating Clubhouse
Twitter is bringing its audio conversation feature Twitter Spaces to Android, while Clubhouse remains iOS only for the moment.
Twitter Adds Stickers And Twemojis To Fleets In Japan
Following the rollout of Fleets in November, Twitter is now expanding functionality with stickers and Twemojis in Japan.
Twitter Super Follow Will Ask You To Pay To Follow Some Users
Twitter announced its first-ever paid product, called "Super Follow" which will let some creators ask users to pay to access …
Twitter CFO: Trump Ban Is Permanent
According to Twitter's CFO, Trump will never be allowed back on its platform - even if he became president again.