New Delhi, Aug 20 : Leading bot researchers have raised doubts about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s assertions about the apprehension of spammy or fake accounts on Twitter because the online tool the team employed to track bots using the micro-blogging platform can’t be relied on.Musk’s legal team spoken of the use of Botometer, a program that monitors fake accounts and spam in an action against Twitter.
With the help of the tool, Tesla CEO’s team determined that 33 percent of “visible accounts” on the social media platform were “false or spam accounts” in contrast to Twitter’s claims that spam accounts comprise less than five percent of its active users on a daily basis.
According to BBC The court filings prepared by Musk’s legal team have been reviewed by the creator of the ‘Botometer’ Kaicheng Yang, who said that the number “doesn’t have any significance”.
“In order to determine the amount of bots (of bots) it is necessary to decide on a threshold for cutting the number of bots,” Yang was quoted as saying in the report.
“If you alter the threshold from three-digit number to a one, then you will see more bots but fewer humans.So , how do you choose this threshold is vital to the question of the number of bots are in the system,” he added.
Musk’s countersuit, however, is not clear on the threshold it used to achieve its 33 percent figure as per Yang who has raised questions about the method.
Yang claimed he was not contacted by Musk’s legal team prior to when they made use of the tool.
In his lawsuit, Musk claimed that a third of the visible Twitter accounts were fake.
Based on this figure, “the team estimated that at least of 10 percent of the active users on a daily basis are bots”.
According to Yang Yang, the countersuit “doesn’t clarify the facts and therefore he (Musk) enjoys the right to do what he would like.
Therefore, to me isn’t a sign of anything” According to the BBC.
Musk on Friday claimed that the Parag Agrawal’s Twitter is not sharing information about the actual amount of bots and spam accounts on his platform.
The Tesla CEO has said If Agrawal could prove the real amount of fraudulent accounts, the deal could be allowed to continue.
“If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and the method by which they’re confirmed as genuine, the deal can continue on the initial terms.” Musk had tweeted.
In the midst of the ongoing legal dispute, Musk has also challenged Agrawal to hold an open debate regarding spam and fake accounts.
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