{"id":87630,"date":"2024-04-04T18:52:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T18:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/x-warns-you-might-lose-followers-as-it-does-another-bot-sweep-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T18:52:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T18:52:46","slug":"x-warns-you-might-lose-followers-as-it-does-another-bot-sweep-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/x-warns-you-might-lose-followers-as-it-does-another-bot-sweep-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"X warns you might lose followers as it does another bot sweep | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


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X is warning users they may see a reduction in their follower counts as the company attempts to clear the network of some spammers and bots in a large sweep. Via an announcement published by X\u2019s Safety account, the company on Thursday will begin a \u201csignificant, proactive initiative\u201d<\/a> to eliminate accounts that violate X\u2019s rules about platform manipulation and spam.<\/p>\n

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Today, we’re kicking off a significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate our Rules against platform manipulation and spam. While we aim for accuracy in the accounts we remove, we’re casting a wide net to ensure X remains secure and free of bots. As a\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Safety (@Safety) April 4, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The move comes shortly after X announced the appointment<\/a> of two new leaders to its safety team: Kylie McRoberts, an existing X employee who\u2019s now Head of Safety, and Yale Cohen, previously of Publicis Media, who was joining as the Head of Brand Safety and Advertiser solutions.<\/p>\n

Spam has been an area that Elon Musk has longed to tackle at X, telling employees in November 2022 that he aimed to make fighting spam a priority<\/a> going forward.<\/p>\n

However, spam has proved more difficult to combat than he likely hoped, especially after extensive job cuts<\/a> left Twitter\u2019s Trust & Safety team short-staffed, while the role of Head of Safety sat vacant for 10 months after the earlier departures of Ella Irwin<\/a> and Yoel Roth<\/a> under Musk\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Advancements in AI have also made it more difficult to reign in the spam.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, TechCrunch reported that Musk\u2019s plan to require users to pay for Verification did not seem to have stopped spammers from participating on the platform. A number of bots with Verified blue checks<\/a> were found to be replying to posts on X with a variation of the phrase, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I cannot provide a response as it goes against OpenAI\u2019s use case policy\u201d \u2014 an indication that they were not people, but bots.<\/p>\n

In addition, a recent report by New York Intelligencer detailed the rise of spam<\/a> pushing adult content to users by posting explicit replies that pointed to links in their bio for users to follow.<\/p>\n

The scale of spam on the network was one of the sticking points for Musk when he originally tried to back out of the $44 billion Twitter deal<\/a>, saying that the company had not been honest about the number of bots.<\/a> But these days, Musk is touting how X is seeing record traffic<\/a>, without clarifying if his own numbers include bots and spam.<\/p>\n

According to the X Safety team\u2019s announcement, the company will be \u201ccasting a wide net\u201d<\/a> in its attempt to remove spam and bots from the platform, which may result in follower count reductions. This is par for the course for bot sweeps on its platform.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

X also shared a link to a form where users inadvertently affected by the bot sweep could appeal.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n