Bots, Twitter and Elon Musk. Episode 83. For the past few days, on the Twittosphere, many Internet users have been protesting against the number of spam messages received in private messages. Most of the time, the same request appears: “We are looking for a new member for our energetic, enthusiastic and creative team”, explains the message offering a “competitive” salary between 200 and 500 hours per hour. The message sent is in English, but the contact number is identified with a French indicator. There is only one thing to do, send a CV and a cover letter via a Telegram or WhatsApp account.
So why not take the test, the salary is attractive and the process is simple. A few clicks, two three words in English and the message is sent on WhatsApp. “Hello, I would like to know more about the post proposed on Twitter”. In the photo, a blonde woman with the false air of Brie Larson. No wait, it’s the actress. But since Wednesday, radio silence: the account does not respond. Moreover, the good ten accounts issuing the same message on Twitter have disappeared and the accounts no longer exist for the most part.
Fuzzy messages
On his side, tech-web expert and teacher Victor Baissent had better luck and managed to trade with this bot played by Brie Larson. “Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Alice. This work can be done on your mobile, wherever you are,” she tells him. In all, it would only require between 20 and 60 minutes of work per day. First detail that is wrong, the bot does not speak French very well. But above all, the discussion invites the user to a platform that would be that of the Boulanger brand. Except that it’s a false interface, remarks Victor Lowered.
There, the scams are linked. To withdraw the money earned, the new employee must have a cryptocurrency wallet. And as the discussion progresses, Victor Bassait also notices that the scam is getting more and more twisted. Numbers and letters no longer have any meaning in the messages and the work offered is unclear. “I got lost,” he admits on his Twitter account. One thing is certain, the location of the crooks. Still according to Victor Bassait, they would be located in the United Arab Emirates.
The Twitter offensive
For their part, Twittos have launched an offensive against these private intrusions through the hashtag “#SpamBotsDm”. At the helm, the Social Data science consultant “Flef”. His goal ? Attempt to quantify the extent of the phenomenon. To do this, it asks Internet users to send screenshots of their spam-infested private messages. “I can’t ask people to copy-paste the names of all the bots, they have other things to do. But just a screenshot, it’s the beginning of my approach. I have tools to read the image automatically”.
And on the hashtag, everyone is unanimous: the social network is increasingly ineffective in the management of spam, certainly since the arrival of Elon Musk at its head. “Twitter has become a bot factory, a basket of crabs,” said one of them. But have they really been more numerous for a year? Generally, bots remain very complicated to quantify, especially when they go through private messaging, like here. Several weeks ago, in the month of February, “Flef” had spotted a spam campaign that was much easier to analyze. For good reason, the accounts had acted publicly on the basis of likes. “But there, the bots had no public activity,” he regrets.
A lost challenge for Musk
Ironically, from the moment he arrived at Twitter, bots have been Elon Musk’s workhorse. Remember, we are in July 2022 and the wealthy future boss is trying to backpedal after the announcement of his takeover. For what ? Because there would be (many) too many fake accounts on Twitter. “20% of fake accounts, four times what the social network claims,” he estimated at the time. But above all, a fake account for a businessman is an account that cannot be targeted by advertising. A chasm for Twitter, which derives most of its income from it.
However, before the arrival of Elon Musk, Twitter seemed to be doing better than its competitors on the management of bots. Spam accounts disappear as quickly as they appeared. So should we expect a continuation of the tumble in the coming weeks? Surely, especially since this Thursday, the resignation of the head of trust and safety at Twitter, Ella Irwin, sent a new alert about the situation of moderation on the social network.