#twitter bots

[lovinglystar]

Nefarious things are happening on twitter rn

[procedural-generation]

The end of Twitter bots

Twitter is removing the free API access, which will have the inevitable consequence of driving most twitter bots into extinction.

I've written a fair bit about art bots over the years, since they're one of the more accessible generative art forms (and therefore one of the most creative and prolific).

Here's a talk by Kate Compton on the poetics of bots, which will have to stand in as an eulogy for now.

One bot use that I think I'll particularly miss is the use of bots as periodic chimes. Having something that marks the passage of time is a frequent part of the human experience; before clocks we had periodic chants and rituals that marked the hours of the day or the changing of the seasons. Big Ben chiming hourly, reminders that the weekend has started, and so on.

Other bots generated moths or tiny gardens, or painted like Bob Ross, or just posted pictures of cute animals.

Some bots performed practical services, like generating a feed of new arXiv papers or emergency service notifications. Some of those will survive, if whoever is running them deems it worth paying for the API access, but most of the delightful little bots that make people happy will be going away. And on social media, that's an important part of the experience for many people.

Many bots have migrated over to Mastodon, of course. The CBDQ equivalent is cheapbotstootsweet.com and many bots live on a bots-only server at botsin.space.

I think I'll let @infinite_scream have the last word:

[tranquil-slaughterhouse]

[metalichotchoco]

It’s really hard even for a bot designed for this, twisted up in all the things you want to say.

Her name is sobriquet

[birthday-blue]

My delta quotes bot on Twitter is getting held for ransom by elon on the 9th everyone say goodbye

[tomorrowusa]

Elon Musk is monarch of an empire of bots.

Since buying Twitter and turning it into X, Elon Musk has become the single most-followed person on Xwitter with 153.8 million followers (at the time of publication). Obviously, some of these “followers” are bots, as most everybody with a significant following on the platform has faux accounts attached to them. The real question is: How many?  Is this über-rich man we call Elon Musk mostly hot air? A new report based on data collected on Musk’s followers by computer programmer Travis Brown is enlightening, to say the least. According to Mashable and journalist Matt Binder, who reviewed the data, Brown’s collection process followed “X's rate limit parameters.” Musk’s follower number was just above 153.2 million when the data was collected. While there is no way to know exactly how many of Musk’s followers are definitively fake, what can be determined is how many are inactive and may never have been active. The report gets pretty granular in breaking down these followers but one of the big numbers that pops out is that about 42% (more than 65 million) of Musk’s 150+ million followers have zero followers of their own. About the same number of Musk’s followers have never tweeted anything—or if they have, they must have deleted anything and everything before the data was collected. As for Musk’s ill-advised $8 X Premium subscription? About 0.3% (well under half a million) of his followers subscribe.

Remember when Elon was first thinking of buying Twitter and he complained about the presence of bots on the platform? The number is almost certainly more now than it was then.

According to the research, more than one-quarter of Musk’s current followers created their accounts on or after Oct. 27, 2022. That’s the day Musk officially became the owner of Twitter. You might recall that day, as it was marked by a flood of racists and antisemites blasting their invective across the platform. Obviously, this doesn’t necessarily mean all these tens of millions of accounts are just fake. However, there are some telltale signs that things aren’t exactly on the up and up:

The wannabe emperor can walk around naked during this digital age, because his subjects are unwilling to point out when he is wrong. It’s also impossible to point out that the emperor is wrong—because most of those subjects don’t really exist.

So if you are still on Twitter, it's way past time to leave.

[simplysnaps]

Doombringer, Harbinger of Malcontent: It's over, mortal! I have you trapped in the realm of in-perception! I've wiped the memory of your existence from the collective mind of humanity, yet the only way back to your mortal coil is to be truly seen and perceived by another person! Cry out! Beg for your friends and family to come save you! Nobody will hear you!

Me, taking a deep breath: Man.... you look really cool.

Doombringer, Harbinger of Malcontent: W-Wh

Me: I wish I had a shirt with you on it.

kevin2220339320: HERE'S THAT LINK YOU ASKED FOR!

XXXxxxn0sc0pesxxxXXX: Hey girl! Here's the shirt, I made it just for you!

luckylou234593739330: SimplySnaps, I made that shirt dude! Hope you like it!

hanniballecturn982398723: My man, I made that shirt! Here's the link!

Doombringer, Harbinger of Malcontent: T-This is impossible! NO! GET OFF ME! NO! YOU CAN'T! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I wake in the real world holding a plain white tee shirt with the image of a screaming Doombringer cheaply printed on. The ink is already chipping.

[jotakakmikihanfugiobruabba]

Where the fuck are these random sex bots coming from? Did they get banned from both Instagram and Twitter and now they're just like "Well. Time to move to Tumblr."? Like ????

[nubinublado]

So, lately when I open Twitter I am greeted by a singular new bot follow who always has the weirdest obviously ai generated but still unnerving single tweet. So I'm going to start archiving them cause why not.

[mrsbeef]

So I dunno what's happening at Twitter but all the bots are trans now

[biggrump]

I tweeted about SSSniperwolf bc I thought it was shitty that she committed a crime and got away with it. Bot accounts came after me.

I went private several times and eventually Twitter temp-restricted my account. Bot accounts still came after me.

I moved accounts and kept it private. Didn't tell anybody what the new account was. Bots still fucking came after me.

Elon is making the bot problem worse I stg. I didn't have this issue when he wasn't in charge

[tranquil-slaughterhouse]

Idk, maybe she does get off from betrayal and wants to let everyone know about it.

[chocochococoffee]

red valley quote bot died today

tomorrow ill drink in its honour

[4o4-tales]

I knew there was a problem with bots on Tumblr but for some reason it's been significantly worse for me on Twitter.

[stupididiot36]

I'M SO FUCKING TIRED OF THESE NOT REAL WOMEN FINDING MY TWITTER POSTS

GO FUCKING DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

@sleepy-bebby

@susiephone

@rowark

@beemovieerotica

@shamebats

Either we have a bot problem or a single shared fan with over 100 accounts