Thread by @masonpelt

While people are talking about the Elon Musk / Tesla botnet. I think it's worth pointing out that online bots are harder to spot than a lot of the research tools, and researchers often let on. A thread.
pushroi.com/my-friend-kelb…

Twitter bots clearly exist. I can log onto several online marketplaces right now, and buy some. I can buy entire networks, of varying degrees of quality for various amounts of money including hacked, verified accounts. People have used those in botnets.
truthorfiction.com/elon-musk-phis…

I operate under the belief that there are actually a lot of Twitter bots. And the odds of a verified account being hacked are lower than the average as far as I can tell. I've been arguing for expanding verification for a long time. venturebeat.com/2018/04/02/exp…

A lot of people act like Roombas in real life; operating just above a level where they change direction after bumping into a wall. And online people aren't that different. We are not all loggining on well-rested, properly caffeinated, and happy.

As I said about my friend Kelby, "she seemingly exists to retweet Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson" She looked like a bot, and acted like one. pushroi.com/my-friend-kelb…

Some bots are going to look less botlike than Kelby. Perhaps because they are formerly real accounts, with real likely inactive followers, and a fully organic history of Tweeting.

Twitter bots, can push scams directly or less disruptively help with SEO as I elaborate on in a long thread here.

https://twitter.com/masonpelt/status/1502730371661709317

Another friend of mine, someone who is a lawyer, and I serve with on a nonprofit board uses Twitter in the most bot-like way I've ever seen. His old account went by "theguilitioncompany" or something, and he mostly trolled. He was however not a bot.

The @latimes article going around treated the existence of the Elon stan botnet as guaranteed. Even speculating that the botnet was run by Elon or one of his agents.

But Elon Musk's relationship with fans is well summed up by this meme.

@latimes The tool the La Times article uses to confirm the existence of the botnet is Botometer. And Botometer is a bit problematic.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FlorianGallwitz/status/1514028268361592839

@latimes View this thread by @FlorianGallwitz for more on why I (and many others) view the tool as problematic.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FlorianGallwitz/status/1376167308834529280

@latimes @FlorianGallwitz To encapsulate my thoughts. Given how hard online bots are to spot, how bad Botometer specifically is at spotting bots, and how much of the "botnets" behavior can be explained by weird nerds with pseudonymous accounts. Maybe hold on the speculation about stock manipulation.

If you don't trust my assertion, given that my credentials are "marketing scumbag" maybe ask @FlorianGallwitz or @KassandraSeven

@FlorianGallwitz @KassandraSeven This is another point against that particular article.

https://mobile.twitter.com/KassandraSeven/status/1514049266884435975

Just adding another couple of studies showing the limitations of Botometer,

journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Most of this thread, with better citations, in a more readable format can be found in this article. pushroi.com/elon-musk-twit…