Marketplace Logo Donate

Daily business news and economic stories from Marketplace

Twitter is in a big game of "bot or not"

This photo illustration taken on March 23, 2018 shows Twitter logos on a computer screen in Beijing. NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

Subscribe to our Newsletters

This week, Twitter announced that it’s removing locked accounts from its platform. That’s in an effort to clean up its bot problem. Bots are fake Twitter accounts that spread propaganda and intimidate people. A New York Times story in January suggested that up to 15 percent of Twitter’s user base could be bots. Twitter says it was more like 5 percent. But now, as the company is trying to clean up the bot problem, some investors are worried that Twitter may have fewer human users than they thought. Kevin Roose follows social media for the New York Times. He spoke with Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood about how bots became a business problem for Twitter. 

Segments From this episode

Marketplace Tech Blogs

Twitter is in a big game of "bot or not"

by Molly Wood , Stephanie Hughes and Shaheen Ainpour Jul 13, 2018
The proportion of fake users, or bots, on Twitter may be higher than previously thought.

What's Next

Latest Episodes From Our Shows

Listen
12:52 PM PDT
27:56
Listen
May 29, 2023
9:19
Listen
May 26, 2023
1:50
Listen
May 29, 2023
6:22
Listen
May 26, 2023
28:44
Listen
May 26, 2023
18:56
Listen
May 25, 2023
42:08
Exit mobile version