Rise of the TWITTERBOTS: 48 Million Twitter users are not human, new study claims
10 March 2017
Your latest 'like', 'retweet' or 'follow' may not have been from a human, a new study has found.
Researchers have discovered that up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are bots and with 319 million active users on the site, it is estimate that 48 million of them are computer programs.
While some bots can wreak havoc on Twitter, sources have revealed that ‘many bot accounts are extremely beneficial’, as they ‘alert people of natural disasters or from customer service points of view'.
- Researchers found 9% to 15% of Twitter accounts are bots and not humans
- With 319M accounts that means 48M of them are computer programs
- Experts identified 14M bot accounts using their own framework and analysis
- Sources said some bots are beneficial, as they alert people of natural disasters
10 March 2017
Your latest 'like', 'retweet' or 'follow' may not have been from a human, a new study has found.
Researchers have discovered that up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are bots and with 319 million active users on the site, it is estimate that 48 million of them are computer programs.
While some bots can wreak havoc on Twitter, sources have revealed that ‘many bot accounts are extremely beneficial’, as they ‘alert people of natural disasters or from customer service points of view'.
