Nude bots are out of control on X, and this has led to unhappier degens. Why, they wonder, should bots like these constantly respond to posts with aggressive invites to an airdrop that doesn’t exist?
We are glad to announce Musk’s grand plan to curb the ongoing spam problem by nuking the bots. But others believe we should put X on our daily prayers because only faith and hope will save it from the relentless invasion of bots.
Here comes HODL.FM, the degen’s favorite digital newspaper. We never do it for the awards, or your money or to be mentioned in Congress. We only want to be BOOKMARKED.
Our topic today is Elon Musk’s new algorithm update on X for battling bots and spam by introducing a new small fee for new accounts to access basic features like posting, commenting, or liking. This is jovial news for the degen but somewhat sad at the same time because our Team HODL.FM who are new on X will incur a fee to bookmark us on the platform.
Bots Have Become Sophisticated, So Should X
According to Musk, charging new users for these features is the only way to tackle engagement farming on the microblogging network.
In the tweet, the X owner said modern advancements in Artificial Intelligence have led to improvements in bots and tools that can bypass CAPTCHA verification. As such, it has become much easier for bots to invade Twitter than it was before. However, with updates like the upcoming one, Tesla founders believe they could reduce the spam problem by 1000X.
Eneke the Bird in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart when asked why he is always on his wings says, “Now that men have learned to shoot without missing, so have I learned to fly without perching on a twig”
Maybe it’s the same case for X, bots become more complex and the platforms feels its time to update its algorithm to beat advanced spam attacks.
Fake Accounts are Using Up All the Good Names
Elon Musk has been tackling the spam issue since October 2022 when he acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal. As per his tweets, fake accounts are notorious for exhausting namespace resulting in the wastage of suitable handles that would otherwise benefit legitimate businesses. X piloted a similar policy in the Philippines and New Zealand using a subscription method dubbed “Not A Bot” This policy required new users to pay a $1 fee to access additional functionality on X.
Recent news: Elon Musk’s Grok AI is the Weakest Chatbot, Meta’s Llama Stands Strong
Musk’s Plan Will Work Excellently in Stunting New User Growth
While Musk believes the new changes will make it 1000X more difficult to manipulate X, many argue the changes will not prevent bots’ onslaught.
One of those disagreeing with the billionaire is Web3 sleuth ZachXBT who argued that hundreds of scams get verified weekly on the X business plan. This verification costs thousands of dollars already, hence begs the question, will the new algo affect scammers/spammers on X or will it only make it harder for newer-smaller accounts to win any engagement?
Meanwhile, it seems X’s decision to monetize its verification status opened the floodgates for scammers to take advantage of the platform’s premium features. Recently in March, Musk announced accounts commanding a following of 2,500+ verified subscribers would no longer need to pay for the premium features. In April, X announced a rigorous plan to eliminate users who violate rules against spam and manipulation.
