Bot battle: The tech that could decide Twitter's Elon Musk lawsuit

tech.hindustantimes.com:

If Twitter's lawsuit over Elon Musk's $44 billion buyout bid ever reaches trial, the case will likely center on a ubiquitous and often unloved technology: bots.

The information Twitter has or has not provided on its tally of fake or spam accounts is Musk's stated reason for backing away from the deal -- a move that prompted the firm to sue him this week.

Here's a closer look at the complications around bot accounts, and how they would be key in deciding the case.

- Good bot, bad bot -

At a basic level, "bots" are software programs that do automated tasks online, often with the aim of emulating how people behave.

Twitter tolerates some automated uses, like an account that tweets every time the Hubble space telescope crosses the sky over a given city.

But Twitter has rules about automated actions by accounts, including barring software from posting about hot topics, firing off spam, attempting to influence online conversations, and operating across multiple accounts.

The company says it wages a daily campaign against spam or fake accounts that keeps their number to less than five percent of users.

Musk's lawyers, in notifying Twitter on July 8 he was "terminating" the agreement to buy the company, alleged the platform made "false and misleading representations" about bots and had not provided details he needed to check its assertions.

- Thorny question -

Determining the number of bots on the site is a bit of an art because the tally is determined in part by Twitter's internal definitions and the workers who apply the rules.

While some cases are clear cut violations, some can require the judgement of people who have to weigh various facts.

"People can disagree on what should be considered a bot or a spam account," said Edwin Chen, a