Forget crypto spam accounts, Twitter’s got another problem which involves bots and accounts promoting adult content and infiltrating Direct Messages and interactions on the platform. And there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution in sight.
While the problem has existed for while, the uptick in porn bots is ironic, given Elon Musk’s promising claims of tackling bots and fake accounts on Twitter, after his acquisition of the platform.
A Twitterverse of Porn Bots
This week, security researchers flagged many spam accounts that started following them or initiating unsolicited direct message conversations or interactions (such as likes and replies).
In a tweet, security research group, MalwareHunterTeam exposed multiple Twitter accounts that are spam bots injecting themselves within interactions in the form of likes. This is to entice users into viewing the profiles of these bot accounts and clicking on the links listed in their bio. These links lead to hookup and NSFW sites.
One such Twitter account with illicit links in its bio is shown below. The account has since been suspended:
American journalist Chris Geidner also highlighted a Twitter response to his recent article that he’d received from a “porn bot” within minutes of posting the piece:
Mikel Garcia, a UK-based IT professional posted a screenshot of multiple spam bots promoting bogus lures including “part-time jobs” via direct messages:
Although Twitter has been suspending bot accounts as these spring up, the platform has still not enforced any effective or novel solution to contain spam and bots, making it akin to a whack-a-mole situation.
“If our Twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” Musk had declared last year amid discussions surrounding the platform’s acquisition.
But, at this point, bots continue to be a major problem for Twitter with no solution in sight.
Over the weekend, Musk announced that Twitter was temporarily applying rate limits to curtail “data scraping & system manipulation.” It is unclear if this is being done, in part, to target bot-initiated activity.
Musk had earlier stripped blue badges from accounts verified under former criteria and replaced it with a paid system for everyone, in a bid to tear down what he had called a ‘lords & peasants‘ system. Yet, by his own admission, he chose to keep verification badges in tact for some prominent accounts by “paying for [them] personally.”
On multiple occasions, threat actors have abused Twitter Blue-verified accounts to push crypto scams, thereby defeating the very purpose of verification.
Without implementing a streamlined process for keeping fake accounts and bots at bay, Twitter’s existing spam problems are here to stay.
