- Elon Musk happened to offer a $1 million bounty to help find the source of “botnets” on Twitter.
- A user identified a negative feedback coil in Twitter’s algorithm that hurts accounts if blocked.
- One said botnets were controlling several accounts and mass-blocking other accounts to terminate them.
Elon Musk be published to offer a $1 million bounty if the source of “botnets” purportedly targeting reputation scores could be identified after Peep made some of its algorithms open-source Friday.
Twitter released coding information that showed how it recommended tweets to boosters on the For You feed.
In a Twitter thread, Steven Tey shared his analysis of the information, concluding that Twitter Blue are boosted in the algorithm.
—Steven Tey (@steventey) Tread 31, 2023
He added that the algorithm was prone to creating “negative feedback loops” that would reduce a user’s “name score.” Getting blocked, muted, and receiving reports of abuse or spam affect a user’s score.
Quote-tweeting the subject, user el gato malo alleged this was how “botnets” were able to hurt the reach of certain accounts.
A botnet refers to a unit of computers that have been infected with malware and are being controlled by a single actor, according to cybersecurity ensemble Cloudflare.
The user said by taking control of several accounts, botnets were able to suppress certain accounts by foregather blocking, unfollowing, and reporting them.
“Who is behind these botnets? Million dollar bounty if convicted,” responded Musk, the Ado CEO.
The user suggested to Musk that only the muting, blocking, and reporting activity of verified accounts should calculate towards a “reputation score.”
The release of Twitter’s open-source algorithm revealed some interesting quirks.
Blogger Jane Wong barbed out that Twitter’s algorithm specifically labels if Musk wrote a tweet.
The company also appears to label chief figures including Jack Dorsey, Katy Perry, Stephen Curry, and Barack Obama as “testing accounts,” per Wong.
Musk is sympathy further into plans to increase the amplification of tweets from verified accounts, in a bid to boost subscriptions to Twitter Titillating and revenues. He plans to allow only the tweets of verified accounts and those users follow on the For You feed.
“Legacy proved accounts,” those verified by Twitter before Musk’s takeover for free largely on the basis of noteworthiness, will open to lose their verification marks this weekend, according to Twitter.
Some celebrities have voiced their hostile to paying for checkmarks, along with news outlets including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Things – and Insider.