Following Twitter making some of its algorithms open-source, Elon Musk proposed a reward of $1 million to anyone who could pinpoint the origin of the botnets that allegedly aim at manipulating users reputation scores.
What Happened: Since Twitter released some coding information, users and experts have shared their analysis.
Steve Trey shared his tidbits about Twitters publicly released source code and said some factors that could reduce an accounts reputation score on the platform are: getting blocked, muted and reported for abuse or spam.
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Quote-tweeting the thread, another Twitter user said that this is how botnets a network of hijacked computers infected with bot malware and remotely controlled by a hacker are crushing accounts.
The user also asked Musk to count only mutes, blocks and reports from Twitter Blue subscribers.
Responding to the tweet, Musk announced the $1 million bounty but only when the threat actors are convicted.
Who is behind these botnets?
Million dollar bounty if convicted. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
Why Its Important: Musk has long been promising to defeat spam and bots.
Even before acquiring Twitter, he said, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!
Previously, when disclosing the rationale behind relaunching Twitter Blue, Musk said, We arent doing well at surfacing tweets from less prominent handles, as its almost impossible to distinguish between authentic humans vs bots/trolls.
However, the Twitter Blue launch was met with an increasing number of verified-but-fake accounts which impersonated leading brands and personalities, creating chaos on the platform.
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