Nikita Bier, head of product at X (previously referred to as Twitter) posted a sequence of extraordinary tweets about spam on Twitter, explaining the motivation of a few of the spammers, they described forms of spam and talked about that some spammers had been utilizing Grok to auto-post spam responses at scale.
Nikita Bier spent 24 hours tweeting anti-spam actions in actual time, revealing particulars about how how automated and fast-paced AI-assisted platform spamming has change into.
42,000 Accounts In One Sweep
Bier began their sequence of tweets describing the scope of the chatbot downside, saying that offering authenticity on X is a core worth that’s central to the corporate’s core values.
Bier tweeted:
“We discovered 42,000 accounts automating replies utilizing chatbots and have eliminated them from the platform.
X’s core worth is offering an genuine pulse on humanity — and utilizing AI to programmatically interact with customers with out a human within the loop runs counter to our mission.”
Chatbot Spam Is Motivated By Cash
Bier adopted up the subsequent day with a clarification about what the chatbot spamming was about. They defined that the spam wasn’t ideologically pushed, it was not political nor a a state-run affect operation. It was purely about monetization. Apparently the spammers had been making an attempt to develop an viewers with a view to leverage that for paid promotion offers from AI corporations seeking to prolong their affect.
Corporations don’t usually publish about their spam points and the real-time posting by Bier provided a behind-the-scene take a look at the size and motivations.
Bier tweeted:
Maybe it’s best to discover a totally different app pic.twitter.com/z9Qv0vbpZj
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) July 24, 2026
And likewise posted an explanation:
“For transparency, the majority of them had been spamming thought-leadership slop about synthetic intelligence — to develop accounts and obtain paid promotion provides from AI tech corporations.
99.99% of spam on X is economically-motivated.
Simply plain outdated grifters.”
The Standing Replace: A Repair in Hours, Not Days
After a day Bier posted a fast replace a couple of timeline for when to see the X feed enhance, once more exhibiting how these sorts of anti-spam actions work in real-time.
Bier tweeted:
“This spam assault was mitigated tonight. Your feed will enhance within the subsequent 6-12 hours.”
X Fights Again Towards AI Chatbot Spammers
Bier’s tweets served as an open assertion to spammers to indicate how severe they’re about preventing inauthentic habits on the platform, calling the spammers criminals.
Bier tweeted:
“We’ll clear this place. I don’t care what number of enemies I create. X won’t be manipulated by criminals.”
The Spammer Who’s Pivoted 40 Instances
Essentially the most eye-opening a part of the thread wasn’t a brief alternate between Bier and one of many X members. Bier described one spam operator that was so persistent and adaptive (40 methodology adjustments in six months), that the spammer behaves much less like a bot farm and extra like somebody who’s sitting proper subsequent to them monitoring all their responses and quickly developing with a countermeasure.
A reply from an X member referred to as consideration to the truth that a few of these spammers have began utilizing Grok, X’s personal AI product, to generate their replies. Bier confirmed that the Grok-based methodology had already been caught and blocked. Of their response, Bier revealed that X’s response time of 12-18 hour turnarounds was an enchancment over how lengthy the identical downside used to linger beneath the outdated Twitter.
Bier tweeted:
“There are a number of spammers on X which have been pivoting their technique for the final 6 months.
One of many them (“This man is a superb dealer ⬇️”) has pivoted a complete of 40 instances after every methodology has been blocked.
Among the strategies are so artistic and quick that it seems like they’re sitting proper subsequent to us.
At this level, we’d as properly rent them as a result of they’re simply as conversant in the X codebase as us.”
@CryptoParadyme responded:
“please don’t encourage them
quite a lot of them have been utilizing some form of grok reply lately.”
Bier tweeted:
“We blocked the Grok one yesterday.
Our staff is standing by ready for his or her subsequent transfer. We’re 10x extra proactive than earlier than.
This might fester for months at Twitter however our turnaround time now could be 12-18 hours.”
False Optimistic Reported And Dealt With
One other fascinating results of this thread about spam actions in real-time is that one individual posted about their false-positive expertise with the spam actions. A false constructive is when a machine makes a mistake, labeling one thing as spam when actually it’s not. In actual life, these sorts of algorithms depend on a mess of indicators with a view to pinpoint spam with a excessive degree of accuracy however false positives can nonetheless occur, ideally a low proportion of time.
@the_defi_dad tweeted:
“I gotta be trustworthy. I used to be stunned to get a discover for my account being spam. I clicked the request evaluate button and about 12 hours later I used to be reinstated. I did complain about grass app being a rip-off and instantly obtained a discover. Unsure the hyperlink there however glad to see the algorithm or no matter decides spam or no spam made the best name.”
Bier’s posts obtained a constructive response from X customers, a few of whom expressed that a few of these engagement chatbots should be producing engagement numbers however that their inauthentic nature makes them a scourge.
@RandomPerson242 tweeted:
“On one hand, individuals clearly like this garbage by some means. Alternatively, I agree you possibly can’t let that be the location’s content material, even when individuals comply with it. It will possibly’t be a race to the underside.”
Social Media Is Greatest When Genuine
Many had been glad to see that X was preventing again in opposition to inauthentic AI chatbot spam. It ruins the expertise as a result of individuals come to social media platforms like X to learn and share human experiences.
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Naumova Marina
