On: Twitter Is Crawling with Bots and Lacks Incentive to Expel Them

[mschuster91]

> Unfortunately, bots don't just inflate user numbers for them, they create ad revenue.

How? At the end of the day, a human sees the ad and so generates ad revenue for Twitter. A bot a) does not see the ad tweets in his normal timeline feed and b) does not feed back impression tracking to Twitter.

[mv4 → mschuster91]

That's impressions (even those can be gamed).

If you promote a tweet or account on Twitter, you will get billed for Engagements (RTs, likes, follows).

https://business.twitter.com/en/advertising/campaign-types/i...

[mv4 → mschuster91]

This article states Twitter's position ("Bots? On my platform?") vs 1st hand experience from advertisers:

http://adage.com/article/digital/brands-worry-twitter-undere...

[shostack → mschuster91]

If the bots are posting content or attracting real human eyeballs with their comments, would they not be able to generate revenue then?

[mschuster91 → shostack]

Yeah, but that is entirely legitimate revenue.

[JumpCrisscross → mschuster91]

> A bot a) does not see the ad tweets in his normal timeline feed and b) does not feed back impression tracking to Twitter

Source?

[mschuster91 → JumpCrisscross]

I have written both bots and a client, I have yet to see a sponsored tweet. In fact this is why Twitter cracked down on 3rd party clients because they cannot show sponsored tweets.