Why Twitter's 30 million bots are here to stay

Bots are a thriving part of Twitter's user base, and it's likely they'll continue showing up alongside our own human tweets. 

Twitter bots can be thought of as autonomous programs or entities that generate social content. Some of this content is harmless, like sports updates, and some of it intentionally malicious and polarizing — like the over 1,600 known bots that tweeted extremist right-wing views during the polarizing 2016 campaign, explored in a recent report from Bloomberg.

The influence of bots is strong, and much of this strength comes from sheer numbers. Earlier this year, researchers from the University of Southern California and Indiana University suggested that between nine and 15 percent of of Twitter users are actually bots. Twitter has around 328 million users globally, so even if the low estimate is taken, that's 30 million bots. Read more...