Twitter deletes 1 million fake accounts every day, execs reveal

Prospective buyer Elon Musk says spam accounts are ‘single most annoying problem’ of Twitter

Scam Twitter accounts have attempted to trick people into believing famed tech figures like Elon Musk are giving away free cryptocurrency (REUTERS)

Twitter removes over 1 million bots every day as part of a major crackdown on spam accounts, executives revealed on Thursday.

In a briefing to reporters, the social media platform also refuted claims that roughly 20 per cent of all Twitter accounts were either fake or spam.

The briefing comes as billionaire Elon Musk has threatened to halt a deal to purchase Twitter unless the company showed proof that spam bots accounted for less than 5 per cent of total users on the social media service.

On a conference call, the company reiterated that spam accounts were well under 5 per cent.

Before making his offer to buy Twitter, Mr Musk described fake accounts as Twitter’s “single most annoying problem”.

The tech billionaire, who is an outspoken advocate of cryptocurrency, has frequently been targeted by scammers who attempt to trick Twitter users by impersonating his account and offering crypto giveaways.

One campaign tracked by The Independent in 2018 saw more than 400 people send thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies to scammers.

One method of preventing spam and scam accounts on Twitter, according to Mr Musk, is to “authenticate all real humans” by providing verification check marks to users.

“If our Twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying,” he tweeted in April.

After making a $44 billion bid to purchase Twitter, Mr Musk threatened to pull out of the deal if the company did not provide data on fake accounts.

In response, the social media giant said it would provide access to a stream of data comprising more than half a billion tweets per day.

Additional reporting from agencies.