Elon Musk’s pledge to root out bot accounts has sparked widespread interest.
There is still controversy over the changes taking place in the social networking platform Twitter since US billionaire Elon Musk completed its takeover, especially after the chaos of distributing the new blue authentication mark.
But what has caught the attention of Arab tweeters today is a promise by the American billionaire to take down “bots” or “automated accounts,” in an Arab tweet.
“It’ll be fine”
In addition to the constant controversy raised by Elon Musk’s statements, the American billionaire has the ability to attract attention by heavily interacting with his followers.
Sometimes he tries to answer the questions of some, other times he sarcastically answers some of the accusations made by others, while often receiving suggestions to activate the platform’s work.
In this context, Musk was asked by the tweeter, “Thunayan,” a Saudi engineer who has a verified account on Twitter and identifies himself as a “content creator,” in response to a tweet from the latter suggesting that he start a campaign to delete fake or automated accounts.
Thunayan, who used English in his tweet, spoke about the problem of Arabic hashtags, which are still full of random and unwanted tweets.
Thunayan added, “Whenever I scan Arabic hashtags, I can’t find any original or meaningful tweets. They are full of ads and spam. Please correct.”
The surprise was Musk’s response to Thunayan’s tweet in Arabic, saying, “You will.”
“The days of electronic flies are numbered.”
Musk’s “Arabic” response caused much ridicule, as it appeared that his linguistic error of using the feminine pronoun instead of the masculine one was caused by his downloading of a literal machine translation on the Internet.
But his pledge to close those accounts has sparked widespread interest. Many have expressed hope that Musk and his team will be able to deliver on that promise, describing it as “the best thing that could happen to Twitter.”
The tweeters pointed out that “the days of electronic flies are numbered”.
Others spoke amusingly about Musk’s interaction with the tweet and felt it “provides customer service for Arabic speakers.”
Wholesale fake accounts
On the other hand, the Twitter platform recently witnessed “total chaos” after Musk decided to introduce an additional authentication stamp for all accounts subscribed to the “Twitter Blue” service for $8 a month.
Once the service was activated, the platform was flooded with parody accounts imitating the original ones, which deceived users and made it difficult for them to distinguish the original accounts from the fake ones.
The most famous of these incidents was the documentation of a satirical account simulating the account of the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, when the fake account advertised the free supply of insulin drugs for diabetics.
The tweet went viral and was shared by thousands to celebrate the decision, before the account was revealed to be fake and earned a paid verification badge.
The tweet rocked the company’s stock and cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
Later, the company apologized through its official account for the rumor, and confirmed that it had not released any statement about it, and that it only has one account on the Twitter platform.
However, the tweet and rumor ignited a war of another kind against the American company, as talks about the fair price of insulin resumed and many tweeters said that the price charged by the company is exaggerated and should be adjusted .
What is the difference between the new authentication badge and the traditional one?
The difference between Twitter’s new verification badge, obtainable with an $8/month subscription, and the traditional verification mark is very simple, and you cannot tell them apart except by clicking on the verification mark, after which the reason is displayed of account verification.
In an effort to curb copycats, Musk recently clarified that all parody accounts must clearly state this, and if they don’t, they will be suspended.
As for Arab tweeters’ views on “documenting all accounts,” they were mixed, as some felt that the “prestige of documentation” was not what it used to be.
While others expressed their happiness at finally getting it, albeit in exchange for money.
