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When Twitter did an analysis of bot behavior and made the claim that less than 5% of all accounts are bots, did they factor only active accounts in that equation or did they include even inactive accounts or accounts that just log in and read tweets? Does anyone know?

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These are all good questions, the sort that we never get answers to

JSON Baumgartner

@jasonbaumgartne

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@botvolution

Thanks (and thanks for your awesome work). I think it makes a big difference on how the end number is derived. I'm really curious.

9:01 PM · May 13, 2022Twitter Web App

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and

It's an important question given that botnet creators may make tens of thousands of accounts that tweet a few times then go dormant until needed. Also, if twitter know that (at least) 5% of accounts are fake, then why are those accounts still up?

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and

I, and others of course, frequently come across accounts with 10s or 100s of 1000s of bulk created followers. The account itself might get ssuspended but the followers almost never. Look at the two examples I posted today, especially the crpyto one.