Twitter's Bot Census Didn't Actually Happen

There isn’t a tweeting human behind every Twitter account, and the number of automated accounts in existence is a bit of a mystery. News website Quartz has come up with a figure, citing numbers buried in a recent regulatory filing: As many as 23 million accounts are manned by bots. According to Twitter, however, Quartz got it wrong.

Before wading into the Twitter bot dispute, a quick definition: Bots are accounts whose tweets are sent automatically. Bots can churn out spam or comedy—this account randomly combines news headlines into tweets that say such things as “Iraq Brings Back Chicken Fries After Diners Complain”—or they can be public-service messages. (This account sends out alerts about Securities and Exchange Commission filings.)