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Musk on Twitter (TWTR) bots: 'it needs to be much more expensive to have a troll army'

Reiterating on his disdain for bots on social media, Musk shared what could be his direction on combatting Twitter's bot issues.

TJ Denzer

June 16, 2022 11:50 AM

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Elon Musk absolutely hates Twitter bots. That’s really no secret at this point, but of course in the recent Twitter all-hands meeting, the matter came up again. Musk was involved in the most recent Twitter all-hands meeting with employees where he addressed a number of concerns. One among them was reiterating his annoyance at Twitter’s bot problem and sharing his mood on what he wants to happen to bots on the platform in the future.

The aforementioned Twitter all-hands meeting which Elon Musk attended took place on June 16, 2022, with various aspects of the meeting shared by the likes of New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac. Late in the meeting, Elon Musk reportedly shared addressed the matter of bots on the platform, speaking once again to his overall disdain for the matter, as well as what he believes the company should strive to do in response.

“It needs to be much more expensive to have a troll army,” Elon Musk allegedly said during the meeting.

Bots have been a huge point of contention on Musk’s part regarding the Twitter acquisition. At one point, Musk claimed the deal could not move forward without proof of a claim by Twitter that bots only made up 5 percent of the userbase. He even went as far as to accuse Twitter of not properly providing information on the platform’s bot makeup. Twitter would eventually cave to his demands to provide more information and data on bot research and user makeup, but it remains to be seen what info will be provided or what Musk will do with that info.

Musk addressed a number of other matters during the Twitter all-hands meeting, including possible upcoming layoffs, his stance on content moderation, and using Twitter as a payment transfer platform. As we await further details on the ongoing deal, stay tuned for more coverage here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.