Changes are underway at Elon Musk’s X.
In a post to the social media site, Musk announced Thursday that a system to purge the site of bots and trolls is “underway,” and asked users to reply to his post or ping @XEng — the official account for the site’s Product and Infrastructure teams — if legitimate accounts are accidentally suspended.
“X Corp will be tracing the people responsible and bringing the full force of the law to bear upon them,” Musk wrote, without providing further context.
The news comes on the heels of X’s appointment of a new head of safety and head of brand safety and advertiser solutions, in a push to make the platform “a better, safer space for everyone.”
The platform has seen an influx of bots in recent months, many of which are even “Verified” by the site, meaning the account has been authenticated by X. These automated accounts reply to posts, sometimes with nonsensical or unrelated content, and fill feeds with posts that are often created using artificial intelligence. Users have complained that it feels like the platform is “completely overrun” with bots, and that it has become harder and harder to find replies from real people.
These latest bot-fighting efforts will be a “significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate [its] Rules against platform manipulation and spam,” X’s safety team announced Thursday, adding that they are “casting a wide net to ensure X remains secure and free of bots.”
Musk’s crackdown on bots also coincides with the return of the infamous blue checkmark. Prior to Musk’s takeover, public figures, organizations and other notable accounts could apply for verification for free. The site would approve or deny applications based on whether it deemed the user to be significant.
After Musk bought the platform then known as Twitter in October 2022, one of the many changes he made was to make the blue check verification a paid process. As of April 2023, only paying subscribers could keep their checks.
Starting late Wednesday, X began reinstating blue checks to some accounts, without having to paying the $8 monthly fee. Users who had their check reinstated were told that they received the complimentary Premium subscription because they are considered “an influential member of the community.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said in a post last week that accounts with more than 2,500 verified subscriber followers will get their checks back with Premium features for free, and accounts with more than 5,000 subscriber followers will receive the $16-per-month Premium+ subscription for free.