A recent report has revealed a troubling trend of bot traffic on Elon Musk‘s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, during the Super Bowl LVIII promotions. According to cybersecurity firm CHEQ, a staggering 75.85% of the platform’s traffic to advertisers’ websites was deemed fake, marking an unprecedented level of inauthentic activity.
The revelation has cast doubt on X’s announcement celebrating over 10 billion impressions and 1 billion video views during the Super Bowl, hinting at extensive user engagement on the platform.
However, CHEQ’s findings challenge the authenticity of this supposed engagement, as per a report in Mashable.
CHEQ’s CEO, Guy Tytunovich, expressed his astonishment at the data, noting that such a high percentage of fake traffic is unprecedented in the industry.
The issue of bot traffic is not limited to the Super Bowl event; the analysis of X’s traffic throughout January 2024 also revealed a significantly high rate of fake traffic, with 31.82% of visits being inauthentic.
The prevalence of bots and fake users is a well-known issue on social media platforms, but the scale at which it occurs on X is particularly concerning, especially for advertisers who rely on genuine engagement metrics to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns. The comparison with other platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, where fake traffic percentages were markedly lower, underscores X’s unique challenge in managing bot activity.
X has undergone significant changes under Musk’s leadership, including layoffs within the Trust and Safety team, which may have impacted the platform’s ability to combat fake traffic effectively.
The bot issue, along with advertisers’ escalating concerns about content moderation, presents substantial challenges to X’s advertising revenue and overall credibility.
