X warns that you might lose followers as it does another bot sweep

X is launching a significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate its rules about platform manipulation and spam. This initiative involves a large sweep aimed at clearing the network of spammers and bots.

The new leaders appointed to X's safety team are:

• Kylie McRoberts, who is now the Head of Safety.
• Yale Cohen, previously of Publicis Media, who is joining as the Head of Brand Safety and Advertiser Solutions.

Spam has been a challenge for X for several reasons:

• Elon Musk has emphasized the importance of fighting spam since November 2022.
• The job cuts at X left the Trust & Safety team short-staffed.
• The role of Head of Safety was vacant for 10 months following the departures of Ella Irwin and Yoel Roth.
• Advancements in AI have made it more difficult to identify and control spam.

The Verified blue check system on X faced issues when it was reported that despite Musk's plan to require users to pay for Verification, spammers were still participating on the platform. Bots with Verified blue checks were found replying to posts with a phrase indicating they were not people, but bots, such as: "I'm sorry, I cannot provide a response as it goes against OpenAI's use case policy".

Users who believe they have been inadvertently affected by X's bot sweep can appeal by using a link to a form shared by X. This form allows users to submit their case for review if they think their account was mistakenly identified as a bot or spam account during the sweep.