Forget crypto spam accounts, Twitter has another problem that involves bots and accounts promoting adult content and infiltrating direct messages and interactions on the platform. And there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution in sight.

Although the problem has been around for a while, the rise of bot porn is ironic, given Elon Musk’s promising claims about fighting bots and fake accounts on Twitter after he acquired the platform.

A Twitterverse of porn bots

This week, security researchers reported numerous spam accounts that started following them or initiating unsolicited direct message conversations or interactions (like likes and replies).

In a Tweeter, security research group, MalwareHunterTeam has exposed several Twitter accounts that are spambots injecting themselves into interactions in the form of likes. This is to entice users to view the profiles of these bot accounts and click on the links listed in their bios. These links lead to hookup sites and NSFW.

One such Twitter account with illicit links in his biography is pictured below. The account has since been suspended:

American journalist Chris Geidner also Underline a Twitter response to his recent post which he received from a “porn robot” minutes after posting the post:

Mikel Garcia, a UK-based IT professional job A screenshot of several spambots promoting fake lures, including “part-time jobs” via direct messages:

Although Twitter suspended bot accounts as they emerged, the platform still hasn’t implemented an effective or new solution to contain spam and bots, which amounts to a situation of mole.

“If our Twitter auction succeeds, we’ll beat the spambots or die trying!” The musk had declared last year amid discussions surrounding the acquisition of the platform.

But, at this point, bots continue to be a major problem for Twitter with no solution in sight.

Over the weekend, Musk announcement that Twitter was temporarily applying rate limits to limit “data scraping and system manipulation”. It is unclear whether this is done, in part, to target bot-initiated activity.

Musk had previously removed blue badges from accounts verified under the old criteria and replaced them with a paid system for everyonewith the aim of demolishing what he had called a ‘lords & peasants‘ system. Again, by his own admissionhe chose to keep the validation badges of certain important accounts intact by “paying for [them] personally.”

Threat actors have repeatedly abused Twitter Blue verified accounts to pushing crypto scamsthus running counter to the very purpose of the audit.

Without implementing a streamlined process to keep fake accounts and bots at bay, Twitter’s existing spam problems are here to stay.