Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical Crossroads, The Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, and I'm your host, Will Walden. If you want uninterrupted episodes of the Elon Musk podcast, please go to clubelon.supercast.com to find out how there's a link in the show notes. Recent findings have revealed that X, formerly known as Twitter, is grappling with an unprecedented level of fake traffic right now.
According to a cybersecurity firm, a substantial portion of the activity on X during the Super Bowl weekend was not genuine, raising concerns about the integrity of interactions on the platform. Now the Super Bowl 2024 event set a new record for viewership, becoming the most watched televised event in the United States to date. Now CB s s broadcast of the NFL Championship attracted a massive audience underscoring the events widespread appeal.
Now X also experienced a surge in activity during the Super Bowl with a platform reporting over 10 billion impressions and more than 1 billion video views. This marked the event as one of the most significant occurrences on the social media site in terms of user engagement. However, CHEQA Security Company specializing in the detection of bots and fraudulent users, has provided data suggesting that a large fraction of the traffic X directed to an advertiser's websites during the Super Bowl
was not authentic. Company found that 75.85% of this traffic consisted of fake interactions or bots. Now, the CEO and the founder of CHEQ expressed his astonishment at the high percentage of inauthentic traffic, stating that he had never encountered such a high level of fake activity in his professional experience. The situation on X is unique and has not been observed on other
platforms to this extent. Now, the analysis conducted by A CHEQ was based on 144,000 site visits originating from X over the Super Bowl weekend. Although the sample represents a small segment of the total data, it indicates a significant issue with fake traffic on the platform. CHEQS methodology involves monitoring the behavior of site users to identify inauthentic activities such as bots
masquerading as real users. Now this approach helps the company protect its clients from online advertising fraud. Now the prevalence of bots NX has become more noticeable to regular users who report an increase in suspicious activities such as AI generated responses and spam in their notifications. This user experience is now supported by CHEQS data. Now advertisers have also encountered problems with X's bot issue.
For example, the small business owner observed A discrepancy between the clicks reported by X's analytics and the actual traffic to his website is measured by Google Analytics following a modest advertising campaign. Now they discuss the common belief that half of all Internet traffic is actually generated by bots, a figure that is always found to be exaggerated based on CHEQS findings. Now the situation with X, however, has surpassed even the
skeptical expectations. The bot problem on X is not only more severe than on other social media platforms, but also appears to be worsening. CHEQS data shows that during the same period, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok had significantly lower rates of fake traffic. For instance, Tiktok's fake traffic was just 2.56%.
Facebook's was two point O1 and Instagram had just .73% rate of inauthentic visits during the Super Bowl and which highlights the start contract with XS nearly 76%. Now the issue extends beyond just the Super Bowl period. CHEQS data for the entire month of January 2024 shows the X had the highest percentage of fake traffic among the platforms analyzed, with 31.82% of visits being inauthentic.
Now, this ongoing problem with bots impacts not only XS user experience, but also its relationship with the advertisers who rely on genuine user engagement. For the campaigns, the inflated traffic figures could lead to advertisers paying for non existent interactions, and the situation has evolved significantly since Elon Musk's
acquisition of the platform. Changes under Musk's leadership, such as the rebranding to X and modifications to the verification system, have coincided with an increase in fake traffic. The platform's approach to handling bots and fake accounts has also shifted, but significant reductions in staff responsible for trust and safety. These changes have raised questions about X's capabilities to manage inauthentic activity
effectively. Now X's struggle with maintaining advertiser confidence has been compounded by issues related to content moderation in the platform public image. Efforts to address these concerns, such as the planned opening of a trust and Safety center, are under way, but the effectiveness of these measures remains to be seen. Now, X is facing a significant challenge here with the prevalence of bots and fake
traffic on this platform. This issue is not only affecting user experience but also poses a problem for advertisers who are relying on genuine engagement. And the data provided by CHEQ highlights the extent of the problem, which has reached unprecedented levels under the current ownership the sensitating urgent and effective solutions to restore trust and integrity to the platform. Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your
support. If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show tremendously. And you'll. Never miss an episode and each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly. And please, if you want to support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stage Zero and please take care of yourselves and each other. I'll see you tomorrow.