Yet how Twitter finds spam and how it differentiates bots from humans remains vague. In the legal battle between Elon Musk and Twitter, the term “spam bots” has become key. The comment has been sent to me by John, not his real name, who works on Twitter’s secretive “spam project.” According to him, if I were part of that team, my job would be to look at comments like this one and decide whether this account genuinely wants the woman in the swimsuit to follow them back, or whether they are trying to manipulate Twitter’s system and should be labeled as spam. Here, another user has written, “Follow for follow.” Instead my eye is drawn to the comment below. This is an unexpected twist in my quest to track down and understand the daily challenges faced by the people who moderate spam on Twitter. It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m staring at a picture of a tanned woman in a swimsuit that doesn’t quite cover her nipples.
