• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

X is expanding its ongoing effort to crack down on the prevalence of spam bots by requiring flagged accounts complete a test designed to prove that the user is a real person. 

“If our systems flag your account for unusual or automated-looking activity, we may ask you to complete a quick liveness check,” the company stated in a recent announcement.

While X’s announcement notes that liveness checks may vary depending on device, app version, and region, users required to prove they are operating a human account will have three options. 

Users can either verify their account through device biometrics -- Face ID, Touch ID, or the biometric unlock on Android smartphones -- or via a selfie video in which users can submit a short video of their face. 

The third option -- a hand-motion check in which the user performs a hand gesture in front of their camera -- is “coming soon,” according to X’s statement. 

The platform’s "liveness checks" are not voluntary and users won’t be asked to partake if their account is in good standing. Passing a check will restore full access to the user’s account, and should “take less than a few seconds.”

Users who avoid completing a liveness check will not be able to post content, follow accounts, or send DMs until they’ve done the check and been confirmed “a human.” 

Liveness checks are X’s most recent attempt at keeping the social media app “free of spam and platform manipulation.” 

Last year, the company added age assurance checks following regulatory pressures in the U.K. To align with the region’s Online Safety Act, X began developing AI-powered age-checking methods, including in-stream selfie verification. 

Bots have been a major focus for Elon Musk ever since he expressed interest in buying the platform -- then known as Twitter -- in 2022.

Prior to purchasing Twitter and renaming it X, Musk tried to cancel the merger, sharing public concerns about alleged unreported spam bots operating on the app. 

Musk claimed that Twitter was “actively resisting and thwarting his information rights” by allegedly withholding metrics on spam and fake accounts, which the billionaire stated could make up 20% or a “much higher” portion of total users.

“If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” Musk posted at the time.

Four years later, Musk was found to have used these comments about the supposed prevalence of fake accounts to mislead Twitter shareholders and manipulating the company’s share price. 

Despite Musk’s early antics regarding spam bots on X, the platform’s war on bots continues, with the company’s previous head of product Nikita Bier stating in April that the platform was identifying and suspending 208 bot accounts per minute.  

In addition, X is now inviting brands to create their own Grok-powered bot accounts, with the ability to carry out business-adjacent tasks.