Twitter/X Boss Shocked: Indonesian Bot Accounts Actually Run by Real People

Efforts by the X platform to eradicate bot and spam accounts have instead uncovered an unexpected phenomenon. X’s Head of Product, Nikita Bier, admitted to discovering that several accounts suspected of being bots were actually operated by real people from Indonesia, not by artificial intelligence (AI). Bier revealed this directly through a post on the X platform. In his tweet, Nikita Bier detailed that he was initially investigating a user managing around 30 accounts with IP addresses from Indonesia. However, his findings were beyond expectations. “I found out it was AI: Actual Indonesians (real Indonesians),” he continued, sarcastically noting that the activity was carried out by actual people, not an automated system. I was investigating a guy running 30 accounts with Indonesian IP addresses and I was trying to figure out what tools he was using. I found out it was AI: Actual Indonesians. — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) March 21, 2026 Some of the activities were even performed manually by humans, but with patterns resembling bots, such as mass posting, repeating content, or artificially boosting engagement. This phenomenon is often linked to certain practices, such as crypto promotions or digital campaigns involving multiple accounts to increase visibility. The discovery emerges amid X’s increasingly aggressive efforts to combat bots and spam activities on its platform. The company is now developing new detection systems, including those to identify AI-based bots that are increasingly difficult to distinguish from real users. According to Bier, one approach used is to detect whether an account is truly operated by a human directly. However, this approach also presents challenges, particularly because not all suspicious activities originate from AI, as seen in the Indonesian findings. Further details on the process were not provided. Clearly, X believes it has the capacity to tackle this issue, with new processes that can filter automated activities better than before.