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Twitter has suspended the account of popular memcoin-related artificial intelligence bot ‘Explain This Bob’ after Elon Musk claimed it was a ‘cryptocurrency fraudulent account’.
Musk claimed the account was fraudulent in a June 18 tweet in response to a bot, but the account was apparently banned shortly after.
This sure looks like a scam cryptocurrency account. If so, it will be suspended.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2023
The “Explain It to Bob” account reportedly amassed over 400,000 followers prior to its suspension. The bot was created by Prabhu Biswal from India and used the OpenAI GPT-4 model to understand and respond to the tweets of those who tagged the account.
The project was also linked to the ERC-20 Bob Token (BOB) memcoin, which was launched in April 2023. According to CoinGecko, the suspension caused the price of BOB to drop by more than 30%.
The suspension is a reversal in Musk’s earlier impression of the bot, who tweeted “I love Bob” in response to one of his April 20 tweets, a tweet that also features prominently on the project’s website.
I love Bob
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
However, Twitter has not taken any action against the Bob Token account. The project team reacted with humor to the news of the suspension, sharing a meme in which Musk watches the distraught “Bob” in prison.
#FREEBOB pic.twitter.com/SOUm7opQ7o
— Bob (@BobEthToken) June 18, 2023
Observers believe that Musk is of the opinion that “Explain it, Bob” is being used as a marketing tactic to prop up the price of BOB.
Related: PR expert tips for memcoin projects
Since the suspension, the “FREEBOB” hashtag has been circulating in Twitter’s cryptocurrency. Most observers believe that BOB is not a fraudulent coin and the suspension is unjustified as the launch of the token was “fair” in addition to the fact that BOB was “fully decentralized” with a 0% tax mechanism.
Another claimed that the team did not provide itself with any tokens or airdrops until the launch of Bob Token in April.
So does @elonmusk plan to provide any proof of $BOB being a scam or are we just expected to take his word for it?
Intrigued to understand what constitutes a scam cryptocurrency account @elonmusk?
Renounced contract
0 tax
0 team tokens
Fully decentralized
Fair launchedCan you explain… pic.twitter.com/0U2nuUsyqB
— Cryptocurrency Boss (CB) (@Cryptoboss2000) June 18, 2023
Cointelegraph contacted Bisval and Twitter for comment but did not receive an immediate response.