A quarter of tweets posted by bots

Nearly a quarter of all tweets on social networking site Twitter are made by bots, according to research released today.

A report from business intelligence firm Sysomos showed 24 per cent of tweets were automated, with this rising to 32 per cent when it came to the most active users those posting 150 tweets or more a day.

The report also found that nearly all of the top five per cent of active tweeters were bots.

Nick Koudas, co-founder and chief executive of Sysomos, said: "It's a fascinating exercise to really focus on the most enthusiastic Twitter users, and what they are doing."

Not all of these bots were sending out spam. Users such as @diggupdates or @deliciousrecent generate more than 2,000 tweets a day as news updates.

Over a third of the most active users joined Twitter this year, with 88 per cent of the most active having never gone a day without tweeting.

The UK came out as the second highest twittering nation, after the US, with 6.9 per cent of the site's most active users coming from these shores.

UK celebrity Jonathan Ross was ranked 15th in a list of the most active tweeters who have over 50,000 followers. He averaged 37.08 tweets a day, ahead of the likes of Alyssa Milano and fellow Brit Phillip Schofield.