HBO and Max CEO Casey Bloys isn’t denying a thing following allegations that he used bot-controllled Twitter accounts to go after critics.

Bot Twitter Accounts

According to a story by Rolling Stone, HBO and Max CEO Casey Bloys took to Twitter to confront the company’s critics. Only, instead of acting like an adult, he made use of bot Twitter accounts to hit back at critics who gave negative reviews of the network’s shows.

At an event at HBO’s New York HQ, Bloys admitted to it all and claimed he was a “passionate” executive, saying, "I want the shows to be great. I want people to love them. I want you all to love them," according to Variety. "So when you think of that mindset, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I'm home, working from home, and spending an unhealthy amount of scrolling through Twitter. And I come up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration."

HBO boss Casey Bloys admits and apologizes for using fake accounts to fire back at those who make negative comments about HBO shows.

“[I was] working from home & doing an unhealthy amount of scrolling through Twitter. And I came up with a very dumb idea to vent my frustration.” pic.twitter.com/uIwZ0J1tsa

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 2, 2023

A Toxic Platform

Twitter, or X, is often cited as the most toxic of the social media platforms, so Bloys’ choice seems to make sense. The embarrassed executive apologized, saying that he was contacting critics through their direct messages (DMs) and that using bot accounts had not proved “very effective”.

All very embarrassing.

Airing Dirty Laundry

However, this didn’t all come out due to a moment of clarity, instead the tale emerged when a former assistant claimed he was wrongfully terminated, according to Rolling Stone. Sully Temori claimed that Bloys and another exec discussed using bots to attack critics and that Bloys told him to create a troll account posing as a "vegan Texan mom" and to come to the defense of the network’s shows.

It just goes to show, too much Twitter isn’t a good thing. It’s no surprise the company’s numbers are falling.