Stop Twitter Spam

There haven’t been too many official updates from Twitter about the spam issue. We know that they’re “working on it” but the updates have been few and far between. Tonight we got one of those updates from Twitter product manager goldtoe. The update, which appeared on Get Satisfaction, addresses “follower spam”, an issue that we’ve beaten to death on this blog, track spam, and abuse, which is an issue that has come out of nowhere (from what I can tell) and has the potential to really damage the Twitter community if it’s not handled properly.

Below is the update provided by Twitter. I have highlighted the portions that address spam in bold.

Twitter is a recipient-driven communication utility; you choose what appears in your timeline. To this end, we offer tools designed to give you more control over your experience using Twitter. For example, with the block tool, you have the option of preventing your content from being delivered to other people’s timelines.

There are areas where we can improve our tools. For example, the track feature does not currently obey the block list, but it should. And we’re actively working to prevent abuse by spammers of the “new follower” email notices.

Our goal is to provide tools that allow people to enjoy the Twitter service in the way that makes sense to them. To achieve this goal, we need to curtail abuses that impair our ability to provide this service.

Content and Abuse

As a communication utility, Twitter does not get involved in disputes between users over issues of content except in very specific situations. Twitter is a provider of information, not a mediator. Specific physical threats, certain legal obligations, privacy breaches of specific types of information (e.g. SSN, credit cards), and misleading impersonation are some cases where we may become involved and potentially terminate an account.

Overall, we hold ourselves responsible for building tools that allow our users to control their own experience. Twitter is not a judge for resolving disputes over most content issues—our focus is on service.

Technical Abuse and SPAM

While our policy regarding content is mostly hands-off, we are strictly intolerant toward those who would subvert our intention to provide a utility for recipient-driven communication. Twitter will terminate accounts for a variety of technical abuse violations.

That includes the above-mentioned follower spam problem as well as other means that degrade our service. For example, our service is degraded through the cross-posting of updates from multiple accounts as a way to get around the block and unfollow tools.

Note: We have been paying close attention to these issues and as a result we are in the process of reviewing our Terms of Service. Our goal is to align our Terms of Service with the concerns of our users with an eye towards what we intend to enforce. We are also working to make this process more transparent.

A couple of weeks ago we posted about Track Spam. In that scenario (the @mytweets spammer), the victims of the spam were anyone who was tracking the hashtags that the spammer injected into their tweets. Yesterday Steve Gillmor (Gillmor Gang) was victimized by a more targeted version of Track Spam. Steve uses the GTalk client to read his Twitter stream and he makes extensive use of the track command to see tweets that are addressed to him and any tweets that mention him by name. So what’s the problem? In the past couple of days, someone on Twitter has sent a flurry of annoying tweets to Steve. Because she is using his name (@stevegillmor) in the tweets, these tweets are showing up in Steve’s Twitter stream, even though Steve isn’t following this person. Right now, there is nothing he can do to put a stop to this short of untracking his name, which would make Twitter almost useless to him. Even blocking this person won’t stop those tweets from polluting his Twitter stream.

This whole controversy was captured on yesterday’s NewsGang Live. It starts a few minutes in and goes on for more than an hour. Warning - it is VERY painful to listen to. The person who has been targeting Steve is on the call and she constantly cuts off anyone who tries to engage in the discussion with her.

There is a discussion thread on Get Satisfaction about this “hole” in the Track feature. If you have an opinion about this, please go to that thread and follow it.

Update:
This thread on Get Satisfaction is more active.

This is from a talk that Matt Cutts (Google) gave at Web 2.0 Expo , which was held last week in San Francisco.

From the 3:40 mark:

Look for ways to build a little bit of reputation into your system…. You don’t just have to cost spammers money. You can also cost them time. You can cost them effort. If a spammer gets frustrated whenever he tries to spam your system and get a reward, he’s more likely to bypass you and go and look for some easier prey. So think about the spammer mindset and figure out how you can annoy them.

Twitter Spam is a hot topic on Twitt(url)y (a Techmeme for Twitter). Two recently launched tools for fighting Twitter Spam - Twerp Scan and Twitter Blacklist - are at the top of the list. Just further proof that this is an issue that needs attention NOW.

Click here for the full-sized screen-shot.

(via betterthanblank.org)