Filed under: Social Software, Microblogging
Hate Twitter spam? Now you can report it with one click
The head honchos at Twitter have decided to take action against the site's growing problem with spam accounts by giving users some new options to file spam reports. You'll see a new "Report as spam" link on the sidebar of each user's Twitter page, and a "Report as spam" action available from your followers and following lists. Clicking on either of those links will give you a chance to decide if you're sure you want to report, and then block the user and flag them for review.Previously, reporting spam meant following Twitter's @spam account, and sending it a direct message with the username you wanted to report. There's no official word from Twitter on how the spam reports work, yet, but I suspect it's something like the way blocking worked before: i.e., the more times an account is marked as spam, the more likely it will be to get deleted. This seems like a much more efficient way to handle the spam problem, and it'll be interesting to see if it results in fewer bot accounts on Twitter.
[Thanks, Damon!]
UPDATE: Twitter's official blog post on spam reporting is up now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EGOvoruhk said 9:16AM on 10-14-2009
Now if only DownloadSquad had the same button...
KeegdnaB said 6:14PM on 10-13-2009
DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN THANK YOU
Reply
r3loaded said 6:55PM on 10-13-2009
Report Scoble for spam? Yep, I'm thinking what you're thinking! :D
Reply
Dave Bonds said 9:12PM on 10-13-2009
Yeah, report Scobleizer... nice.
Jeremy Dixon said 8:42AM on 10-14-2009
Kinda concerning to me, what's to stop a competitor from just reporting you as spam and having all their followers do the same...
Reply
jared said 8:58AM on 10-14-2009
from twitter blog --
"No automated action will be taken as a result of reporting a user as spam (in other words, it can't be used to incite an angry mob against an account you don't like.) And once you report a profile it will automatically be blocked from following or replying to you."
Jeremy Dixon said 9:01AM on 10-14-2009
Sure, but I guess I see twitter more as a permission based system where you follow/unfollow people/organizations/groups as you see fit. If someone is "spamming" the system you simply unfollow. If that person is truly spamming, then everyone will eventually unfollow and the problem is solved...right?
barney said 9:43AM on 11-03-2009
Thanks goodness for this, i have just been an innocent victim of a spam attack! I going reporting right now
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