3 posts tagged “spam”
Has Twitter trending topics gotten too spammy? It's a question we've needed to address since the moment Twitter introduced trending topics, which were once relegated to Twitter's search page and now display on all public Twitter pages. But a recent incident with a group of pranksters on the anonymous forum 4chan is pushing the limits of Twitter's ability to deal with trending topics-related spam.
The 4chan prank has not only pushed an offensive term through to the trending topics, but did so as a result of several fake accounts that have been created in order to do so. It's the creation of the fake accounts that minimizes Twitter's ability to curb spam and the people behind it.
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While it's easy enough to create regulations on what terms can be pushed through as a trending topic, and subsequently easy enough to remove an offensive trending topic, it's not as easy to get rid of the fake accounts behind it. From keeping up with the creation of fake accounts to the measures necessary to ensure that a suspended or terminated account is indeed fake, there's a lot more to deal with than just the spam itself.
It's an issue that Digg was once notorious for having to deal with, leading to a series of changes made to the very way in which Digg operates. Perhaps a complete overhaul for the way in which Twitter manages and promotes trending topics is in order, but that would require careful monitoring and decisions on an executive level. As Twitter is working towards building close relationships with advertising brands, trending topics is likely to be one channel by which marketing can readily take place.
We've discussed ways in which Twitter could curb trending topics spam here on MultisocialMedia. Certain cues and user behavior are ways in which Twitter can begin to determine which users are spamming and which accounts are fake. But as we've seen with many platforms, from Digg to Facebook, a great deal of ongoing tweaks to platform regulations and users' terms of service is a necessary growing pain.
See here for more.
This post was written by Matthew Kraft (@MKraft) spends entirely too much time online. One of these days that will pay off, as will all those years he spent reading obscure literature in grad school.
Last week I was researching Swine Flu/H1N1 for a client, using Twitter. The WHO had just upgraded the pandemic to Phase 6, so lots of people were talking about it. This looked like it would make my job easy--use Trending Topics to take the temperature of the Twitterverse, as it were. It turned out to be more like getting a room full of kindergartners to tell you about their pets while an ambulance screams by - you may get some information, but it's mostly useless blathering and screaming.
Trending Topics has the possibility to be a really useful tool, from both a research point of view and a marketing perspective. Want to find out not only what the Twitterverse is talking about, but *how* they're talking about it? This is your place. It's zeitgeist central for the hottest communication tool on the planet. However, since Trending Topics came to the front of everyone's twitter homepage, the increase in spam is immense. Today, it's a pretty safe can bet that any trending topic is half-full of bandwagon-jumpers and coattail-riders, spammers who throw up topic keywords just to get on the front page of results.
This phenomenon wouldn't be so bad were it not for three things:
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While running errands this weekend, I started receiving several incoming text message alerts on my cell phone. They were all direct messages from Twitter. And they were all spam. The DMs went something like this: “check out this funny blog I found about you.” A URL was also included in the message that redirected you to a fake Twitter login page. And less than 48 hours later the phishing messages are becoming more blatant, with lures of friends winning iPhones.
It reminded me of the spam messages you’d get in your email inbox with enticing links taking you to a YouTube video that your friend found of you–only they weren’t actual links to YouTube. Just another phishing ploy. Many feared that Twitter could be used for such spamming initiatives, but given the fact that it’s difficult to spam people if they don’t follow you has made it a smaller concern than we’ve seen on other social networking sites.
Fake Twitter Login
But since Twitter has opened up its platform to allow third party developers to build applications that automate much of your Twitter activity, it’s becoming easier to sneak spam and misleading links into the Twitter service. While this isn’t the first time someone has managed to get spam onto Twitter, the widespread adoption of Twitter along with more automated services that make phishing links appear to come directly from friends has made the latest wave of spam a major concern. Which is why Twitter has taken a proactive stance this time around.
Aside from a post on the company blog, Twitter has also posted a warning directly on your Twitter profile page, front and center. It’s a good tactic, given the nature of the phishing bot and the level of trust that Twitter users have for something like a private, direct message. For those users that stick to mobile and third party applications, however, how could Twitter most effectively alert them to the latest phishing scam?
Phishing, spam and scammers are not going away. Twitter needs to protect it’s most valuable corporate asset - the trust of it’s users. That’s going to take more than a warning and a post. It takes changes to Twitter’s DNA and to the API every developer out there with a Twitter app uses. And now that phishing has come big time to Twitter, there’s blood in the water and the online sharks are going to moving closer at Internet speed. Time to stop this problem before it does real damage.
Kristen Nicole is the co-author of the “Twitter Survival Guide.” With Bob Walsh, this ebook covers the history and social importance of Twitter as a web and mobile tool, and is the perfect resource for getting your Twitter account set up and ready for personal or professional use.
