10 People You Won’t See on Twitter Anymore
Sick of Twitter spam? So are we! And now it’s happy dance time. As of this week, twitter has announced changes to its terms of service that state that you own your tweets, that twitter has the right to place ads next to your content, and best of all, that they will now be cracking down on spammers, robots and other poor behavior that has caused issues in the past. As a result of these new rules, twitter will be ridding itself of 10 types of twitter users that often times attempt to hack the service. Here is our top 10 list of people we won’t be hearing from anymore:
1. The impersonator. These are the people who create Twitter accounts using celebrity names or large brand identities in the hopes of tricking twitterers into following them. The new rules clearly state “you may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others.” Now we can all rest assured knowing that the tweets we receive are from the actual Britney Spears and Lil’ Wayne, not crazed fans.
2. The Bot. Now this is where it gets tricky. If your account is programmed to automatically tweet, reply and retweet based on Twitter content or RSS feeds then you could be in danger of being kicked off of Twitter. In an effort to rid robots from Twitter, the new rules express that you could be in violation of the TOS and subject to termination if your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates. This is a difficult thing to decide since some Twitterers use bots for practical purposes, like IMDb’s twitter account that posts auto-updates from the movie databases and auto-replies to movie inquiries.
3. The Naked Chick. Twitter is now going to crack down on inappropriate images that are used as photos and backgrounds. When it comes to porn, Twitter rules that “you may not use obscene or pornographic images in either your profile picture or user background.”
4. The Serial Abuser. These are those users who are following 30,000 people, but only have 4 followers in return. They also are known to open many Twitter accounts to retweet their own replies or stories of a popular Twitter topic. A better-known alias for these particular users is spammers. To help sort out the spammers from the non-spammers, a new rule has been enacted that says, “you may not create serial accounts for disruptive or abusive purposes. Mass account creation will result in suspension of all accounts.”
5. The Squatter. Twitter has seen issues with name squatting from those who are looking to make money by snagging desirable names in the hopes of later flipping them for a profit to interested buyers. From now on, Twitter will not tolerate this. The new rule declares, “you may not engage in name squatting. Accounts that are inactive for more than 6 months may also be removed without further notice.
6. The Slimy Salesman. We all know that you are out there! You try to control the Twitter system by selling Twitter followers to make a profit. Perhaps you got away with it in the past, but as of now, your operation is toast. Twitter will now give you the ax “if you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn”.
7. The Hashtag Spammer. This type of spam is when a twitterer inserts a trendy “hashtag” to the beginning of their tweet to grab fellow users attention. An example that occurred with Habitat’s spam tactics: HabitatUK:#TRUE BLOOD. Join the database for free to win a $1000 gift card now! So your days may be numbered if you are one of these users who “post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #,” or “post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic”.
8. The Plagiarizer. There is now a Twitter rule about content attribution. If you are one of those who tweet something someone else said or wrote without attributing it to them, then you may be busted by the Twitter police! This will be interesting to see how Twitter enforces this law because although it is a good one to have, it seems like a tricky thing to decipher.
9. The Uber Oversharer or Bully. Oversharing isn’t unheard of on twitter, and easy to do considering most tweets are just pointless babble. But recently, Twitter has recognized that there are certain circumstances when what you share in the public domain could be detrimental or another user. Should this occur, Twitter will intervene. The section on content boundaries in the Twitter rules spell out that “you may not public or post other people’s private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street addresses or social security/national identity numbers without their express authorization and permission”.
10. The Faker. With all the modern technology that has emerged, duplication has become a common practice in our world. The seal of approval for verified accounts that Twitter has are easy to replicate and with a few Photoshop skills, have been replicated by many. The new penalty for faking verification is permanent suspension. The rules clearly state, “you may not use the Verified Account badge unless it is provided by Twitter. Accounts using the badge as part of profile pictures, background images, or in any way implying false verification will be permanently suspended”.
So to those who have been hesitant about creating and joining Twitter, never fear! The new Twitter laws can ensure us all that our Twitter accounts will be safe and free from spammers, bots and hackers.
To follow the kids at Big Star:
http://www.twitter.com/sarahbuhr
http://www.twitter.com/michaelakerr
http://www.twitter.com/katstankiewicz
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