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Off-Color Spam Plagues Twitter, Scares Away Older Folks

by Caleb Johnson on September 7, 2009 at 03:12 PM


With its growing number of users, Twitter has also seen a tremendous rise in spam. We've written before about the low-lifes that create fake accounts, rife with nude pictures and links that will infect your computer with all kinds of viruses. It doesn't take a genius to realize that rampant spam is a problem for a Web site, and particularly a social networking site.

But a columnist at Business Week writes that spam might be an even larger concern for Twitter than most folks think. The theory is this: since Twitter's users tend to be slightly older, they're more likely to be offended by links to porn. In turn, they just might stop using the micro-blogging site. The writer, Sarah Lacy, uses the example of her mother-in-law, who recently joined the Twitter-verse. This poor old lady told Lacy that she "felt so violated" when one of her 'followers' turned out to be nothing more than a fake account whose page was riddled with pornographic images.

Sure, spam is a problem that plagues many sites, even Facebook. But, as Lacy writes (and we completely agree), alerting Twitter to spam is "too cumbersome a process." To report spam, you have to follow an account, called 'spam' of course, copy the URL in question, and message a complaint. Most folks just won't go to that much trouble, and honestly, who can blame them? One thing's for sure, Twitter had better figure this one out quick. Or else, there will be no users left on the site aside from suspiciously under-dressed ones named 'Jasmine' and 'Kelli.' [From: Business Week]

Tags: babyboomers, microblogging, porn, social networking, SocialNetworking, spam, top, twitter

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