Twitter’s long-overdue crackdown on fake accounts ramped up today with new reporting tools that give users more power to report users they believe to be fake or bot accounts.
The company is now offering users more granular controls when selecting the “it’s suspicious or spam” option when reporting a tweet. Now users will see a sub-menu offering five new choices, enabling them to identify the type of spam involved. One of those options is: “the account tweeting this is fake.”
Twitter then promises users it’ll investigate to see if the account in question violates the rules, while it’ll also block that account from interacting with you in any way. The announcement was made today using the Twitter Safety account, and you can see how the tool works in the animated GIF below.
Activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt Twitter’s service is not allowed. We remove this when we see it.
You can now specify what type of spam you're seeing when you report, including fake accounts. pic.twitter.com/GN9NKw2Qyn
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 31, 2018
A Twitter spokesperson says (via The Verge): “The new reporting flow will allow us to collect more detailed information so we can identify and remove spam more effectively. With more details to review, we’ll be adding more resources to our review processes.”
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The action comes after Twitter admitted it lost overall users in the last quarter due to the number of fake accounts being purged from the site. Naturally, the President of the United States complained that he was unfairly targeted in the purge, which cost him followers.
Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join – they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
The firm deleted 70 million accounts in May and June with Trump dropping a reported 200,000 of his then 53 million following. As for making it much harder to join? Well, Twitter is simply attempting to ensure those who do are actual human beings.
In June, the company explained: “To make it harder to register spam accounts, we’re also going to require new accounts to confirm either an email address or phone number when they sign up to Twitter. This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness. We will be working closely with our Trust and Safety Council and other expert NGOs to ensure this change does not hurt someone in a high-risk environment where anonymity is important. Look for this to roll out later this year.”
Did you lose followers when Twitter got rid of all of those fake and spammy accounts this summer? Is Trump being a massive baby again? No need to answer the second one @TrustedReviews on Twitter. It’s rhetorical.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
