Twitter looks to have taken on spammers and have won with latest figures showing that the popular microblogging site has slashed the amount of spam tweeted down to a meager 1 per cent.
This is compared to an 11 per cent spam rate eight months' ago.
Twitter's success is down to the site's education on account hacking, as well as the new Twit.tl shortened link which checks that links posted on Twitter are legit by performing an initial scan.
"With help from engineers on our research team"¦ we’ve moved the percentage of spam flowing through the Twitter network way down – and counting," said the company’s chief scientist, Abdur Chowdhury (@Abdur), in a Twitter blog post.
Spammers have employed cunning methods to trick users into clicking their links, such as continually following and unfollowing someone until the user visits the spammed account to find out what's going on and clicks on a fake link.
"At Twitter, we see spamming as a variety of different behaviors that range from insidious to annoying," Chowdhury said.
"Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites, repeatedly posting duplicate tweets, and aggressively following and un-following accounts to attract attention are just a few examples of spam on Twitter."
Tweeps can continue the spam war by clicking on a "report for spam" link on any suspicious profile page, which alerts Twitter staff to suspicious happenings and blocks that user from replying or following you.
You can also send a tweet of concern to @spam– just don't do it 500 times.
Have you noticed less links to pre-approved mortgages on Twitter? Leave us a comment and let us know.
One thought on “The Twitter Diet: Down To 1 Per Cent Spam”
Very simple. Twitter seems to suspend accounts left, right and centre. Whilst the official version (see below) is claiming to reduce spamming – whytwitter sources show and say different.