Comments on: An open letter to Twitter: stop the porn spam

By: Michelle V. Rafter

Michelle V. Rafter — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:15:26 +0000

Unfortunately, Twitter only gives you the option of blocking spam and X-rated content after the fact – something I do religiously. I’m not enough of a tech geek to know how easy it would be to block beforehand – seems like if they could do it they would have by now.

Michelle

By: TDLabs

TDLabs — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:42:18 +0000

@Michelle Rafter

Amen to that!

They should provide users with an option to block adult content and offensive content. Something like Facebook uses to unmark top stories. It’s not that complicated to achieve really.

By: Michelle V. Rafter

Michelle V. Rafter — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:34:05 +0000

Beth: Don’t just block them – report them to Twitter as spammers. You might also check Twitter’s blog and their network status update page to see if they’re seeing an unusually high level of this type of activity. You might also consider changing your password in case you don’t recognize one of those as a spammer and click on a link they share that could allow them to hack into your account.

Michelle

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:58:52 +0000

Since yesterday I’ve had over 60 followers come in. At first I was happy that I gained that many until I decided to check it out finding that they were all “adult pleasure” porn accounts. I also couldn’t help but notice some of them were the same faces. Also I noticed that they were all created on the 31st of August 2011. Of course I’ve blocked them all but it’s starting to annoy me that everytime I get a follower I have to go check them first. I shouldn’t have to do this and should feel safe about my followers without worrying about porn. If anyone knows how to stop this please let me know. Thank you. @BethCole95

By: Michelle V. Rafter

Michelle V. Rafter — Sun, 22 May 2011 23:23:22 +0000

To the best of my knowledge Twitter spammers are equal opportunity abusers, they don’t target one gender over another.

I don’t know what you mean by “capture your IP address.”

If you’re asking what financial motivation Twitter spammers have, it’s the same any any other spammers: do get you to do something that profits them, either by buying their product or inadvertently sharing your personal account information with them so they can then use it for their own financial gain.

You can avoid Twitter spam: 1. When spammers follow you block them. 2. Report them to Twitter. 3. Don’t share your email address in Twitter messages.

Michelle

By: Caroline Gerardo

Caroline Gerardo — Sun, 22 May 2011 19:00:32 +0000

I am new on Twitter. In the past I refrained for privacy reasons. Are women targeted more than men? The avatar is often a woman then the link is the same site. Does the site have some capability to capture your IP or what is the financial purpose?
I will continue to enjoy the creative influence that microblogging brings despite the rain.

By: Michelle V. Rafter

Michelle V. Rafter — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:38:05 +0000

Thanks for the comment. Keep making those kinds of comments to Twitter too. A year ago the company didn’t even have a “Report as spam” button, just an @reply that you had to report a porn spammer to. They’ve come along way since then, but I agree that there’s more that could be done.

Michelle

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:31:13 +0000

I am “sick” of it! It happens at least 2 times a week, having to “report as spam or block” is obviously not doing the job, and Twitter is not working hard enough to prevent such a nuisance. Especially when you own your own business!! How professional is that.. You have followers follow you and some want to check out who we are following or who is following us and then then they get a BIG surprise by it being “porn!”

Legit or not, we shouldn’t have to worry about clicking on a new follower & it be porn!!! Business’s want to run their business not support porn sites!!!!

Get it together Twitter, unless its just another Myspace….

By: Porn Spam on Twitter? I wouldn’t have believed it either. « Cupcakes and Plato

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:13:26 +0000

[...] It really hasn’t become a big issue for me personally (though it has for others). In fact, I was so amused by the event that I literally “laughed out loud”. However, the idea of this being a bigger and potentially more widespread problem on Twitter is kind of unnerving. Just ask Michelle V. Rafter. [...]

By: Michelle V. Rafter

Michelle V. Rafter — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:38:33 +0000

I wasn’t getting as much Twitter porn spam for a while there, then over the weekend while I was at a conference and adding a lot of new followers and vice versa I started getting a bunch of it again. Must be proportional to the number of followers you’re adding.

MvR