Twitter Continues to Crack Down on Fake Accounts With New Report Feature
Written by SOURCE on November 1, 2018
Twitter is expanding its efforts to combat spam.
On Wednesday, the social media platform introduced a new feature that allows users to report shady activity; these include suspected bots, tweets that contain malicious links, and posts with unrelated hashtags, which scammers typically use to gain attention through trending topics.
Twitter’s official Safety account demonstrated the spam-fighting feature with a gif:
As you can see, the “Report Tweet” option includes more options to specify the type of spam that is suspected. The company said these additions will assist moderators in identifying fishy accounts and removing potentially harmful tweets.
“The new reporting flow will allow us to collect more detailed information so we can identify and remove spam more effectively,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Verge on Wednesday. “With more details to review, we’ll be adding more resources to our review processes.”
The feature arrives after Twitter confirmed it had removed 70 million fake accounts between May and June of this year. Twitter also announced it had revamped its sign-up process, making it much more difficult for fake accounts to pop up.
“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,” the company wrote in a blog. “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.”
Unlike most users, Donald Trump wasn’t too thrilled with the move:
