Twitter reportedly suspended users that steal memes and force viral tweets
Friday went poorly for a select group of Twitter users that have earned a reputation for their expertise at gaming the system.
The social media company moved to suspend a number of popular accounts with millions of followers between them, Buzzfeed reports. Their offense? Stealing people's tweets without credit and conspiring as a group to share tweets -- their own, and those of paying customers -- with the intent of forcing them to go viral.
Many of the suspended accounts -- a list that includes @Dory, @GirlPosts, @SoDamnTrue, @reiatabie, @commonwhitegiri, @teenagernotes, @finah, @holyfag, and @memeprovider -- are known as "tweetdeckers." These users are so named because they gather in private Tweetdeck groups to plot out their plans to manufacture virality (a practice that Buzzfeed has documented extensively).
This sort of behavior goes against Twitter's rules, which clearly state: "You may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of spamming anyone." The platform's spam policy covers many different types of bad behavior, including the posting of "duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts" or "[attempting] to artificially inflate account interactions."
Tweetdeckers engage in both of those activities to make a post go viral, and some accept payment to perform the task for third-party interests -- another Twitter no-no.
Recently, the company has purged bots (though there are reasons it may not go further), tweaked rules, and banned face-swap videos, many of which fall under the category of pornography.
There are still plenty of problem areas to be addressed on Twitter, but Friday's move to suspend known tweetdeckers is just one more action in a recent string of them. It's all part of the company's ongoing struggle to clean up its platform, a process that has also come to include looking for outside assistance.
Topics Social Media X/Twitter
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
