Twitter enlists users to help fight spam
Microblogging service adds a "Report as spam" button as another way to try to combat spam accounts.
Twitter has added a "Report as spam" feature to its service in an effort to get help from its users in fighting spam, the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
"Folks can now help us conquer spam by calling our attention to a profile they find questionable," a company representative wrote. "Click the 'Report as spam' button under the Actions section of a profile's sidebar and our Trust and Safety team will check it out to see what needs to be done."
To stop users from simply using the spam feature as a weapon against others they don't like, Twitter said that "no automated action will be taken as a result of reporting a user as spam." That said, users who click the button will automatically have the profile blocked from following or replying to them.
Twitter's decision to add a "Report as spam" button is just another way the company is trying to combat spam accounts. It's fighting an uphill battle. Out of my more than 12,000 followers, I've found several that do nothing but spam users. That said, I do believe that the "Report as spam" feature will be quite helpful in limiting that going forward.
Of course, all that depends on our willingness to report others. I'm all for it. Are you?