There have been countless spam violations on social media platforms in the past, making it a top priority for social networking sites to keep their platforms safe and free from spam. Fake news, multiple accounts, and hoax accounts are some of the common spam violations that have been common on so many social networks. Twitter, which is going through these issues, is taking steps to curb this problem by making changes to its TweetDeck and the Twitter API.
Twitter comes up with new rules to limit fake accounts
The micro blogging site has already declared that it does not allow the use of automation/bots for disseminating or posting spam. To control the purge of fake accounts, it came up with several rules –
- Developers should not post or allow their users to post identical or substantially similar content simultaneously to multiple accounts.
- Aggressive, high-volume or bulk automated Retweeting is not permitted under the Automation Rules of Twitter; doing so may bring on enforcement actions.
- The developers should not perform or allow their users to perform actions like Retweets, Likes or Follows from several accounts simultaneously.
- Cross-posting outside information like RSS feeds or weather alerts using automation is still permitted by the micro blogging site, but the user should post this content to only one account, under his or her control.
- There is just one exception – when there are alerts of emergencies; for instance, alerts of “broad community interest”, like public service announcements or weather-related warnings, will fall outside these rules.
The social networking site has already updated its TweetDeck to reflect these new rules. Developers were given a month (until March 23, 2018) to make the necessary changes. If a developer fails to follow the new rules, Twitter could take enforcement actions, including suspension of associated accounts and applications. Developers with questions about any of the developer policies can ask questions using the Rules and Policies category in the Developer Forums.
This is Twitter’s biggest overhaul to limit fake accounts
These new rules come in the wake of a crackdown on bots and spam. They are meant to prevent users from using bots to spread spam or create a hashtag trend. These changes will affect several publishers who schedule similar tweets across various accounts using third-party tools. Given the censure the social network received in the past few months over bots, it was a necessary tradeoff for the company.
While this large overhaul is expected to decrease bots and spam on the social media platform, the new rules are not welcome news for the publishers who are already suffering from the changes made by Facebook and Google to prevent the spread of spam in their platforms. Twitter has begun its war against fake accounts and automated Retweeting; hopefully, innocent publishers are not caught in the crossfire.
