If you’re an avid Twitter user, you probably remember those retweets from accounts that are forcing their ways onto your timeline and trying to go viral. Twitter has felt your struggle and is answering to your prayers. The company has suspended numerous accounts that were notorious for mass-retweeting each other’s posts, including Finah, Common White Girl and Dory.
Twitter’s purge comes after the company removed the ability to retweet posts across multiple accounts in Tweetdeck, which effectively removed that ability for these accounts (known as “tweetdeckers”) and not allow them to spread each others’ tweets without resorting to third-party services or asking their followers for retweets, for example.
At this time, it’s not clear if these suspensions are temporary or permanent. Twitter has declined to comment on individual suspensions for the accounts affected, but it appears that the accounts were suspended for violating spam politics which forbid mass duplication and impersonation. If their accounts were to be restored, they cannot resume their old behavior without facing even tougher consequences from Twitter.
Unfortunately though, this action won’t eliminate this sort of behavior on Twitter because it’s fueled by money. Customers are willing to pay for retweets knowing that a lot of people will see them. The accounts that were targeted in this crackdown have millions of followers, and their absence will be felt on the platform. Twitter has continued to face increased pressure to manage spam on its platform, whether the spam is coming from Russian bots or tweetdeckers, it has to manage it all.
