Twitter spam shows large fall

[network world] Twitter has published figures that appear to show a dramatic fall in spam on the service.

In a blog statement, the company reckons that the number of 'spammy tweets' posted per day is now around 1 percent and falling, a sharp drop compared to the high point last August of between 8 and 11 percent.

"We're constantly battling against spam to improve the Twitter experience and we're happy to report that it's working," says the company, which now employs a special Trust and Safety team just to battle the problem.

The exact definition of spam on Twitter involves detecting more complex patterns of behaviour than it would on email. The most obvious problem is the setting up of bogus accounts which then generate tweets or direct messages that lead to malicious websites, but also the repeated following and 'unfollowing' of users in order to attract attention, Twitter says.

Twitter spam shows large fall