Trouble with Twitter - by Greta Dohl

In the chapter Trouble Brewing in Cyberspace, Sternberg names spamming as one of the "triad of troublesome online behavior" (80). Most anyone who has spent time online has at some point experienced spam, it's like an annoying pest that won't go away and leave you in peace. Sternberg demonstrates that this has been an issue online since the beginning - giving examples of issues with advertising on inappropriate subsections of Usernet. Additionally, Sternberg also talks about how controlling spam has been dealt with outside the wires and virtual spaces. While user of the new web were trying to discover how to handle the issues of spamming years ago, today it proves to still be an issue that has emerged in the realm of social media.

Forbes recently published an article "Twitter's growing spam problem", in which journalist Tristan Louis looks at the issue of spamming via fake twitter accounts. Louis looks at the numbers reported by Twitter as to their user base, but he also analysis his own numbers on what kinda of users those really are. He focuses on the top 25 followed users (including accounts like Lady Gaga, Barack Obama and The Ellen Show). Using sites like Fake Follower Check, he finds that possibly 42.44% of the users following such big names are fake and that in the general user base of Twitter possibly 31.83% of accounts are fake. Louis believes this to be an issue because it is messing with the reliability and credibility of the audience and Twitter seems to be doing little to nothing to fix it; "But as it keeps delaying dealing with the issue, the problem will become larger and more ingrained, making it more difficult to deal with further down the line...Social spam, as it already exists on Twitter, will continue to grow and unless the company addresses the problem quickly, it may be the one thing that sinks it." With follower buying becoming increasingly common and important, 'user spamming' may prove to be a make-or-break scenario.

While the type of spamming has evolved from the instances demonstrated in Sternberg's chapter, it is still an instance where an online community and the more general public are struggling to find a way to handle an emerging issue. Both are taking advantage of an captive audience. In the cases Sternberg presents, the online community we looking for ways to mediate the issue and the large companies were seeking outside legal action. It seems the twin issues on Twitter are similarly searching for a solution. So, those of us who still wish to brave the web, will have to deal a little longer with swatting at that all-too-familiar pest.

--Greta Dohl, Digital Cultures with Professor Bakioglu, 4/7/13