Twitter has just dropped a bomb on spammers and fake twitter account holders. Soon the social media website will start curbing malicious accounts from its platform.
A tweet by Twitter India says it will be taking stern steps to get rid of a large number of suspected spam accounts globally and because of this many users will see their followers drop.
Twitter also went onto add:
The accounts we’re challenging appear to be in violation of our spam rules, as they have automatically bulk followed high-profile accounts, suggested during our signup flow.
Our focus is increasingly on proactively identifying problematic accounts and behaviour rather than waiting until we receive a report. As a result of these improvements, people may notice their account metrics change more regularly.
In a blog post on their official account, Twitter went on to add that it has “introduced new measures to fight abuse and trolls, new policies on hateful conduct and violent extremism, and is also bringing in new technology and staff to fight spam and abuse.”
Via another tweet, it also informed users to “stay tuned” for more updates on this and share additional steps that the company is taking to reduce the impact of this sort of activity on Twitter.
This year in May, the company had identified and challenged more than 9.9 million potentially spammy or automated accounts per week. That’s up from 6.4 million in December 2017, and 3.2 million in September.
Since, many Twitter users might be worried whether their accounts will also be roped into the same cesspool, the company has laid down some essential steps so that authentic users can validate their accounts and improve security.
These are some important steps you can take to protect your security on Twitter:
- Enable two-factor authentication. Instead of only entering a password to log in, you’ll also enter a code which is sent to your mobile phone. This verification helps make sure that you, and only you, can access your account.
- Regularly review any third-party applications. You can review and revoke access for applications by visiting the Apps tab in your account settings on twitter.com.
- Don’t re-use your passwords across multiple platforms or websites. Have a unique password for each of your accounts.
- You can also use a FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) security key for login verification when signing into Twitter.
Twitter has said that the drop in followers isn’t going to be prodigious, but in the course of time that number could swell depending upon the number of fake followers one has.
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