Blocking spam on Twitter

by Volker Weber

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Twitter has an interesting business model that I believe will not work in the long term. The service is free, but you get carpet bombed with spam, "Sponsored Tweets" in Twitter terms. Some people use third party clients, but those are dead men walking because they undermine the business model.

A while ago I made a simple rule: a single spam message buys you a spot on my blocked list. I block a couple of spammers every day and they go away. When they are on my blocked list, they can no longer read my tweets or retweet them. That's a bummer for brands who want to retweet positive messages about their product. It has happened many times, Microsoft, Nokia, Lenovo, they all hurt themselves this way.

I am making it easier for you by providing my current blocked list. You can import it into Twitter, with "Advanced Options" on your Blocked Accounts page. You will see it's rather long. It's not going to interfere with your list, since Twitter keeps your own blocks and imported ones separate. And remember, this is no judgement. You only get on this list, if you force yourself into my Twitter stream uninvited.

How can Twitter improve its business model? Make me a customer.

Comments

Great idea, Volker!

Unfortunately, the link to your blocked csv list does not (yet) work.

Andy Brunner, 2015-06-19

Moved elsewhere. Try again.

Volker Weber, 2015-06-19

Worked fine now!

Thanks for this great list. It will keep my Twitter timeline a bit cleaner.

Andy Brunner, 2015-06-19

Done, works a treat. lets spread this.

Chris Frei, 2015-06-19

Danke!

Henning Störk, 2015-06-19

Danke!

Ralph Rost, 2015-06-19

Danke schön, herr Weber!

Lars Berntrop-Bos, 2015-06-20

Besten Dank!

Frank Köhler, 2015-06-21

Thanks, adding to my 500+ blocks. Sometimes I feel that despite the block, a promoted tweet will still show up. Like Twitter has some algorithm to wait just long enough for us to forget or not remember if we blocked a particular prompted tweet.

Tony Kelleran, 2015-06-22

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