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Twitter expands its reporting options for spam tweets and accounts
Until now, Twitter's reporting process has offered limited options for you to let the company's staff know exactly why you're flagging iffy tweets. That changed somewhat on Wednesday, as you can specify the type of spam you're drawing attention to when you report a tweet.
Google kills off Android’s spam-ridden Nearby Notifications
After launching just three years ago, Google is putting an end to Nearby Notifications on Android. The feature, which was intended to serve up location-specific information, had recently become inundated with marketers and spammers. Android users will stop receiving Nearby Notifications entirely on December 6.
Facebook shut down a spam network in Brazil
Facebook's crackdown on misleading content continues, this time in Brazil. The social network gave the boot to 68 pages and 43 accounts -- all linked to a single marketing group -- for violating the company's policies on misrepresentation and spam.
Facebook takes down hundreds of spam accounts and Pages
Facebook announced today that it is taking down 559 Pages and 251 accounts for breaking its rules on spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior. Though that's a relatively small number for Facebook -- by the second quarter of this year, it had already removed 583 million fake accounts -- this round of takedowns shows how the company is targeting spam that's motivated by money rather than politics.
Facebook pulls over a dozen political pages tied to fake accounts
Facebook isn't just removing fake political pages to thwart election meddling -- sometimes, it's just about culling spam. The social site has removed more than a dozen "hyperpartisan" pages across the political spectrum after learning that fake accounts were administering the bunch. All of them had recently started spamming links to LifeZette, the conservative site founded (and still promoted by) Fox News' Laura Ingraham. These were not small outlets, either. At least several of the pages, such as American News and Truth Examiner, had millions of fans each.
Twitter tightens requirements to get rid of 'low quality' apps
Twitter's efforts to fight spam are now focusing more on the apps generating that junk. As of today, every developer who wants to use Twitter's app toolkit has to go through an account application process that verifies both use cases and a creator's adherence to the social network's policies. The process had been available since November, but it'll be mandatory from now on -- and Twitter is promising to enforce it within 90 days. Combined with a 10-app limit, Twitter is hoping this will cut down on spam-producing and "low-quality" apps.
New Twitter users will have to verify a phone number or email address
Twitter has begun to acknowledge that it has persistent problems with malicious automation and spam accounts and it has been working on ways to fix these issues. Today in a blog post, the company shared some of its efforts as well as the progress it has made in some areas. First, it said that its machine learning tools have allowed it to spot more automated accounts without the need to rely on reports from others. Last month, Twitter said its systems "identified and challenged more than 9.9 million potentially spammy or automated accounts per week." A pace that's up from 6.4 million in December and 3.2 million last September. At the same time, reports of spam dropped from around 25,000 per day in March to approximately 17,000 per day in May.
iOS 12 uses third-party apps to report spam calls and messages
Right now, there isn't much you can do to fight spam calls and text messages directly from your iPhone. You can report iMessages, but not much more. That's all set to change with iOS 12, however. Hidden amidst the many other feature updates is support for third-party app extensions that will let you report unwanted calls or texts from within the Phone and Messages apps. You'll just have to swipe on an offending number or chat to pop up the option to flag it, block it or both.
Facebook has already removed 583 million fake accounts this year
Last month, Facebook published its internal community enforcement guidelines for the first time and today, the company has provided some numbers to show what that enforcement really looks like. In a new report that will be published quarterly, Facebook breaks down its enforcement efforts across six main areas -- graphic violence, adult nudity and sexual activity, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, spam and fake accounts. The report details how much of that content was seen by Facebook users, how much of it was removed and how much of it was taken down before any Facebook users reported it.
Google Voice integration with Sprint is coming to an end
Google Voice, the service that gives US users a free phone number they can use for calls, texts and messages on devices other than a smartphone, recently got a big overhaul. Left intact was Sprint's unique arrangement with Google that allowed its customers to use their Sprint phone number for Google Voice. Google has informed Sprint customers that the arrangement is about to end, however, thanks to changes coming to Sprint's network.
Google's phone app will boot spam calls to voicemail automatically
Google is taking spam calls seriously. An upcoming update to the default Android Phone app devices will send potential spam calls directly to voicemail, as spotted by 9to5 Google. The feature works like this: A potential spam call comes in, and automatically goes to voicemail. You won't receive a notification for the missed call, and your phone won't ring. However, calls will still show up in your call history and voicemail. Presumably, Google is using AI to filter these calls, much in the way it does spam messages in Gmail.
Facebook is hosting an online abuse summit with other tech leaders
Facebook is trying to bring all the wars it's fighting under one roof. At the "Fighting Abuse @Scale" conference later next month, the social network will host talks on combating fake news, online fraud, spam and abuse in general. There's a special focus on how the different companies in attendance are using AI and machine learning to achieve their goals.
Twitter purges accounts behind artificially viral tweets
If you've used Twitter for long enough, you've probably seen someone retweet a truism or obviously plagiarized quote from accounts that are clearly trying to force their tweets to go viral. You won't have to put up with some of those accounts from now on, though. Twitter has suspended a horde of accounts notorious for mass-retweeting each other's posts (some of which were stolen), including Common White Girl, Dory and Finah. The purge came weeks after Twitter removed the ability to retweet posts across multiple accounts in Tweetdeck, neutering the ability of these faux viral peddlers (known as "tweetdeckers") to spread each others' messages without resorting to third-party clients or asking for retweets.
Twitter's new rules prohibit bulk tweeting to fight spam
Twitter's spam bot issue isn't new, but it came to a head when it was revealed that thousands of Russian troll accounts used the platform to influence the 2016 Presidential elections. Now, the company has announced a set of changes and new developer guidelines meant to fight off automated actions and to make it harder for "tweetdeckers" to flood the social network. Starting on March 23rd, 2018, apps will need to be able to prevent bulk tweeting or face "enforcement action, up to and including the suspension of associated applications and accounts."
Facebook's new tool reveals any fake Russian accounts you followed
Nearly 150 million Facebook users encountered inflammatory posts created by a Russian propaganda operation, and the social giant is finally helping users understand how they were disseminated. Earlier this afternoon — and as promised — the company launched a tool to highlight those accounts sowing social discord across Facebook and Instagram.
Over 1.3 million anti-net neutrality FCC comments are likely fakes
It's no secret that bots flooded the FCC with comments supporting its plans to kill net neutrality. But just how many comments were fraudulent? All too many, according to data scientist Jeff Kao. He recently conducted a study that used natural language processing to conclude that "at least" 1.3 million of the anti-net neutrality comments were fakes originating from a central source. They appear to have come from a giant mail merge that made the messages appear superficially unique, but was really just swapping in synonyms for what was clearly the same core statement. The language sounds familiar, too, mimicking that of a giant telecom or lobbying group than everyday people.
New York AG blasts FCC for refusing to help fight net neutrality spam
Were you frustrated that the FCC did nothing to look into bots flooding its public comment system with anti-net neutrality spam before deciding to kill net neutrality? So was New York. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has posted an open letter chastising the FCC for refusing to help investigate this "illegal conduct." New York made requests for records "at least 9 times" between June and November, and asked key FCC officials (including Chairman Ajit Pai) for help, all to no avail -- there was "no substantive response" to any of the inquiries, Schneiderman said.
Apple reluctantly agrees to help India solve its phone spam problem
Apple and India's telecoms regulator have been at loggerheads for more than a year over privacy concerns, but now it seems a tentative compromise has been reached, with the tech company agreeing to help the Indian government develop an anti-spam app for its iOS platform.
Russian hackers had hundreds of US targets in addition to the DNC
Various US agencies continue to look into the role Russia played in last year's presidential election, and targets of those investigations include interactions between Trump advisors and Russian officials, ads purchased by Russian agents through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and whether the Kremlin was involved in the DNC email hacks of last year. In regards to the latter, Russia has been suspected of being behind the hacks for quite some time and just this week, reports have surfaced that the US Department of Justice has pinpointed six Russian officials it believes to have been involved in the hacks. However, a report released today by the Associated Press suggests that the group behind the DNC email breaches actually had a much wider range of targets.
Facebook axed 'tens of thousands' of accounts before German election
Facebook released a recap today about the efforts it made to minimize the spread of fake news during Germany's recent election. Facebook VP Richard Allan said in the announcement, "These actions did not eliminate misinformation entirely in this election – but they did make it harder to spread, and less likely to appear in people's News Feeds. Studies concluded that the level of false news was low. We learned a lot, and will continue to apply those lessons in other forthcoming elections."
