Twitter – How much spam is really on Twitter?



Contributing Writer
Twitter Spam - Photo: Hmm Interesting Credit: Renxx Gmdr


Twitter spam is nothing new.  Back in May, “social content cleaning” company Impermium released a study proposing that 40% of all new accounts were spam accounts.  I called that figure “preposterous” because of how broadly spam was defined, but in light of a recent study it’s quite possible that both Impermium and I underestimated the pervasiveness of spam accounts on Twitter.

Twitter is big. A little TOO big

Social media monitoring company Semiocast recently released a study examining Twitter accounts by location.  It revealed that between January 1, 2012 and July 01, 2012, accounts in the United States increased substantially (from just under 110 million to greater than 140 million).  This means that with no clear impetus (that I can determine by sifting through six months of Twitter-related news), Twitter has increased their U.S. accounts by somewhere between 27%-35%.  The account numbers are especially unusual for the U.S. because they have a much greater user base than the rest of the world, and their percentage of growth appears comparable only to Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

Top 20 Countries in Terms of Twitter Accounts - Semiocast

Top 20 Countries in Terms of Twitter Accounts – Semiocast

Mommy, where does Twitter spam come from?

The unusually high growth rate in the U.S. and U.K. might not be a huge issue except that spam exists and it has to come from somewhere.  Many tools exist that can create hundreds, even thousands of accounts per day (a random video from YouTube showing one of these tools in embedded below).  One of the tactics that these tools use is to use proxy IP addresses and / or masks to try and deceive Twitter about where the accounts are being generated from.  Where better to hide than in the biggest crowd?

 

Twitter search changed less than 10%

AllTwitter reports that search traffic in the same time period increased by less than 10%.  What this seems to indicate is that there is a pretty big gap between new account creation and Twitter usage.  It seems quite plausible based upon this comparison that 40% of new accounts could be spam.  It also opens the possibility that 40% is an underestimation of their prevalence.

Twitter Search Information from Ignite Social Media, AllTwitter

Twitter Search Information from Ignite Social Media, AllTwitter

For users, the pervasiveness of spam probably isn’t a huge deal.   Fake accounts that endure are more likely used to prop up people’s follower numbers than to send out spammy messages.  That said, there appears to be a pretty sizable problem with spam accounts in Twitter.  Possibly more sizable than previously reported.

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Writer about social media and tech at Leaders West, I also tweet as @leaderswest.

Infographic: Is the value of Foursquare overstated? http://t.co/X6SwuqLLcD – 19 hours ago

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

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  • http://twitter.com/ron_sparks Ron Sparks

    Nice article Jim!
    It is odd that we basically have fake twitter account following and interacting with other fake accounts, its like our an accidental social computer, that’s not too bright.

    Question: Like you pointed out it doesn’t really seem to effect me as a user because I just don’t follow fake accounts and I don’t see the spam, so what’s the real impact, is it over all data being devalued or something else?

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