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Hookers Are Turning Off Twitterers

Rising tide of porn spam threatens family market

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 2, 2009 6:27 AM CDT

(Newser) – Porn spam is becoming more prevalent on Twitter and the site needs to step up enforcement or risk losing plenty of users, writes Sarah Lacy in BusinessWeek. Prostitutes seem to have flocked to Twitter of late, Lacy writes, noting that her husband received 43 scantily clad "followers" in just 4 days, and her mother-in-law's initial delight at using the site turned to horror when she realized her followers had "profiles littered with tiled pictures of naked bodies."

The spammers so far are amateurish, Lacy notes, and shouldn't be too hard for a company with pockets as deep as Twitter's to tackle. "Sadly for Twitter," she writes, users will be "quick to drop the site if it becomes more about T&A than tweets."

If Twitter wants growth for the sake of growth, Lacy writes, porn will do that, but at the risk of driving away many advertisers.
"If Twitter wants growth for the sake of growth," Lacy writes, "porn will do that," but at the risk of driving away many advertisers.   (©Titanas)
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Twitter is attracting an older crowd that's far more likely to be shocked or offended. - Sarah Lacy

In social media, where mainstream celebs go, D-listers and sex
peddlers follow. - Sarah Lacy

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
Rocket448
Sep 3, 2009 4:07 AM CDT
The spammers are possibly 12 y/o trying to disrupt another online service to prove themselves l337 h@xxorz give me a break.
Caps
Sep 2, 2009 12:40 PM CDT
Oh my, what will poor ole Sarah do???? Finish going all the way nuts? You betcha.
odowd80
Sep 2, 2009 1:56 AM CDT
They're not hookers, they're spammers. You click their profile and they're following 700 people, but no one is following them. All they have on their profile is "Want more pics, click here."

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