TechEye: Twitter Bans UK Prime Minister's Office From Following People

Posted by Tom Foremski - July 26, 2010

Emma Woollacott at TechEye reports:

Exclusive: Downing Street is the third biggest Twit in the world - Many a twit makes a twat | TechEye

Twitter has banned the Prime Minister's office from 'following' any more individuals and organisations, after it gained the dubious honour of following the third highest number of people of any Twitter user in the world.
But Twitter has rules about this sort of thing - it calls it 'aggressive following' - as it's a tactic often used by attention-seekers and Viagra salesmen to increase their presence on the network.
A spokesman for Number 10 promised TechEye there was nothing sinister behind following so many people. He said the account had inadvertently been set up in such a way that anyone who elected to receive its messages was automatically followed in return.
...This time last year, David Cameron remarked that the reason he was not then using Twitter was that "too many twits might make a twat"

It's interesting that Twitter would ban a top government office under its spammer rules when clearly it can see that it's not a spammer -- at least not in the traditional sense. If Twitter were to start banning self-promotional messages half of its traffic would disappear instantly.

Follow @tomforemski

Permalink | Subscribe free | Categories: MediaWatch

« MobyNow: A Media Platform For Fractured Media... | Main | Is There A Bloody Connection To The Congo In Your Pocket? You'll Soon Know... »