Twitter Is Trying To Kill "Tweetdecking." Here's What You Should Know.

Tweetdeck will no longer allow automated mass retweeting, a feature tweetdeckers relied on to skyrocket their stolen tweets into manufactured virality.

February 21, 2018, at 6:00 p.m.

Twitter is making changes to Tweetdeck in an effort to fight spam, the company announced Wednesday, a possible major step toward eradicating the practice of "tweetdecking," in which mostly young users have made significant profits from selling retweets.

As part of the Twitter-backed social media management app's new changes, Tweetdeck users will no longer be able to select multiple accounts from which to automatically retweet a tweet.

This feature was a crucial one to the tweetdeckers, who would form exclusive Tweetdeck groups in order to automatically mass-retweet each others' (usually stolen) tweets — and paying customers' tweets — into manufactured virality.

The Tweetdeck changes come after BuzzFeed News uncovered the practice of tweetdecking in a January story, in which multiple tweetdeckers said they make hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars thanks to the practice.

The Tweetdeck changes are part of a larger effort by Twitter to eliminate spam on the website, the company said.

"To be clear: Twitter prohibits any attempt to use automation for the purposes of posting or disseminating spam, and such behavior may result in enforcement action," Yoel Roth, manager of trust and safety at Twitter, wrote in a blog post.

Roth also said the Tweetdeck changes were "an important step in ensuring we stay ahead of malicious activity targeting the crucial conversations taking place on Twitter — including elections in the United States and around the world."

The changes will put a ban on "posting duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts you control."

Tweetdeck has already removed automated retweeting capabilities from its platform. Third-party apps and services that allow similar automated retweeting features have until March 23 to comply.

The Tweetdeck changes have the potential to be catastrophic for the entire practice, one tweetdecker told BuzzFeed News.

"Tweetdecking is over. Our follower gains are gonna diminish," Andrew Guerrero, a 23-year-old tweetdecker in New Mexico, said. (Guerrero asked that his account name not be disclosed since it could get him suspended.)

Tweetdecking will still be possible — though without automated retweets, it's going to get a lot more tedious. Some tweetdeckers are already reorganizing through DM groups where they manually request retweets.

Others could switch over to third-party apps similar to Tweetdeck, like Hootsuite — but that could get them suspended come March 23.

These changes are likely to be less of a struggle for the bigger tweetdeckers "because they can still rely on their own activity," Guerrero said, while the smaller ones "that can’t pull much activity on their own will be gone or won’t be pulling the numbers they once used to."

"No one wants to trade retweets with someone that doesn’t have good activity, so yeah. It’s the end for a lot of deckers," said Guerrero.

"I’m surprised it took them this long to crack down on it," Guerrero said. "But I have good activity without tweetdecks, so I’ll still be around as long as the good Lord Jack Dorsey keeps my account alive."

In a separate move Wednesday, Twitter purged thousands of bot accounts, prompting several far-right Twitter users to report being suspended or losing thousands of followers, with conservatives dubbing it the #TwitterLockout.

A spokesperson for Twitter denied that the "lockout" had been politically motivated:

"Twitter’s tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias. As part of our ongoing work in safety, we identify suspicious account behaviors that indicate automated activity or violations of our policies around having multiple accounts, or abuse.

We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it. That’s why some people may be experiencing suspensions or locks. This is part of our ongoing, comprehensive efforts to make Twitter safer and healthier for everyone."

https:// www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/twitter-is-making-changes-to-try-and-kill-the-tweetdeckers

>>457659

"Tweetdecking" Is Taking Over Twitter. Here's Everything You Need To Know

Exclusive networks of teens are making thousands of dollars by selling retweets.

January 12, 2018, at 1:34 p.m.

Teens and twentysomethings with large Twitter followings are making thousands each month by selling retweets, multiple users who engage in the practice told BuzzFeed News.

The practice is known as "tweetdecking," so named because those involved form secret Tweetdeck groups, which they call "decks." Scoring an invite to join a deck usually requires a follower count in the tens of thousands.

Within these decks, a highly organized system of mass-retweeting exists in order to launch deck members' tweets — and paying customers' tweets — into meticulously manufactured virality.

Customers, which can include both individuals and brands, pay deck owners to retweet one or more of their tweets a specified number of times across deck member accounts. Some decks even allow customers temporary access to the deck, almost like a short-term subscription to unlimited deck retweets. Single retweets tend to cost around $5 or $10. Week- or monthlong subscriptions can cost several hundreds of dollars, depending on the deck's popularity.

People who run their own decks frequently make several thousands of dollars each month, multiple deck owners said.

“It’s the simplest thing ever, all you do is have your friends join and you have fun and tweet and make money,” Kendrik, aka @Simpnmild, an 18-year-old from Chicago who runs two of his own decks, said. “It’s the easiest thing ever. No hard work at all.”

As the owner of two decks with about 15 people in each, Kendrik works with all sorts of people and brands who want their tweets seen by the deck’s massive collection of followers. These customers pay a few hundred dollars to gain temporary access to the Tweetdeck so they can retweet themselves across several of the powerful deck accounts, pretty much ensuring it goes viral.

Kendrik said he makes between $3,000 and $5,000 a month doing this, and he pays members of his deck "based on who has the most page activity for the month" via PayPal.

And a 19-year-old named Lewie, aka @lxwie, who said he both runs a deck and is a member of another deck, said he makes between $2,000 and $3,000 each month.

"And here we are going viral daily," said Lewie.

Deck members make less — but not insignificant — amounts of money. Several members of decks said they earn hundreds of dollars each month just for retweeting tweets onto their account.

Tweetdecking violates Twitter's spam policy, which does not allow users to "sell, purchase, or attempt to artificially inflate account interactions," and many deckers get suspended as a result. Still, they often return with new accounts and get right back in the game.

So, who are these people forking over all this cash for a couple thousand retweets? They range from "small apps, a lot of grown people who want to make a presence on social media, and some teens who just want to go viral,” said Kendrik.

And go viral they do. If you've spent much time on Twitter in the past year, you've probably seen a number of tweets that bizarrely have retweets into the tens or even hundreds of thousands. Many of these massively viral tweets come from decks — and most are plagiarized.

Plagiarized tweets have been a part of Twitter pretty much since people started making jokes on the site, particularly through popular "parody accounts" like @Dory and @GirlPosts, many of which are now run as full-fledged ad sales businesses.

But the rise of decks has changed the game, allowing pretty much anyone to break into the biz of stealing tweets for cash. Deck owners, members, and customers are all getting into it in order to increase their own following, and in turn, strengthen the deck's success and profitability.

Naturally, not everyone's so happy to see tweets getting stolen. Members of the self-proclaimed group "Trash Twitter," a small collective of late-teens and early-twenties guys with popular accounts, have had their joke tweets stolen several times. Unlike the tweetdeckers, they haven't seen a dime from it, they said.

"Honestly, it sucks how they can just take full credit for our tweets, and get paid," said Danyal, aka @TrashQuavo, an 18-year-old from the UK in the group. "Sometimes we would plan a tweet for days just for it to get stolen."

"I tweet to have fun and give people a laugh," one of the members, who goes by @TrashYeWest, said. "They just care about followers."

In December, 22-year-old Kareem Rose from Virginia, aka @hotlinekream, went viral when he tweeted a thread in which he called out dozens of deck accounts and urged people to block them.

Continued + pics etc. for context:

https:// www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/exclusive-networks-of-teens-are-making-thousands-of-dollars

>>457659

I never heard of Tweetdecking, but I use Tweetdeck. Article is from today and here are some pics from the article for context:

"In a separate move Wednesday, Twitter purged thousands of bot accounts, prompting several far-right Twitter users to report being suspended or losing thousands of followers, with conservatives dubbing it the #TwitterLockout.

A spokesperson for Twitter denied that the "lockout" had been politically motivated:

"Twitter’s tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias. As part of our ongoing work in safety, we identify suspicious account behaviors that indicate automated activity or violations of our policies around having multiple accounts, or abuse.

We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it. That’s why some people may be experiencing suspensions or locks. This is part of our ongoing, comprehensive efforts to make Twitter safer and healthier for everyone.""

>>457820

They removed @Cernovich @JackProsobiec and @LauraLoomer!

I just checked and their accounts are still there.

Did they actually go down though?