Be Careful with Twitter Lists

Posted by Gabe on November 11, 2009 under Twitter | 26 Comments to Read

Twitter ListsI checked my Twitter profile this morning and noticed I had a big jump in the number of lists that mentioned me.  My smile morphed into a look of perplexity when I discovered that all the new lists came from the same user.  That’s funny, I thought. I was about to walk away from the issue when I looked deeper into these lists.  I won’t give the user any publicity, but they were claiming to host names of child sex traffickers, sexual predators and other cyber crimes.  These are the lists that I was on!!  It seems to be some sort of new bot that is putting random people (I am in good company with Regis and Kelly) on these lists.

The good news is that if you block and/or report as spam you will automatically be taken off all their lists.  I couldn’t do that fast enough.

So now we have to make sure all the lists that we are being put on are legitimate.  Twitter can be such a great tool, but also can be quite frustrating thanks to the other “tools” that are using it.

UPDATE 11/28/09: Not all Twitter lists are as offensive as the one mentioned.  I just discovered that I was on a list created by someone who has a “thing” about a company.  This morning I read an interesting post that challenged a particular company to get better instead of just advertise.  I liked the read so I retweeted it.  This afternoon I discovered I was on a list of “People who are Disappointed with So-and-So Company”.  I didn’t want to be part of the list creator’s agenda, so I blocked him to get me off the list.  So again, be vigilant in combing through the lists you appear on.

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  • Gail P said,

    Wow! That’s a big one. Thanks for the heads up.

  • Danny Brown said,

    And that’s the “beauty” of Twitter’s new system, anyone can make you “famous”. Another reason to avoid Lists until the backroom engine is sorted.

  • John Haydon said,

    It is good that you can remove yourself easy enough. Checking my lists now… ;-)

  • Tendai Sean Joe said,

    What an eye opener.Now i know what it means to be on a list

    (((((((((((((((peace)))))))))))))

  • Gabe said,

    Tendai Joe,

    They are not all bad – I bet you are on some great lists with other wonderful people. It is a good feature of Twitter, I just have a hard time understanding why some users are so desperate for attention that they do stupid stuff like this. -Gabe

  • Leah said,

    Thank you! I didn’t realize the dark side of Twitter’s publicly broadcasted lists till I read this. I wish the list feature had a private setting. Even better, have a ‘verification’ setting where you have to give approval before someone adds you to a list.

  • Ching Ya said,

    That’s dreadful and inconsiderate! Part of the reasons why we should make sure we’re on the clean lists but not some spammy bots — reputation management, it is. I too, am surprised why on earth people would do such a thing. Clueless.

  • Gabe said,

    Leah,

    Love the idea of verification. Twitter should make a note of it.

    -Gabe

  • Amanda said,

    WHOA! Thank you for writing & tweeting about this! I like the idea of verification, too, but I can see how that could be a lot of work for some folks with thousands of followers. Even if just 100 of those folks want to put you on lists that’s a lot of verifying, especially when people who follow those 100 start listing you, etc.

    There HAS to be a simple solution to this!

  • Gabe said,

    You make a good point about lots of followers, Amanda. But I do think that verification is a good alternative, especially if it were to be made an option that we could turn on or off. If on, I would choose to verify all lists that would include us. If off, it would remain as it is now. I for one would be happy to verify. -Gabe

  • Mike said,

    That is pretty disturbing… Atleast the block/spam report gets you off it.

  • Edmond said,

    I’m glad I read this article because I had no idea. Wow, it’s a good thing that you found out when you did.

  • Vickie said,

    Wow! I didn’t think about it. Thanks for sharing.

  • Ann said,

    I got followed by the same account. Glad for the info – have blocked!

  • Derek Huether said,

    Though lists are still in their infancy, they can be very powerful in providing credibly to your name or brand. Unfortunately, the knife cuts both ways. I can also see your brand or name tarnished by a single troll or spam bot. All we can do is be diligent in ensuring we are properly represented in the public eye. I think Twitter understands the risk of defamation and needed to provide a method of self-governance. Block and Report are those methods. Yes, they could have made it easier but Twitter isn’t for everyone.

  • Gabe said,

    Thanks, Derek.

    I have been a Twitter prophet of sorts for some time now, trying to tell the world how great it is and why they should know about it. I temper myself these days because of the abundance of spammers and situations just like this. For some I would agree it is just not worth it. For me I still find the value outweighs the nastiness. -Gabe

  • Rob said,

    Very good info a big thanks. Nothing dodgy for me yet but a great heads up all the same. I will be keeping my eye on it.

  • Mark said,

    I have to ask: Were diligent in regularly cleaning out the porn bots that follow accounts like so many cyber-barnacles? It’s very possible that if you have a lot of sexually oriented users following you, their high number or ratio attracted them to you.

    I make a point of blocking any obvious porn bots that travel my way (although it’s possible a few have made it through) and haven’t had any of the problems you’re reporting here.

    On the other hand, I could have just been lucky and none of this applies (only the guys inside twitter know). So, as you point out, the lesson here kids is that we need to stay sharp & not let our twitter accounts got on autopilot.

  • Gabe said,

    Thanks Mark. Having the Twitter ID “KidsAreHeroes” you bet I am watching who follows me. I “report as spam” all porn bots instantly which is nice because that automatically blocks them as well.

    From the level of the interest in this post I believe this may either be very new or an isolated incident. Only one other person said that they were followed by the same account. In my experience though, there are no “isolated incidents” on Twitter. I will be as diligent about what lists I appear on as I am who follows me. -Gabe

  • Mark said,

    I didn’t go look at your twitter account until after I commented (my bad, I should have done that first). I’m now wondering if it’s the word “kids” in your user id that caused you so much woe. We’re dealing with the bottom of the barrel when we’re talking about those who traffic in that kind of stuff, so now my guess is that they trolled for key words and attached themselves to you that way. Good luck with the battle and hopefully it’s all taken care of from here on…

  • Gabe said,

    No problem, Mark. I’m not sure if it’s as sinister as all that – I think it is more of a random thing. A few services such as Twitter_Tips and Socialnet_Daily picked up the post, but as more similar services like that picked it up, their descriptions ended up further and further away from the actual list that I was on. They said things like “You could be on a sexual predator’s list” meaning that the predator himself had you on his list. The originator was the opposite – one who was supposedly “outing” these types by creating lists of sex traffickers and predators, etc. As I mentioned, they also chose Regis and Kelly which leads me to believe there are no keywords involved.

    Interestingly enough, I just looked and the account is still active… -Gabe

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    [...] Use the New Twitter List Feature Duct Tape Marketing gives you more reasons to get your list on. Be Careful with Twitter Lists Gabe O’Neill looks at the downside of lists. The lesson here is if your church gets on some [...]

  • Kat said,

    They are API’s doing this, and I found out also. However not only can you block and report, you can lock your lists so no one can get to them. The only catch in that is they can still go through who you follow, of course that is also locked.

  • Donna DeVane said,

    Thank you so much for this information. I saw that I was on lists, hadn’t thought to check what the lists were actually about. I wonder if that’s why I’ve gotten some porn spam the last few days. Will go check now.

    Love light joy,
    Donna

  • Gabe said,

    Hi Donna,
    Glad you are now checking the lists but I believe the porn spam is separate. Everyone is getting that garbage. A later post that I wrote helps to deal with it. -Gabe

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