INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Twitter today says it expanding its policies to prohibit financial scams on its platform — something you&d think would have already been
banned, but apparently was never directly addressed through Twitter policy documentation
Instead, financial scams until now have been handled through Twitter spam reporting tool, which was expanded last year to specifically
identify what exact type of spam a tweet contained.
Among the choices were options to indicate if the tweet contained malicious links, was
from a fake account or was using hashtags or the reply function to post spam, among other things
It didn''t address the numerous sorts of financial spams that appear on Twitter, however.
The new policy better spells out what Twitter
considers a financial scam.
Specifically, it says that using scam tactics to obtain money or private financial information is prohibited
under the new policy, and users may not create accounts, tweets or send Direct Messages for this purpose.
We&re always updating our rules
based on how online behaviors change
Today we're expanding our policies to prohibit financial scams
Read more: https://t.co/ihBxbTGKk5
mdash; Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 23, 2019
It also details what kind of scams it on the
lookout for, including relationship/trust-building scams, money-flipping schemes, fraudulent discounts and phishing scams
These are detailed in its help documentation here.
The new policy arrives at a time when Twitter has been criticized for allowing crypto
scams to proliferate on its service
Many of these involve impersonation, using the reply function to spam and general promises to make victims lots of money
Twitter also this year allowed an obvious PayPal phishing attempt to run as a promoted tweet, which spoke to the need for stronger oversight
in this area.
With regard to the new policy, users are still instructed to report the tweet, as before
That means clicking the &report tweet& option from the menu, then selecting &It suspicious or spam,& followed by the option that best
explains how the tweet is suspicious.
Twitter also clarified that it doesn''t intervene in other financial disputes that fall outside this
policy, like claims related to the sale of goods on Twitter, disputed refunds or complaints about poor-quality goods.
As with other scams,
financial scammers will risk permanent suspension if they continue to post scams, phishing and fraud, Twitter says.
