spam

Enterprise

X cautions about potential loss of followers due to another bot sweep

X warns that you might lose followers as it does another bot sweepX is warning users they may see a reduction in their follower counts as the company attempts to clear the network of some spammers and bots in a large sweep. Today, we're kicking off a significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate our Rules against platform manipulation and spam. While we aim for accuracy in the accounts we remove, we're casting a wide net to ensure X remains secure and free of bots. But these days, Musk is touting how X is seeing record traffic, without clarifying if his own numbers include bots and spam. X also shared a link to a form where users inadvertently affected by the bot sweep could appeal.

Max Chen
April 4, 2024
1 Comment

Apps, Robotics & AI

“Enhancing User Experience: Truecaller’s Latest AI Update Identifies and Stops Increased Spam Call Activity”

Caller ID app Truecaller today blocks between 38 and 40 billion spam calls annually for its 374 million+ users. The update is Android-only: Apple does not allow Truecaller (or other caller ID services) to check callers’ spammer status to block calls automatically on iOS. But to get the best out of the app, users have to engage and tweak their own lists. This isn’t the first AI feature at Truecaller: it provides an AI assistant that screens calls to identify why the caller has dialled the user. After updating the Truecaller app to v13.58 or later, users can find the new spam-blocking feature by going through Settings > Block.

Dylan Williams
March 19, 2024

Uncategorized

“Google Sets Sights on Eliminating SEO-Driven Spam and Junk Pages with Latest Search Modification”

Google today took aim at the SEO industry which has gamified search rankings to destroy the value of Google Search results. That’s about to change with the company’s latest search update, the comapny said. On Tuesday, Google announced a search quality update that will specifically focus on improving the search quality ranking of websites and will update Google Search’s spam policies. Google estimates that through this update and its prior efforts, it will be able to reduce low-quality and unoriginal content by 40%. If Google could address these problems with its search quality update, it could have a significant impact on how consumers perceive the usefulness of Google Search, which many people have become increasingly concerned about in the wake of AI advances.

Kira Kim
March 5, 2024

Uncategorized

” “Negligent Inaction: Discord Fails to Address Server’s Orchestrated and Expensive Mastodon Spam Offense”

Over the weekend, hackers targeted federated social networks like Mastodon to carry out ongoing spam attacks that were organized on Discord, and conducted using Discord applications. But Discord has yet to remove the server where the attacks are facilitated, and Mastodon community leaders have been unable to reach anyone at the company. She told TechCrunch that while Discord has mechanisms for reporting individual users or messages, it lacks a clear way to report whole servers. And as Smith notes, these mass spam attacks can drive up server costs, leaving admins with unexpected bills. According to reports on Mastodon, this fully-automated attack was sparked by a conflict between teenagers on two different Japanese language Discord servers.

Dylan Williams
February 21, 2024

Uncategorized

“Mastodon Vulnerability Exposed: How a Rivalling Spam Raid on Twitter/X Spotlights the ‘Fediverse'”

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A spam attack that impacted the open source X rival Mastodon, Misskey, and other apps highlights how the decentralized social web, also known as the Fediverse, is open to abuse. Over the past several days, attackers have targeted smaller Mastodon servers, taking advantage of open registrations to automate the creation of spam accounts. While this is not the first spam attack that has impacted the Fediverse, Rochko notes that only larger servers like Mastodon.social had been targeted previously. The spam attack highlighted one of the weaknesses that comes with how the Fediverse is structured. It makes me want to walk away and give up,” wrote one Mastodon server admin sam@urbanists.social.