Twitter in its labyrinth

New York’s attorney general has opened an investigation companies selling fake followerson social media platforms, along with popularity metrics, in the wake of the Devumi case, broken by The New York Times in a story published on January 27 entitled “The follower factory”, which detailed the company’s practices.

The parasitic activities of Devumi and its like are essentially a disease for social environments. As soon as a social network becomes popular these types of companies move in, looking to generate a profit at their expense, with potentially harmful consequences. Take Twitter, for example: its failure to deal with this phenomenon has not only caused many problems for its users — the lawsuit that set the legal action in motion is due to the problems caused to people whose names or photographs were used to simulate false accounts, but also discredited the social network itself. It was about time these companies faced legal action: “Impersonation and deceit are illegal according to New York law,” said Schneiderman, even though nothing prevents these companies from going about their nefarious business, operating out of countries that do nothing to combat the problem and where they also have access to lower labor costs that allow them to employ to create and feed false accounts. This is a problem that will only be solved when the social networks themselves take action.

Why hasn’t Twitter done anything, or at least not publicly against these crooks? Because it mistakenly believes that selling followers attracts certain profiles looking for popularity. By not implementing measures to deter such practices, the social networks are helping keep alive a system that grotesquely distorts reality. Fast Company might be going to too far in suggesting that fake news and false alerts could spark a nuclear war, but misuse of the social networks has already contributed to allowing an idiot to move into the White House. The social network’s leading companies need to understand that their future depends on eradicating these types of practices, instead of which, they are sitting on their hands, at best being ambivalent and sometimes tacitly encouraging these crooks. These companies are not bothering to hide: a simple Google search produces plenty of outfits openly selling false followers, in which case, why don’t the social networks take action?

Could Twitter et al. take measures? Of course they could. Sure, even if false accounts are eliminated, others can be created, but there are other things that can be done, and the technology works for both sides. Establishing that the same person or team has created an account is not easy or 100% reliable, but can be done by using machine learning. At the same time, measures to publicly shame individuals and organizations that resort to these type of practices, thus raising the entry barriers. If the social networks want to keep their ecosystems healthy, they are going to have to combine technical measures with a name-and-shame approach.

Thanks goodness that real journalism and the law are still prepared to act against someone as disgusting as German Calas is a good thing. But above all, Twitter, which stands most to lose from this parasitic activity, has to take a stand and end its worrying inaction.

(En espa?ol, aquí)