Was it something I said?

In the past month, some strange women have started following me on Twitter. Let’s say, women who want to be more than friends. The accounts typically feature a salacious picture, lewd language and a URL to where I could find more of the same (a safe assumption).

As part of a $100 billion industry, I’m not surprised that pornographers are using Twitter to attract “customers” (if that’s what you call them). The question is: why me?  Other Twitter users I’ve talked to have not reported receiving similar messages.  Was it something I said? I rather doubt it, since I use Twitter mostly for work and certainly have never used crass language that would invite such provocations.

While the why me? question may forever remain a mystery, it raises the questions of why anyone? and what, if anything, should Twitter do about it? Personally, I think Twitter should do more to keep sleazy content off the site. A follow request I received this morning contained four unrepeatable words that should have signaled a filter. That the combination of those words didn’t signal a red flag is even more amazing.

While I want to be free to say what I want on Twitter, I’d also like to be protected from porn and other spam that detract from my experience engaging the platform.  In my opinion, it’s high time for a discussion about user freedom versus user protection.  For Twitter management, protecting against spam may be less about protecting users and more about protecting the future health of the platform. If Twitter wants to survive in the mainstream, it has to do more to guarantee positive user experiences (it should also stop crashing all the time, but that’s an entirely different issue).

Chris Brogan and Mashable have also griped about these issues.

-Tom