Twitter has confirmed that the social media network will now hide ‘copypasta’ tweets as the company cracks down on spam on its social media platform. The company will limit the visibility of tweets that feature text that has been copy-pasted without any changes from the original source. Copypasta is an internet slang used for a piece of content that has been copy-pasted from the original source and shared widely across social media platforms and websites. The company has now updated Twitter’s censorship policy to include copypasta.
In a tweet, Twitter Comms explained that the company had seen an increase in ‘copypasta’ which is an attempt by several Twitter accounts to copy, paste, and post the same phrase. If Twitter spots similar behavior, the platform may limit the visibility of those posts.
The Twitter app has a built-in shortcut on iOS as well as Android that allows Twitter users to copy text off of a post by long-pressing on a tweet. The company did not comment on how Twitter will limit the visibility of such tweets. Generally, Twitter tends to overlay violating posts with a warning message. These tweets are made visible when a person manually chooses to read them. The company also recently rolled out a ‘Retweet with quote’ feature that is basically the same as the ‘Retweet with comment’ option.
Copypasta began as a term for viral messages, and it has been abused for wide-scale spamming as well as malicious campaigns. Furthermore, copied tweets have also been a headache for content creators whose original posts and intellectual properties get copied and deprived of likes, comments, and traffic that they deserve. Although the social media network has taken action on copied tweets, this is the first time Twitter has announced a definite policy for these copy-pasted tweets.
In an interview with Wired earlier this year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mentioned that the company might begin to track how many times a link in a post has been copy-pasted. It is not clear how effective these new ‘copypasta’ policies of Twitter are, and when these policies come into effect. A lot of replies and quite-retweets to the tweet of Twitter Comms are duplicates. These replies are still visible and the social media network has not applied any warning message to those replies. It seems that the company is still working on this feature since Twitter has not yet added the revision on Twitter’s website.
Read next: Twitter is experimenting with a more precise ‘Quotes’ listing to replace ‘Retweets and comments’
In a tweet, Twitter Comms explained that the company had seen an increase in ‘copypasta’ which is an attempt by several Twitter accounts to copy, paste, and post the same phrase. If Twitter spots similar behavior, the platform may limit the visibility of those posts.
The Twitter app has a built-in shortcut on iOS as well as Android that allows Twitter users to copy text off of a post by long-pressing on a tweet. The company did not comment on how Twitter will limit the visibility of such tweets. Generally, Twitter tends to overlay violating posts with a warning message. These tweets are made visible when a person manually chooses to read them. The company also recently rolled out a ‘Retweet with quote’ feature that is basically the same as the ‘Retweet with comment’ option.
Copypasta began as a term for viral messages, and it has been abused for wide-scale spamming as well as malicious campaigns. Furthermore, copied tweets have also been a headache for content creators whose original posts and intellectual properties get copied and deprived of likes, comments, and traffic that they deserve. Although the social media network has taken action on copied tweets, this is the first time Twitter has announced a definite policy for these copy-pasted tweets.
In an interview with Wired earlier this year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mentioned that the company might begin to track how many times a link in a post has been copy-pasted. It is not clear how effective these new ‘copypasta’ policies of Twitter are, and when these policies come into effect. A lot of replies and quite-retweets to the tweet of Twitter Comms are duplicates. These replies are still visible and the social media network has not applied any warning message to those replies. It seems that the company is still working on this feature since Twitter has not yet added the revision on Twitter’s website.
Read next: Twitter is experimenting with a more precise ‘Quotes’ listing to replace ‘Retweets and comments’
