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Twitter users may remember a scandal last month when UK home furnishing store Habitat
hijacked Twitter's trending topics (the most popular words and tags currently being used by twitterers) to promote their own products. Jumping on interest in the Iranian election,
Habitatuk provoked a virtual uproar with the tweet, "#MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card". One month later,
as Fintan Dunne points out, Iran-related hashtags are drowning in spam. Search Twitter for one of the most popular-
#iranelection- and, as well as relevant information on Iran, you'll be offered all kinds of online snake oil.
Dunne notes that on Saturday the #iranelection hashtag was virtually unusable for its intended purpose- those inside and outside Iran using Twitter to find and share post-election information are now also contending with adverts for hot new products and money making schemes.
I differ from Dunne in that I don't see this as a cyberattack so much as a Habitat-style hijacking of an popular topic. Lots of people use Twitter, lots of them are interested in #iranelection, and for spammers that equals lots of potential
victims customers.
But Dunne is right to raise the importance of this issue. Already some legitimate Twitter users are moving away from the #iranelection tag,
using #iran or #iranrevolution instead. As #iranelection is overwhelmed, the conversation on Twitter risks becoming diluted as users drift towards different hashtags. Dunne has set up
an anti-spam Twitter account which tells followers which terms to remove from their searches in order to find relevant information on Iran, and this could prove an extremely useful tool.
Still, Twitter, having
recognised its important role in post-election Iran, now needs to act against the spam. If it does nothing, the spammers might succeed where the Iranian authorities have failed, and silence online opposition.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 5:00 