Is Twitter Pimping Porn to Family Users?

The microblogging site makes it too easy to get spammed with off-color content, and too difficult to do something about it

By Sarah Lacy

Back in March, I wrote a column about how Twitter is a closer competitor to Facebook than MySpace is. Twitter and Facebook are more utility than media sites, I argued. But lately, Twitter has begun displaying some troubling similarities to MySpace—and that should be a red flag for the growing company.

What I am talking about, in a word, is hookers. Over a four-day span in mid-August my husband got 43 new "followers" whose profile pages depicted naked or scantily clad women. My sister-in-law works for a radio station in San Jose. Recently she posted a tweet telling listeners how they could win tickets to an event being held next door to a Starbucks (SBUX). Instantly she got an "@-message" saying: "Here's how I make my chai latte at home." When she clicked on the link, let's just say it didn't show your typical barista's chai latte-making method.

Meanwhile, my mother-in-law—who would never consider using most social networking sites—recently began testing the Twitter waters. She was delighted to see some people adding her, but horrified when she clicked through to profiles littered with tiled pictures of naked bodies. "I felt so violated," she gasped over a recent family dinner. "What did I do to make them target me?"

It's not you. Really. Blame it on Ashton Kutcher. He was one of the earliest and most visible celebrities to seize on Twitter as a way to lure fans and drive traffic. And in social media, where mainstream celebs go, D-listers and sex peddlers follow. Many of my friends fled MySpace for Facebook early on because they were sick of come-ons from "Caroline" or "Tammy," asking them if they wanted to party.

Facebook Forces Newbies to Be Real

The phenomenon is particularly troubling on Twitter. Much of the site's growth is not being driven by teens and young people, who have a built-up resistance to these images. Twitter is attracting an older crowd that's far more likely to be shocked or offended.

Facebook isn't immune, of course. But the site has taken some important steps to keep its users from receiving lascivious spam. At the outset, the site was open solely to college students, and it only gradually opened up to such other demographics as people affiliated with high schools, companies, and locations. Now anyone can join, but Facebook still insists they be real people. That weeds out a lot of thinly veiled profiles for erotic sites and escort services. Twitter's not quite so discriminating.

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