Twitter's Platform manipulation and spam policy

Overview

March 2023

You may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience or platform manipulation defenses on Twitter.

We want Twitter to be a place where people can make human connections, find reliable information, and express themselves freely and safely. To make that possible, we do not allow spam or other types of platform manipulation. We define platform manipulation as using Twitter to engage in bulk, aggressive, or deceptive activity that misleads others and/or disrupts their experience.

Platform manipulation can take many forms and our rules are intended to address a wide range of prohibited behavior, including:

commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives;

inauthentic engagements, that attempt to make accounts or content appear more popular or active than they are;

coordinated activity, that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, automation and/or scripting;

coordinated harmful activity that encourages or promotes behavior which violates the Twitter Rules; and

leveraging Twitter’s open source code to circumvent remediations or platform defenses.

What is in violation of this policy?

Under this policy we prohibit a range of behaviors in the following areas:

Multiple accounts and coordination

You can’t mass-register Twitter accounts or use automation to create Twitter accounts.

Twitter allows users to create and/or operate up to ten (10) accounts for different, non-duplicative purposes. Users who already own or operate more than ten accounts will not be impacted by these new limits unless a violation of the Twitter Rules takes place. Some examples of what Twitter considers to be non-duplicative uses include:

Accounts tracking when objects in space travel over a specific location on Earth, e.g. New York, Hong Kong

Accounts sharing news about different professional teams in the same sport or league, e.g. NFL, NBA, Premier League

Accounts for personal projects, hobbies/interests, or for your business(es)

Accounts for branded entities specific to unique locations or languages, e.g. brand accounts in English, Spanish and French

In addition, users are allowed to control multiple accounts on behalf of a third-party (e.g. “Social Media Managers”), provided that no violations of the Twitter Rules (including this policy) occurs.

Twitter may approve exceptions to multiple account limits at its discretion.

What is in violation of the Multiple Accounts policy?

You can’t artificially amplify or disrupt conversations through the use of multiple accounts or by coordinating with others to violate the Twitter Rules. This includes:

operating multiple accounts that interact with the same or substantially similar content or Twitter account(s) in order to inflate or manipulate the prominence of content and/or accounts; for example:

Do not create multiple accounts to “boost” trending topics or hashtags

Do not create multiple accounts to engage with the same tweets, accounts, or polls

Do not create multiple accounts to misuse the mention/reply feature

Do not create multiple accounts to boost or amplify one of your own accounts by misusing engagement features (likes, retweets)

operating multiple accounts that post substantially similar or identical content to one another; for example:

Do not cross-post content across multiple accounts; content that is cross-posted but localized into another language is permitted

Do not cross-post similar or duplicate content to the same trending topics or hashtags

Employing workarounds to exceed the technical limits of account creation (e.g. account phone number limits)

Multiple accounts that exhibit a pattern or sole purpose of the preceding behaviors may be suspended by Twitter. Users operating multiple accounts are still subject to all other Twitter Rules, particularly our rules surrounding Platform Manipulation and Spam, and Ban Evasion. Any other violations of the Twitter Rules may also result in all of your accounts being suspended.

Engagement and metrics

You can’t artificially inflate your own or others’ followers or engagement. This includes:

selling/purchasing Tweet or account metric inflation – selling or purchasing followers or engagements (Retweets, Likes, mentions, Twitter Poll votes);

apps – using or promoting third-party services or apps that claim to add followers or add engagements to Tweets;

reciprocal inflation – trading or coordinating to exchange follows or Tweet engagements (including but not limited to participation in “follow trains,” “decks,” and “Retweet for Retweet” behavior); and

account transfers or sales – selling, purchasing, trading, or offering the sale, purchase, or trade of Twitter accounts, usernames, or temporary access to Twitter accounts.

Misuse of Twitter product features

You can’t misuse Twitter product features to disrupt others’ experience. This includes:

Tweets and Direct Messages

sending bulk, aggressive, high-volume unsolicited replies, mentions, or Direct Messages;

posting and deleting the same content repeatedly;

repeatedly posting identical or nearly identical Tweets, or repeatedly sending identical Direct Messages;

repeatedly posting Tweets or sending Direct Messages consisting of links shared without commentary, so that this comprises the bulk of your Tweet/Direct Message activity; and

Tweeting an existing phrase or content in a duplicative manner, whether individually or in concert with other accounts. Learn more in our copypasta and duplicate content policy.

Editing Tweets

editing Tweets to artificially amplify content or deceive people. Examples include, but are not limited to:

using a Tweet's existing engagement to amplify substantially different content (e.g. editing a Tweet from “What’s better? Pancakes or waffles?” to “Thousands of people trust my service. Like my post and subscribe to my channel to get tips on investing”)

editing links (URLs) so that the final destination page has significantly changed, either in content or location (e.g. domain, URL path)

editing media (e.g. images, videos, audios, gifs, or URLs hosting relevant content) so the Tweet is meaningfully or entirely different or irrelevant to the previous versions.

Following

“follow churn” – following and then unfollowing large numbers of accounts in an effort to inflate one’s own follower count;

indiscriminate following – following and/or unfollowing a large number of unrelated accounts in a short time period, particularly by automated means; and

duplicating another account’s followers, particularly using automation.

Engagement

aggressively or automatically engaging with Tweets to drive traffic or attention to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives.

aggressively adding users to Lists or Moments.

Hashtags

using a trending or popular hashtag with an intent to subvert or manipulate a conversation or to drive traffic or attention to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives; and

Tweeting with excessive, unrelated hashtags in a single Tweet or across multiple Tweets.

URLs

publishing or linking to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another person’s browser (malware) or computer or to compromise a person’s privacy (phishing); and

posting misleading or deceptive links; e.g., affiliate links and clickjacking links.

Open Source Code

exploiting Twitter’s open source code, including the logic behind visibility filtering or ML Model training, to circumvent policy enforcement for violations of Twitter Rules.

What is not a violation of this policy?

The following are not in violation of this policy:

posting links without commentary occasionally;

coordinating with others to express ideas, viewpoints, support, or opposition towards a cause, provided such behavior does not result in violations of the Twitter Rules; and

operating multiple accounts with distinct identities, purposes, or use cases. These accounts may interact with one another, provided they don’t violate other rules. Some examples include:

organizations with related but separate chapters or branches, such as a business with multiple locations;

operating a personal account in addition to pseudonymous accounts or accounts associated with your hobbies or initiatives; and

hobby/artistic bots.

Who can report violations of this policy?

Anyone can report accounts or Tweets via our dedicated reporting flow. These reports are used in aggregate to help refine our enforcement systems and identify new and emerging trends and patterns of behavior.

How can I report violations of this policy?

In-app

You can report this content in-app as follows:

Select Report Tweet from the icon.

Select It's suspicious or spam.

Select the option that best tells us how the Tweet is suspicious or spreading spam.

Submit your report.

Web

You can report this content via web as follows:

Select Report Tweet from the icon.

Select It's suspicious or spam.

Select the option that best tells us how the Tweet is suspicious or spreading spam.

Submit your report.

What happens if you violate this policy?

The consequences for violating this policy depend on the severity of the violation as well as any previous history of violations. Our action is also informed by the type of spammy activity that we have identified. The actions we take may include the following:

Anti-spam challenges

When we detect suspicious levels of activity, accounts may be locked and prompted to provide additional information (e.g., a phone number) or to solve a reCAPTCHA.

Denylisting URLs

We denylist or provide warnings about URLs we believe to be unsafe. Read more about unsafe links, including how to appeal if we’ve falsely identified your URL as unsafe.

Limiting the visibility of Tweets

Tweets which we believe to be in violation of these policies may not appear in certain parts of the Twitter product, and/or may not be recommended or amplified by Twitter. Learn more about other instances when a Tweet’s visibility may be limited.

Tweet deletion and temporary account locks

If the platform manipulation or spam offense is an isolated incident or first offense, we may take a number of actions ranging from requiring deletion of one of more Tweets to temporarily locking account(s). Any subsequent platform manipulation offenses will result in permanent suspension.

In the case of a violation centering around the use of multiple accounts, you may be asked to choose one account to keep. The remaining accounts will be permanently suspended.

Temporary loss of access to Twitter features or products

We may temporarily limit or restrict access to Twitter features or products, including (but not limited to) Tweets, Edit Tweet, Direct Messages, Spaces, Communities, or Live.

Permanent suspension

For severe violations, accounts will be permanently suspended at first detection. Examples of severe violations include:

operating accounts where the majority of behavior is in violation of the policies described above;

using any of the tactics described on this page to undermine the integrity of elections;

buying/selling accounts;

creating accounts to replace or mimic a suspended account; and

operating accounts that Twitter is able to reliably attribute to entities known to violate the Twitter Rules.

If you believe that your account was locked or suspended in error, you can submit an appeal.

Additional resources

Learn more about our range of enforcement options and our approach to policy development and enforcement.