Twitter today made a tweak intended to reduce spam in users’ inboxes as it fends off new competition from Instagram Threads.
By redirecting messages from Verified users you don’t follow back to your “Message Request” inbox rather than your main inbox, starting “as soon as” July 14, Twitter will roll out a new messaging setting targeted at minimizing spam in direct messages.
Going forward, your primary inbox will only receive messages from the individuals you follow. Notably, those who have their inboxes set to accept communications from anyone will now be subject to these changes as well.
People could only send you messages via Twitter DMs in the past if you specifically agreed to receive messages from Verified users (those who have paid for a Twitter subscription) or if you had selected the option to receive messages from anyone through Twitter’s settings.
Furthermore, if you had previously sent someone a direct message, they could do the same to you now.
We’re introducing a new message setting that will go into effect on July 14 and should assist in lowering the volume of spam DMs. Messages from users you follow will land in your primary inbox when the new setting is activated, while messages from verified users you don’t follow will land in your secondary inbox.
— Twitter Support, July 13, 2023 (@TwitterSupport).
Another shortcoming of Twitter’s new verification system, where users may pay for the blue badge that grants them higher status on the network, is the adjustment to transfer messages from Verified users back to the Message Request inbox instead of the primary inbox (unless you follow them).
Verification was once a sign that someone was a public or notable personality of any kind, such as a politician, celebrity, athlete, journalist, or other well-known person.
Twitter diminished the value of verification by making the Verified checkmark available to anyone with a credit card to purchase it.
That reportedly got out of hand to the point where individuals started complaining about Verified users spamming their primary inboxes after leaving it open to DMs from the blue-badged crowd.
In other words, it’s a subliminal acknowledgment that Twitter has a spam problem with verified users.
After these changes go into effect, Twitter reminds users that they can manually change back to the previous configuration at any moment if they still wish to receive DMs from Verified people in their primary inbox.
As a result of the update, journalists will find it more challenging to get in touch with sources for additional information or permission to use a tweet. Not only did they lose their verification badges under Musk, but now — even if they now pay to be Verified — their DMs will be placed in the Message Requests folder, where they might go unnoticed.
The upgrade essentially moves spam messages to a separate bucket, not truly reducing spam — from Verified users or otherwise, as numerous users noted in the comments on Twitter’s statement.
After purchasing the social network for $44 billion last year, Elon Musk declared that one of his main goals would be to lessen the amount of spam and automated accounts on Twitter.
Fake and spam accounts, however, continue to be a problem on the site, according to a recent study by The Wall Street Journal.
The article also observed that, according to at least one metric of bot activity, the level of bot activity has not changed since Musk’s takeover.
Musk, on the other hand, asserted that Twitter removed at least 90% of its spam and frauds last month.
