Recently @louisventer and @Rishil found themselves banned from Twitter with no explaination, and after some pretty awesome hashtag protesting @Rishil was reinstated.

Turns out both got banned for tweeting a URL – http:// cash – with – google .info

Not exactly breaking news, I hear you say. Hear me out…

It’s not just because this URL is on some spam list over at Twitter HQ. In fact it has been identified as contained Malware (which roughly translates to “bad/unhealthy stuff”).

So Twitter is now using Malware detection to

a) identify potential spammers
b) stop these tweets going public

Here’s your proof…

So why is this so interesting? Well it gives us an insight into the working of a spam detection system, a glimpse into the world of categorisation and sorting. Basically, it’s an element of an algorithm of an extremely popular social media platform.

If you still don’t think that’s interesting, then you’re probably on the wrong blog.

More reading…

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Rishi Lakhani at The Telegraph