Twitter has further clarified how it limits the visibility of duplicate content that is widely shared across platforms.
Twitter’s policy against duplicate content, originally implemented in 2020, has not been adequately communicated until now.
It’s unclear what constitutes a breach, or what exactly happens when a breach occurs.
Twitter has now published a help page that answers many unknown questions.
Colloquially known as “copypasta,” Twitter’s policy targets blocks of text, images, or a combination of content that’s been copied and pasted into a tweet.
Content found to violate this policy may be hidden from other users or may not be eligible for promotion.
Serious violations may result in account deletion or permanent suspension.
Duplicate Tweets Can Manipulate User Experience
twitter Rules and Policies Page state:
“Copy-pasting or repeating content is a widely used messaging tactic that can be repetitive, spammy, and disrupt people’s experience on Twitter.”
According to Twitter, copypasta can be used to manipulate websites to artificially boost content, suppress information, or manipulate an app’s trends and top search results.
What these new rules will restrict include:
- Identical or nearly identical tweets posted by a single account or multiple accounts.
- Copy or copy-paste tweets that disrupt the user experience, including tweets that mention users or use hashtags with the same content.
It doesn’t affect posts made using Twitter’s retweet feature or copy-pasted content that incorporates unique comments or reactions.
Tweets that explicitly reference copied text will also not be affected.
Copypasta tweets have limited visibility
Twitter will limit the reach of duplicate tweets just as it limits tweets deemed abusive, spam or in violation of applicable law.
Social media platforms limit the visibility of such content by:
- Makes tweets ineligible to be amplified in top search results and trends.
- Don’t recommend tweets to people who don’t follow the author.
- Lower the ranking of tweets in replies.
- Exclude tweets and accounts from email or product recommendations.
Those tweets are still visible to Twitter users who directly follow the author of the tweet.
Featured image: Anton Zubchevskyi/Shutterstock
