A Twitter glitch has allowed users to game the popularity contest by making it appear that celebrities had subscribed to read their mini-blog postings known as tweets.
The flaw, which Twitter said Monday it has fixed, allowed users to add anyone else as a follower of their tweets. Normally, the other person has to initiate such “following.”
It’s unclear how long the flaw existed and how many people took advantage of it.
A side effect of the fix was that for about an hour on Monday, Twitter users showed zero followers while the company fixed the problem.
In addition to fake followers, Twitter also takes a dim view of threats. A British man who said on Twitter that he would blow up an airport if his flight was delayed by snow was convicted Monday of sending a threatening message and fined the equivalent of $1,500.
Associated Press
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