Twitter’s new policy highlights its efforts to combat spam and duplicative tweets

Twitter announced today that it’s rolling out a new “Copypasta and Duplicate Content” policy to clarify how the platform works to combat spam and duplicative content. For context, copypasta refers to an attempt by multiple individuals to duplicate content from an original source and share it widely. The social media giant first revealed in August 2020 that it would limit the visibility of copypasta tweets and is now highlighting what it considers to be a violation and what action is taken to limit the visibility of such violations.

An example of a violation is identical or near-identical content tweeted by an individual account or several accounts. Another example is a duplicate or copy-pasted tweet that Twitter thinks will “disrupt the experience of others.” Twitter notes that it won’t limit the visibility of retweets or tweets that include existing content alongside unique content or commentary.

If Twitter finds a violation, it will make the tweet ineligible to be featured in Top Search and Trends results. It also won’t recommend the tweet in timelines of users who don’t follow the account that sent the tweet. The tweet may also be down-ranked in replies and excluded in email recommendations. Twitter says that duplicate content or copypasta Tweets remain visible to users who follow the Tweet author.

“On Twitter, copypasta or duplicative content can be a block of text, image or a combination of content that has been copied and pasted, or duplicated by any means across the platform,” Twitter outlines on a support page for the new policy. “While copypasta or duplicate content is a tactic for propagating a message, and is used for a wide range of purposes, it can be repetitive, spammy and disruptive to people’s experience on Twitter.”

Twitter notes that duplicative content can also be used to artificially amplify content and possibly manipulate the platform’s Trends and Top Search results.

While copypasta or duplicative Tweets on their own don’t lead to tweet removals or account suspensions, they are subject to review and enforcement under Twitter’s platform manipulation and spam policy. An instance where Twitter may move toward a removal or permanent suspicion is when accounts are using automation or scripting to post duplicative content. Another instance where Twitter may take action is when the majority of an account’s content mainly consists of duplicative content.

Anyone on Twitter can report potential violations of the policy by selecting the “Report Tweet” option available through the three-dot menu next to a tweet. From there, you’ll be asked to select the option that best describes how a tweet is suspicious or spam.