Twitter's Lawsuits Against Spam Tool Providers Could Easily Backfire

from the risky dept

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

It's no secret that there's a fair bit of spam on Twitter -- which is annoying -- and it's nice to know that Twitter knows this is an issue that it needs to fight. But I'm a bit concerned by the news that it's now suing spamming tool providers as well as some spammers. Going after the spammers directly for terms of service violations makes sense and they're fair game. But going after tools providers? That seems risky. I'm reminded of a very similar situation from a few years ago, in which Craigslist went after spam tool providers as well. Some of the details there raised significant questions -- most specifically in Craigslist arguing that service providers could and should be liable for actions of their users. That approach rejects the core concept behind protection from secondary liability -- something that's been quite important to tons of internet sites over the years, including Craigslist and Twitter.I recognize how tempting it is to go after the tools providers over spam. But just as we don't blame Twitter or Craigslist for how users use (or abuse) their system, those companies shouldn't blame tools providers for the actions of their users either. At the very least, I could see it coming back (in a big, bad way) to haunt Twitter, by giving opponents in lawsuits the ability to point to Twitter's own claims against these tool providers to suggest that it, too, should be liable for the actions of its users. From the details (embedded below), it appears that Twitter is arguing that all users breached the terms of service -- and it carefully notes that each of the software providers have registered accounts -- meaning they agreed to the terms at some point. I understandit's being argued this way, but I'm not sure it makes sense. The terms apply to that account, not everything that someone with an account does outside of the account. Twitter also claims that the spamware providers are involved in tortious interference with a contract as well as fraud and "unlaweful, unfair and fraudulent business practices" under California law.To its credit, Twittergo as far as Craigslist did in its anti-spam lawsuits -- which actually tried to use copyright and trademark law, as well as claiming that violations of terms of service are a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Thankfully, Twitter avoids going down those paths where those very specific laws might come back to haunt it -- and sticking with slightly more defensible claims.While I'm incrediblytowards Twitter's position here, and the goal of stomping out spammers, I still find it troubling in a few ways. Twitter can and should (absolutely) look at ways to kill spammer accounts and to block spamming tools through technological means. It's when things go legal that it could get tricky. While my heart wants them to win -- I still fear that the arguments that the service provider itself is guilty because their tools are used for spamming floats a little too close to arguments about whether or not Twitter is responsible for how its users use Twitter.

Filed Under: liability, spam, tools

Companies: craigslist, twitter