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Poultry markets: on the underground economy of twitter followers

Published: 24 September 2012 Publication History

Abstract

Since Twitter has emerged as one of the easiest ways of reaching people, companies started using it to advertise their products. However, creating a functional network of followers to whom to promote content is not a straightforward task. On the one side, collecting followers requires time. On the other side, companies need to establish a reputation to motivate users to follow them.
A number of websites have emerged to help Twitter users create a large network of followers. These websites promise their subscribers to provide followers in exchange for a fee or limited services free of charge but in exchange for the user's Twitter account credentials. In addition, they offer to spread their clients' promotional messages in the network. In this paper, we study the phenomenon of these Twitter Account Markets, and we show how their services are often linked to abusive behavior and compromised Twitter profiles.

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      Published In

      cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review
      ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review  Volume 42, Issue 4
      Special october issue SIGCOMM '12
      October 2012
      538 pages
      ISSN:0146-4833
      DOI:10.1145/2377677
      Issue’s Table of Contents

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 24 September 2012
      Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 42, Issue 4

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      1. online social networks
      2. underground economy

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