Twitter Allows Porn, Says Banned Retiree

Leo J. Vidal, JD, MA, CPA, a retired Deloitte business consultant in Maryland who has been researching Twitter for a book, says he got banned from Twitter as a spammer for one message, while Twitter is full of spam from porn and escorts.

Annapolis, MD -- Twitter has banned Leo J. Vidal, JD, MA, CPA, a retired business consultant, for posting "spam" because he sent the same message to more than one account. Mr. Vidal, who is writing a book called "Twitter for Small Businesses" said Twitter allows pornographers, escorts and real spammers to operate at will and does not understand why they suspended his accounts for one message he sent. "I've been doing extensive Twitter research for my book," said Vidal, "and I've seen thousands of spammers on Twitter operate all the time. This material is often pornography. You see escort ads, porn sites, gay S&M, torture video, and phone sex advertisements. Some messages have photographs that made me sick." Mr. Vidal's message which got him in trouble read "This IS great: The greatest marketing idea of all time in a free book at http://bit.ly/UPzXQ (no email required)." He posted it to his accounts after midnight Sunday. ‘It’s an excellent free book that I thought people would like to see,” he said. Mr. Vidal's Twitter use had been interrupted for a few days after a global "denial of service" attack on Twitter. He says he sent the message to more than one account because he had been unable to post messages for two days from a Twitter service called TweetLater. Vidal says he was angry and surprised that Twitter shut his accounts down, calling him a “spammer.” "I sent out just one message," he said. According to Vidal, the Twitter Terms of Service give them complete discretion as to who they allow to operate, so they must know that they are allowing pornographers, prostitutes and spammers to run wild on their service. "There's no consistency to their approach," he said. "Their Terms say they don't want accounts with more than 2,000 people, yet they allow many people, including spammers, to have accounts with hundreds of thousands of people. And celebrities like Ashton Kutcher have millions." Vidal said he will appeal Twitter’s decision on banning him. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. The Twitter Terms of Service state: "You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes 'spamming' will evolve." They list fourteen possible categories of spam. Maryland Internet Marketing helps small and medium sized businesses put in place internet marketing and social media strategies to generate more sales and profits at significantly reduced advertising and marketing costs. Leo Vidal also provides financial consulting and tax consulting through his website, http://www.thetaxdoctor.info

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