Twitter admits it has a spam problem.
The microblogging service, which released financial information publicly for the first time, said less than 5 percent of accounts are considered spam, or bots.
The issue is a potentially damaging one as Twitter prepares for its public debut. Spam — which entails annoying marketing and click-baiting messages — turns off advertisers and users.
“If spam increases on Twitter, this could hurt our reputation for delivering relevant content or reduce user growth and user engagement and result in continuing operational cost to us,” Twitter said in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last night.
Some users might find it hard to believe that only 5 percent of active accounts are spam, and Twitter admits that it doesn’t really know the exact amount.
“Our estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts,” the company said in the filing.