Rumors Abound as Tweet Scheduling Services are Targeted by Twitter

Several Twitter developers are reporting that Twitter is now targeting scheduling services with its new Terms of Service and Policy Enforcement team.  The threats come down to a clause in the Terms of Service stating users accounts could be shut down “If [they] post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account”.  Twitter has made it known according to some developers that they plan to enforce the matter.

Tweet scheduling has been quite a popular marketing technique used by the likes of Guy Kawasaki (disclosure: he is an Advisor of my service, SocialToo.com).  To schedule a Tweet, users visit sites such as Twitterfeed, enter the Tweet to share, and schedule it in as frequent intervals as they like.  Guy Kawasaki has been quoted as saying this method actually brings more clicks to a site, as people often miss the first Tweet from a user.

It is unclear if this move is a target against Twitter developers themselves, or against the users, but if you base it on the Terms of Service alone, it would seem it’s the users and not developers taking a risk. Users should be made aware that if they are a user of such a service and schedule their Tweets multiple times, their accounts stand the risk of suspension according to Twitter.

Other interesting rules on the Twitter Terms of Service you should be aware of that could get your account suspended:

• Following large amounts of users in a short time-span
• Repeatedly following and unfollowing users
• If your updates consist of mostly links and “not personal updates” (like my @jesseslinks or Louis Gray’s @lgshareditems)
• If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies
• If you post another user’s content without attribution

Yesterday I contacted Twitter but still have yet to receive a response on this. It is appearing their response is “no comment”.  I’ll update here if that changes.