Twitter Bug Lets Users Force Others To Follow Them

Several readers have sent word of a Twitter bug which has been allowing users to make any other user follow them by simply tweeting "accept [username]." People have been abusing it to make the accounts of various celebrities and publications follow them. Twitter acknowledged the bug and disabled the follow/unfollow system until they can get it fixed.

Comments

Solution...

[ls671]

Here is the solution I propose for them in order to strike a balance:

1) Do not hire anybody using social networking sites.

2) Make joining social networking sites a cause of immediate termination of employment.

Side effect in my case: 3) profit from the new job openings available ;-)

Seriously, I hear that this has even become an issue for military staff located overseas where tactical information might be leaked when sampling feedback from a sufficient number of individuals.

Re:So...?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking more the "In Soviet Russia" meme, but couldn't come up with anything that sounded remotely original.

"In Soviet Twitter, you follow who you are told" was the best I could come up with, but it's lame enough to be a joke on me, really. "In Soviet use of Soviet meme, Joke is you!" I guess.

Re:Does this work on Slashdot?

[Yvan256]

Looks like it works, but let's try it with something else just to be sure.

accept +5 MooCow

it's all fun and games

[circletimessquare]

until you realize that as twitter creeps further into english language use, the following conversation following english language convention is only a few months away:

"i was going to twitter that until i got the tweet you twatted yesterday and i realized its no fun twuttering anymore, you twat"

"don't call me a twat you twit"

(shudder)