Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 19 submissions in the queue.

Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Gift a Subscription
Why Gift

Site News

Join our Folding@Home team:
Main F@H site
Our team page

Funding Goal
For 6-month period:
2022-07-01 to 2022-12-31
 (All amounts are estimated)
Base Goal:
$3500.00
Currently:
$438.92
12.5%

Covers transactions:
2022-07-02 10:17:28 ..
2022-10-05 12:33:58 UTC
(SPIDs: [1838..1866])
Last Update:
2022-10-05 14:04:11 UTC --fnord666

Support us: Subscribe Here
and buy SoylentNews Swag

We always have a place for talented people, visit the Get Involved section on the wiki to see how you can make SoylentNews better.

What would you use if you couldn't use your current distribution/operating system?

  • Linux
  • Windows
  • BSD
  • ChromeOS / Android
  • macOS / iOS
  • Open[DOS, Solaris, STEP, VMS]
  • I don't use a computer you insensitive clod!
  • Other (describe in comments)

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:9 | Votes:20

Brands Pay Twitter to Falsely Appear in Your Following List

posted by n1 on Wednesday January 01 2014, @12:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the they-know-you-better-than-you-do dept.
Business

AndyTheAbsurd writes with an article from Gigaom:

A Twitter advertising technique is perturbing people. Promoted brands like MasterCard and IFC are appearing in the list of accounts some users follow, even if they don’t actually follow them.

Sources familiar with the company’s advertising strategy tell me this has been occurring since early 2013, but the public has only just now cottoned onto it thanks to actor William Shatner (of Star Trek fame). Shatner brought attention to it after he saw that “MasterCard” appeared in his following list despite the fact that he didn’t follow it.