Is It Anonymous When You Report Spam on Twitter?

Many organizations, including Twitter, consider unsolicited advertising to be spam. Twitter adds to that definition, however, including the tweeting of links to harmful sites, continuous posting of unwelcome messages to others, generating more than one account, sending numerous repetitive updates, retweeting information not germane to the original tweet and posting simply to gain attention. Such behaviors constitute harassment and so violate Twitter rules just as copyright or trademark infringement, impersonation and other inappropriate actions do.

Twitter enables spam recipients to report the abusive accounts. To do so, visit the account's page and click on the head and shoulders person icon under the profile picture to open the drop-down menu. Select the "Report for spam" option. This option blocks the user from following you or responding to your tweets. Twitter doesn't send a notification to a user when blocked. However, since that person can't follow you any longer, he or she may notice the change.

Twitter users may also report individual tweets for spam violations. Open the tweet and touch the icon that's a series of three vertical or horizontal dots to open the menu. Choose "Report Tweet" and then "Spam" followed by "Submit." For a direct message containing spam, open the message, and tap and hold until a menu opens. Select "Report" and then "Report Spam." These actions delete the message or tweet from your timeline. Unlike reporting through the account, however, the user isn't automatically blocked from you, so he won't be aware of your report.

Twitter's privacy policies help protect all users, including those who report others for violations. For instance, Twitter doesn't disclose personal information except when you allow it, such as with certain applications, or when legally bound to. Therefore, the person you report for spam will receive no information about you from Twitter. Note that your profile page and tweets on it can be seen by everyone, even those without Twitter accounts, if you choose to keep such information public.