Twitter reduces spam to just 1%

Twitter has radically reduced the amount of spam on the site, announcing that just over one per cent of all tweets are now spam-related.

This is a significant change from August 2009 when spam was at its highest on the site accounting for a massive 11 per cent of tweets sent.

The micro-blogging site has put in measures to cut down spam on the site even further, but it does admit that "while the battle will never be over, we're doing well on the front lines."

"Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites, repeatedly posting duplicate tweets, and aggressively following and un-following accounts to attract attention are just a few examples of spam on Twitter," explains the site on its blog.

"Like it or not, as the system becomes more popular, more and more spammers will try to do their thing.

"We're constantly battling against spam to improve the Twitter experience and we're happy to report that it's working."

Gone phishing

There have been a number of high-profile phishing attacks on the site in recent months, with the likes of MP Ed Miliband getting caught out for unwittingly spamming his followers with a sex tweet.

"With help from engineers on our Research team like @wfarner, we've moved the percentage of spam flowing through the Twitter network way down – and counting," continues the blog.

"To help us battle spam, you can click the 'report for spam' link on any suspicious profile page."

With spam nearly out of the way on the site, let's hope Twitter's next focus is on those pesky Twitter-bots.