Spam usually sucks. It’s everywhere, it’s constant and it’s generally annoying too. But in one case, it is hilarious. Meet @Horse_ebooks, a pathetically hilarious spambot on Twitter that, unlike other Twitter spambots, doesn’t bother anyone. Unless you decide to follow it.
Based in Russia, @Horse_ebooks is a part of a collection of Twitter spam accounts which are meant to sell terrible ebooks, in this case terrible ebooks about horses. But this account, in particular, has been getting a lot of attention for its almost cryptic nature and the fact that it tweets only to its followers. Unlike other bots, it doesn’t @ reply people, it doesn’t follow people, it doesn’t even look for trending topics and try to spam them.
It simply sits on Twitter, in it’s own little world, tweeting nonsensical things and occasionally links to Clickbank, an affiliate marketing site. And the best bit is that if you don’t want to be spammed by it, you just don’t follow it. It’s so broken that it fails at it’s only job. But at the same time, it’s found internet fame. And, probably because it’s so hilariously terrible, Twitter have shut it down for spam.
For a deeper investigation, check out this article from SplitSider.com’s John Herrman. Or you can follow it here. Or if you want to follow a less insane Twitter account, follow us.