Twitter has been hit with a class action lawsuit which accuses the microblogging giant of sending spam messages to “recycled” phone numbers and ignoring recipients’ requests to stop the notifications.
The suit, filed in Federal court in San Francisco, claims that Twitter is sending out promotional messages or notifications via its short code ‘40404’service, which permits companies to send out automated SMS message, to phone numbers that were set up to get messages, but are now used by people who haven’t opted for receiving texts or even some who doesn’t have Twitter accounts.
According to a user – Beverly Nunes of Massachusetts, as soon as she got a new phone number last November, she started getting promotional texts and notifications several times per day from “40404,” urging her to sign up for “swag bucks” – even though she never accessed Twitter ever in her life.
Moreover, the social network has also reportedly failed to honour requests from recipients to unsubscribe and put an end to the unwanted notifications.
The suit claims that Twitter is automatically sending out unwanted messages without verifying if people have opted for the messages or not. The suit is seeking in excess of $500 in damages for each violation of the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
“Twitter simply treats the new recycled cellular telephone number owner as if he or she were the previous owner,” the suit read.
Twitter has however, denied the allegations saying that “We believe these claims are without merit and will vigorously defend ourselves against them.”
