Byte Dealing With Spam Bots

Byte made headlines when the Vine successor was released on January 24, aiming to fill the void left by Vine’s shuttering. In the intervening 36 hours, the new service has had its hands full with spam bots.

In a blog post, founder Dom Hofmann acknowledged the problem and vowed to address it.

“I wanted to post an update and make it clear that we’re aware of the issues with comment spam and more widely with certain types of comments,” writes Hofmann. “This is our top priority and we’re working very hard to address it. It should be noticeably better than it was 24 hours ago and should continue to improve over the next little while.”

Hofmann also said the Byte team is working on video moderation, the ability to like comments and the ability “to block/filter/limit commenting.”

The new features should go a long way toward mitigating the type of bots that have become the bane of social media. In the meantime, Hofmann thanked the community for the positive reception the app has received.

“We are so thankful for the positive reception so far and I promise we’ll do right by it. Thank you for everything and please keep sharing what you’re thinking about with us.”

As the app gains in popularity, it will be interesting to see how companies will use it to connect with customers. With its six-second, short-form videos, the new service will provide challenges and opportunities alike for concentrated communication.