Twitter suspended a bot account on Wednesday for spoiling the solution to the next day’s Wordle, the wildly popular internet word puzzle.
The game, which only offers one puzzle per day, has amassed millions of players since it came online last year.
But the Twitter profile @wordlinator seemed determined to ruin the fun for participants posting their scores on the social media site.
“The account referenced was suspended for violating the Twitter Rules and the Automation Rules around sending unsolicited @mentions,” a Twitter spokesperson told AFP.
The bot account automatically responded to accounts posting their Wordle scores with messages such as “Guess what. People don’t care about your mediocre linguistic escapades. To teach you a lesson, tomorrow’s word is” – followed by the actual answer for the next day.
Twitter said it does not tolerate its platform being used to harass other users.
Its policy also notes that sending unsolicited, aggressive or bulk mentions, replies or direct messages warrants suspension from the platform or deleting of the account in question.
Though Wordle gives players six chances to guess a five-letter word, does not have a mobile app and is only available on a web browser, the game has quickly caught on, partly thanks to users’ ability to share their scores in green, yellow and gray grids on social media.
It is likely the person behind the @wordlinator account found the upcoming winning words by simply looking at the Wordle web page’s source code.
“Just what kind of sick, twisted person do you have to be to hate the sight of people enjoying a harmless activity so much you hack Wordle?” asked one player on Twitter Tuesday.
