Peloton promises to crack down on explicit spam accounts

The home-fitness streamer Peloton Interactive has promised to crack down on spam accounts featuring explicit images in their user display fields.

“Today, Peloton is taking active action against accounts being intentionally created with inappropriate content, including explicit imagery in their profile picture,” the company wrote in an emailed statement to members.

The statement said that such images directly violate the company’s terms of service, and that it’s working to block the accounts.

Members are encouraged to report usernames that violate the terms of service to the company.

The company’s terms of service stipulates that users “may not use someone else’s name, or any name, location, other public profile information or image that violates any third party rights, is against the law, or that is offensive, obscene or otherwise objectionable.”

A representative for Peloton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Users on Peloton’s dedicated Reddit community, r/pelotoncycle have reported seeing inappropriate spam accounts in recent days and called for a way to more easily report and block such accounts.

Peloton was an early-pandemic darling but has found itself with excess inventory and slowing sales over the last year.

The company in November delivered a sales forecast for its second quarter that was down about 37% from a year earlier.

The company has cut thousands of jobs since Chief Executive Officer Barry McCarthy took over in February along with outsourcing manufacturing and shuttering stores to cut costs.

Last month, McCarthy said that the company’s turnaround is a “work in progress.”