CNET:

Twitter is upgrading its popular direct message feature to allow users to receive messages from other users regardless if they follow each other. The move is part of its ongoing effort to try to boost user growth as pressure from Wall Street investors continues.

I’m not sure how or why CNET describes this as a “upgrade”. It’s like the people who run Twitter don’t actually use Twitter. This will open up a whole new way for spammers to abuse the service and, while it might draw in advertisers who want to send “personalized” direct messages to people, it will drive away more users than it could ever to benefit.

UPDATE: The Next Web points out this is “an optional feature” and “The new setting is turned off by default.”