Fresh cup of WTF with lunch? TeamViewer's big in Twitter's domination-as-a-service scene

Sysadmins seeking help with remote control software find something quite different

Users taking to Twitter to moan about TeamViewer have received a bit of a shock when attempting to use the eponymous hashtag.

It appears that as well as providing corporates with their IT support needs, users have found an entirely different, and quite literal, use for the remote control software.

Rather than being wielded by a BOFH to deal with a clueless user, the software has been taken up by clients seeking to hand over control of their computer to someone else in exchange for a fee and a promise not to email their partner. The prospect and thrill of the loss of control is apparently an enticing one.

Ok. What the fuck. I searched for Teamviewer on Twitter and all the tweets are about BDSM "sesssions" and really bizzare stuff. I did not expect a business tool to be such a big part of the sexual underworld. Also what the fuck.

— Damian Guppy (@perthguppy) July 9, 2018

The Register reckons that same effect could be achieved by putting an unpatched version of Windows XP on an open internet connection for a few minutes.

While any remote control software will do the job, it seems that TeamViewer has become shorthand for clients seeking services and vendors offering, er, the same.

A TeamViewer representative told The Register:

For prompt support, we recommend that users refer to our official Twitter company handle @TeamViewer and particularly our very active support community at https://community.teamviewer.com with 1 million monthly visitors and 77,000 members.

So yes, don't go using the hashtag if it's attention from TeamViewer you're wanting.

As one blushing admin confessed to Reddit, "I will now wonder every time I support remotely if the person on the other side gets off on me using their cursor with them unable to do anything."

If you need your WTF quota for the day topping up, head on over to the social media platform and search for #TeamViewer. Be warned, it is considerably more NSFW than one would expect for a product normally found in the hands of techies.

Or maybe not. ®