Permanently suspended from Twitter?!?

[Twitterwhooooo]

I have a very small Twitter account with which I follow lots of feminists as a quick way of keeping up with what's going on in GC land.

I mainly retweet or 'like'. This week, I posted on a few threads in support of Sarah who is taking Survivors' Network Brighton to court for their failure to provide single sex services for women.

I now have a message saying that my account is permanently suspended for breaking Twitter rules, and is in permanent read-only mode.

It's not a huge deal - spending less time farting around on Twitter will do me no harm whatsoever - but I have no idea how I broke Twitter rules.

I've 'appealed' but I guess just wondered how often this happens. It does feel quite shocking, given some of the threatening and abusive posts that I've seen on there.

Silencing of women's voices continues!

I think they should tell you exactly which post broke the rules personally.

Go to the media about this, with media pressure hopefully Elon will take you back

How? What Twitter rules did they say you broke?

I am hopeful that Sarah wins this case. How is it possible for a rape crisis centre to exist without providing at least one female only support group? It is the only centre in the whole of Sussex.

I had this. I messaged them to say I don’t know why as I only use it to read twitter and have never posted, retweeted or anything so I was curious to know what I’d done wrong. It was reinstated within half an hour. They didn’t ever tell me the problem it just happened.

It’s likely that one of the TRA trolls has reported you for having the temerity to have an opinion that opposes theirs. Hopefully your account will be reinstated

They are notoriously inconsistent and opaque about why they suspend people or whether they can be reinstated. I'd keep pushing with appealing it.

The message just said that I'd broken Twitter rules, but not which rule, how or with what post.

I've said that if I inadvertently have, I'm happy to delete the offending tweet. I did notice that I'd been added to a 'list' called something like 'sock pocket GC accounts' (along with high profile posters, which I thought was quite funny), so yes me and my handful of followers must have come to the attention of some gender ideologist somehow.

OP, I suspect your account was identified and reported by someone because of you liking or retweeting GC posts. It’s unlikely you will find out exactly why even if you get your account reinstated.

OP I agree with Eighties. See here:

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/why-i-was-banned-from-twitter?utmsource=substack&utmmmedium=email&utmcontent=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0MjU2NjcxMCwiXyI6InoyY0hLIiwiaWF0IjoxNjUxOTMwNzg4LCJleHAiOjE2NTE5MzQzODgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi02NzMwOSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.nCyFJcGro6H5MkQxCCeKazUemjwq5KMSzgYX1vurZIs&s=r

I'd have a good read, gather evidence / lines of inquiry and your thoughts, and email your MP.

There's a thread I started today or yesterday on the Online Safety Bill (and there are others too). I would use this to write to my MP if I were you.

Other thread

Online Safety Bill and misogyny www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4544273-online-safety-bill-and-misogyny

Thanks for this. My MP is an out and out misogynist, unfortunately, so I won't be bothering with that channel.

I'm not that bothered for me for reasons above, but I am bothered about what it means for accounts (my username was neutral) that even express support for women's rights.

I was kicked off Twitter for telling a paedophile to jump off a bridge. This account actually had a poll on what age of children they and other paedos preferred 🤮. Maybe you think I should have been kicked off for that but I was suspended while their account stayed up. That’s the priorities of Twitter and I’m glad not to use it anymore. It wasn’t productive and just anger inducing.

If someone’s listed you as a sock they might’ve reported you to Twitter for not existing. Or rather, for being a bot.

Absolutely agree they ought to tell you which of their rules they’ve broken if they suspend/ban you; & give you a chance to fix things.

@AllyCatTown well, you broke one of their ticky-box reporty things (encouraging self harm or suicide) but you’d not think that would be a ban - I mean, unless you were replying to a tweet of theirs about being on [their way to] the parapet of a bridge with all their affairs in order & nobody to stop them “this time” (or similar) &/or you were relentlessly spamming them with it. It is grotesque that Twitter allows paedophiles to parade their pretence that being “minor attracted” is a sexual orientation - totally normal, nothing to see here.

I’d say their moderation policies are a joke; but jokes are funny 🫤

I lost my twitter account (which I hardly ever used) by posting 4 identically-worded tweets tagging different members of the House of Lords about a piece of draft legislation I felt strongly about. I had never done this before and feel spamming would be an inaccurate way to describe my tweets. You don't have to do much if you're unlucky enough to be reported. I appealed a few times but never got a response.

Yes, I wondered if I'd been reported as a bot. I've replied to their email with the info they requested, so hopefully will be unsuspended soon.

Their 'appeals' page says they're experiencing delays with reports and reviews at the moment btw.

I had this when I first signed up after following a few accounts and got put on 'lists'. I gave up the first time but later when I started over with a new account it happened again and I just kept appealing.

The process seems to be mostly non-person so just keep banging away at it. I got back straight away after having to give more verification.

Also, block anyone who puts you on a list straight away.

Good point. I didn't think to do that.

If Twitter decide to operate in the UK (and other legal jurisdictions) then presumably the organiation has to respect local laws. And in the UK sex is a protected charateristic and holding a GC view is within the law. I wonder who regulates (ie regulatory body) compliance with our laws by international companies. I can think of obvious ones such as Companies House, or financial/charity regulators. For information laws I wonder if the ICO would cover this. Just musing. I have felt for sometime that the way to deal with these companies and their attempts to censor is to go to a regulator.

I'm sure that's right, but I think it's more likely I was suspended under their 'you're a bot' policy, albeit 'reported' by someone targeting GC accounts.

I don't know what algorisms they use internally, but just a AI check of for example my last two comments would show that they were completely different and responsive.

I guess their bar for 'being a bot' is low, otherwise the platform would be overrun by them.

You've basically been suspended for expressing a view a highly privileged and special person did not like experiencing.

Such as 'females should have rape crisis services'. Twitter is devoid of any kind of ethics and is a male supremacist hub.

Just picked up a email from Twitter.

My account has been unsuspended because it had, surprise, surprise, been reported as a bot.

Well done. Twitter works mainly on algorithms and people know how to play it.

One of the ones I got suspended from for 'behaving like a bot', I had just followed a few newspapers and people and liked a few tweets. Not sure what else you are supposed to do when you first join. 🤷‍♀️