Document: WM-055                                                 P. Webb
Category: Social                                              2023.07.17

                                Twitter

Abstract

   …that’s it?

Body

   I’ve been banned from Twitter.

   It happened suddenly, without warning. After dinner, I loaded up
   Twitter for something and saw:


   Your account is suspended
   After careful review, we determined your account broke the Twitter
   Rules. Your account is permanently in read-only mode, which means
   you can’t Tweet, Retweet, or Like content. You won’t be able to
   create new accounts. If you think we got this wrong, you can submit
   an appeal.



   The (indefinite) suspension email:


   Your account, NetOpWibby has been suspended for violating the
   Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: Violating our rules against
   platform manipulation and spam.
   You may not use Twitter’s services in a manner intended to
   artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior
   that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter. Note
   that if you attempt to evade a suspension by creating new accounts,
   we will suspend your new accounts. If you wish to appeal this
   suspension, please contact our support team.



   I’ve since sent two appeals, the first basically confused and the
   second, inquiring which tweets fell under "platform manipulation
   and spam."

   Twitter’s reply to both appeals:


   Your account was suspended due to violations of our Terms of
   Service. After reviewing for reinstatement your account will not
   be restored.



   I have a couple ideas as to what Twitter could possibly mean by
   "platform manipulation and spam." Bit of a reach IMHO, but hey.

   The first is my usage of the hashtag, "#StoppableDomains." If that
   sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking of Unstoppable Domains.

   From DomainNameWire[1]:


   Blockchain domain name company Unstoppable Domains has threatened
   to sue a Handshake domain name service for offering registrations
   under the .wallet Handshake domain name.



   Basically, Unstoppable thought they could use the might of their VC
   dollars to bully a company and the blockchain it’s built on, into
   submission. I happen to enjoy that blockchain quite a bit, so that’s
   where my beef comes in.

   Using the hashtag #StoppableDomains, I also exposed UD’s sketchy
   W3DA, or, "Web3 Domain Alliance," which is actually just a vehicle
   for them to legitimize future lawsuits and protect pending
   trademarks. Did you know they filed for "Bitcoin"?[2][3] In five
   countries? A company, built on Ethereum, trying to trademark the
   original blockchain. These folks are nuts. But I digress, my
   initial blog post on the topic is here.[4] I just wish I took
   screenshots of all my tweets or put them on Wayback Machine.

   When you’re suspended, all of your tweets disappear. All that
   investigative work, gone. GG

   My second theory is, maybe I mentioned too many other social networks
   in one tweet. I recently got an invite to Farcaster and have been
   loving it, so I tweeted about it, comparing it to Bluesky and
   Mastodon. Can you get banned over something like that? Who knows,
   it’s Elon’s world over there.

   In any event, this ban feels retaliatory. I’m unable to concieve how
   this could happen, accidentally. I didn’t have a lot of followers and
   certainly never had viral tweets. I’m frustrated because I’ve been on
   the site since 2009…that’s 14 years ago. I’m unable to even export my
   data. It’s gone, wiped.

   spends a few minutes searching computer for possible exports

   My last Twitter export is from November of last year so at least I
   have most of it.

   If nothing else, this experience highlights the need for cultivating
   your own space online. Thankfully, I’m technical, so writing this
   blog post and SFTP’ing (shh, I know I know) it to my server isn’t a
   big deal. I’m also not enthused about using any of my other (14)
   Twitter accounts (most of them placeholders for future or postponed
   products). I’ve already intended to get back to working on my paid
   social network[5] after I launch the registry[6] and registrar[7] for
   my Handshake TLDs and now I’m motivated to work harder.

   SIGH.

   End of an era. 🕸️

   P.S. Oh good, my #StoppableDomains tweets were in my 2022 export.[8]