Document: WM-061                                                 P. Webb
Category: Social                                              2024.12.16

                                Twitter

Abstract

   …yay?

Body

   I’ve been unbanned from Twitter.

   Since my ban[1], I’ve spent time periodically attempting to appeal
   said ban and even going as far to use an online postal service[2] to
   formally request my data from Twitter’s Data Protection Officer.

   I’ve been on Twitter for 15 years. The thought of all that data being
   locked behind bullshit was infuriating. Anyhoo, last week I received
   this email:


   Hello,
   
   We’re writing to let you know that we’ve unsuspended your account.
   We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope to see you back on
   X soon.
   
   A little background: we have systems that find and remove multiple
   automated spam accounts in bulk, and yours was flagged as spam by
   mistake. Please note that it may take an hour or so for your
   follower and following numbers to return to normal.
   
   If you need to get in touch with us again, please file a report
   through your X app or our forms page, as this account isn’t
   monitored for replies.
   
   Thanks,
   
   X Support



   Honestly, I don’t believe this…especially when this "error" was
   discovered the same day The Guardian reported[3] on the mass exodus
   from ElonNet. I think Twitter looked at their numbers and thought,
   "Our metrics are looking dreadful," and figured unbanning the banned
   would make us ever so grateful to be allowed in that our usage of
   Twitter would return to pre-Elon levels. Furthermore, you visit
   Twitter today and you’ll find plenty of spam accounts within five
   minutes of scrolling.

   Nah.

   After the election[4], I deleted my remaining Twitter accounts. I
   literally have no reason to remain on the platform.

   Though I gotta admit, having access to my account again and seeing
   tweets from the people I follow who haven’t yet aborted felt quite
   nice. It felt familiar. When I tabbed over to the "For You" feed
   though, reality set in. There’s no saving this place, it’s time to
   move on.

   I also sent complaints to the Public Inquiry Unit of the Office of
   the Attorney General and got a response from them and Twitter the
   same day:


   Hello,
   
   We are responding to your request for information regarding
   account, @NetOpWibby. You can download the information with
   this URL:
   
   https://records.twitter.com/disclaimer/randomLettersAndNumbers
   
   The URL is valid for the next 7 days. You may download the
   information a total of three times. A brief explanation of the
   information is included with the download.
   
   Additionally, your account has been reinstated, as it was suspended
   mistakenly. Accordingly, you can also download your data in your X
   account settings: https://help.x.com/en/managing-your-account/accessing-your-x-data
   
   Best,
   
   X Corp



   Downloading your export from records.twitter.com is excrutiatingly
   slow. I recommend doing so from a desktop computer because it’ll take
   hours. However, downloading an export from the Twitter UI is quite
   fast and will finish in under 10 minutes (for me). Interestingly, the
   former export will put your tweets in a single TXT file in JSON
   format with a PGP key at the top. The latter export will provide you
   with an HTML file so you can view your tweets in a browser.

   Anyhoo, after I downloaded both exports I ran tweetXer[5] by Luca
   Hammer[6] to delete my content from the platform. The great thing
   about tweetXer is that it has a button that exports your bookmarks,
   something the official exports don’t provide. The deletion process
   took maybe an hour and some change.

   I haven’t deleted this last account yet. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe
   it’s to protect my username from being used maliciously? Maybe
   there’s a chance Elon will get ousted? Maybe I’m being sentimental?
   Idk. I logged out. Most of the people I follow are active on other
   platforms so I’m not missing anything.

   Some great perks to finally having my data is that 1) I can stop
   obsessing over not having it, 2) I can host my tweets[7], and 3) I
   can train a local LLM on 15 years of content!

   So long, Twitter! My online presence is fragmented due to your
   impending death but that no longer bothers me. After all, we used to
   have accounts across several forums and other online communities.
   Nature is healing.

   Rebirth of an era. 🕸️

   


   2024.12.19 UPDATE

   Remember me sending Twitter snail mail to get my data?
   They’ve responded:


   Hello,
   
   We have received a request for certain information regarding an X
   account, @netopwibby, via post.
   
   If you are still having issues downloading your X archive, please
   confirm in your reply.
   
   Please note that all your X data is available directly via your X
   account, as explained in the following Help Center Page: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20172679
   
   Sincerely,
   
   X Corp



   The top of the email says "Reply above this line." This is an
   interesting change from their usual, "this email is not monitored so
   don’t reply" tagline. Maybe they’re trying to be professional for
   once. If you’re banned and trying to get your data, maybe try
   emailing dpo-support@x.com directly? YMMV