Twitter backs down and unlocks NY Post account | Hacker News Reader

Twitter backs down and unlocks NY Post account

nypost.com

33 pointszxcvbn403812 comments

My Twitter career ended a few minutes after signing up when they decided I was a robot with no evidence or appeal, so I am especially thrilled to see them held accountable for their arbitrary and baseless decisions.

Mine ended when they gated me on a screen asking for phone number to unlock the account. I cannot even log onto my account anymore as Twitter says Email does not exist - on a six month old account until I one day tweeted something that got some group of people riled up.

They suspended 12 of my accounts for no reason (generic ToS violation) only because they were linked together using TweetDeck. None of them violated anything, and appeals are still progressing 2 months later. 8/12 unsuspended - 4 more to go.

What was especially sad was that I used tweetdeck to improve my security - can use the account without sharing my password. However, twitter penalized me for trying to improve security by using it as a discovery mechanism for my remaining accounts.

I'm actually confused as to how people even make Twitter accounts. Twitter has always asked for a phone number here at the time of creating your accounts. Who even considers giving that? I've never been able to even create a fake account.

> Who even considers giving that?

Sorta funny you say that, given that Twitter's original value prop (how it got huge) was being able to Tweet via SMS. The character limits weren't just for fun.

Regardless of what ultimately happens with the Hunter Biden story (whether it is proven true or not or if it even matters either way), Twitter and the rest of big tech should not be trusted to operate their platforms well. There have been too many examples of their biases (see https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/15/11-hacks-leaks-and-hoax...) and in the last few years, there has been a sharp uptick in their willingness to censor, deplatform, judge truth and falsehoods, control narratives, etc. They play too big an influencing role in society to be trusted with these unilateral powers. We should demand that they support free speech, operate neutrally, censor minimally (no more than the law requires), and stop getting in the way of conversations.

Just do away 230. Let them become gawker. There is already mechanism in place to regulate them. FB and Tweeter will easily lose at least 100 billions in 1 year when lacking 230 protection. That will automatically motivate them to behave properly.

Certain platforms are getting closer and closer to infamous Rwandan broadcaster RTLM.

Does Twitter ban accounts that do promote open violence with "kill all XYZs"? :)

NYPost gained 200K followers, and Twitter lost 21% of its market cap. Brilliant idea, Jack. I'm sure shareholders won't sue you for this.

An action taken in October did not impact their disastrous third quarter financial results.

They've taken _many_ similar actions before this one. Maybe not as brazen, though. And I think the drop is in part caused by the likelihood of heavy regulatory scrutiny these actions brought on. That did not have to happen, Jack brought it upon himself and his shareholders.

What revisions did they make to their policy?

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