Tell HN: Twitter messed up my account, I think I’ll just let it go

Yesterday I wanted to see a tweet with a map, that was strangely marked as NSFW. Instead of the usual warning and show button, Twitter now asked that I fill in my birthdate in my profile. So I did, entering the year 2003. Not my actual birth year, i didn’t want to give my exact age.

Immediately after saving, I’m shown a page saying I’m under 13 and I’m not allowed to use Twitter (??? 2003 was 19 years ago). To reactivate my account, I was supposed to upload my ID and information from my guardians (???). This is the only page I’m allowed to access while logged in.

There is no way in hell I am uploading my ID to Twitter or any other social network, so I start contemplating just writing the account off. 14 years, thousands of tweets, links saved etc.

Now I get an email to click a link and I can get my account reinstated. I click the link, only reconfirm my name and phone number, click next, I see a page that “they are processing my request” and receive an email directly that my account was reinstated, but they deleted the tweets from before I was 13. I can still see my tweets, followers and who’s following me, but my avatar and bio are gone.

I now get that the problem was that I had tweets from when I was supposedly 5, but I really don’t understand why my account was disabled with the explanation that I am _now_ under 13 and why everything is now messed up? Also why there was no warning or a multi step process.

And why did they need my exact age in the beginning, if it’s only my input and they trust it - why didn’t they just keep the “Are you over 18?” button? Or save the input from the hundreds of times I had to click that. Oh, yes! ADS, they said there that they are going to use my age to personalize ads.

And I think I am out, I see less benefits in keeping my account than ever.