I get that bot accounts are a genuine problem, but Twitter/X has been trying to de-anonymize users for many years. Someone should write a book on all their tricks. From requiring phone numbers for authentication, to offering various pay incentives. It’s a crafty way to get people to self-censor.
I suspect it's a crackdown on accounts used for services like xcancel/nitter, but their heuristics are laughably poor and have resulted in a massive wave of false positive effective "bans" while having no noticeable impact on mirroring services.
I’m going through the same thing setting up blewit [1] (a reaction to the traditional “sell the people’s data” social media sites) at the moment, had a phone call with the National Crime Agency, got all my Ofcom policies documented etc) - mainly because it’s a) user-to-user and b) because we will allow nsfw stuff after an age verification. That’s the law now in the UK and it has teeth - a criminal prosecution, not something a company can shield directors from.
1: https://blewit.net <- tap on ‘Open the sandbox’ for a demo
It's asymmetrical warfare against users.
Again.
Oh, and bot accounts aren't a problem. They're a feature. Grok can only lie, but it can't amplify the lies. Bot accounts do that, and do it well.