Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

sucky.ninja

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 393 posts

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#61

Post by ridgewell »

tyingq wrote: post #59

I don't use Twitter much, but every time I click on a Twitter link from my Android phone...it pops an error page. The page says either something about an error, or that I'm rate limited. A page refresh usually then works fine and displays the page. Is this related to similar attempts to block bots/spammers? Or maybe just something wrong on my end?

Are you trying to do so from Firefox / a reddit app? This is fairly normal and the general conspiracy theory is that it's an erroneous error to get you to download the Twitter app once and for all.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#62

Post by braythwayt »

_jomo wrote: post #39
lima wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad but true. At the hosting company I work for, we had to start requiring phone numbers for cloud servers due to a massive wave of abuse. It's one of the few roadblocks that helps at least somewhat. Previously, we didn't even require a full name. A few idiots always ruin it for everyone.

You seem to ignore that this constrains abusers as much as it does legitimate users. Collective punishment in order to mitigate abuse by a few is the wrong way to go.

This is, you might say, not just an important problem in society, but the only problem in society.

"Why do I need a driver's license? It's just bureaucracy and a revenue collection scam." Except, when you don't test drivers or provide a mechanism for taking bad drivers off the road, a few bad people spoil it for everyone.

And so on, and so forth. That is not a justification for any one thing like this, but the general principle is that when the bad actors make things toxic enough for the mainstream users, somebody has to step in, or a social platform quickly degrades until it becomes 4Chan, or Gab, or whatever.

Same reasoning behind moderation here on HN.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#63

Post by etaioinshrdlu »

Nextgrid wrote: post #50
miguelmota wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, requiring phone number are to prevent sybil attacks and are for accountability.

Phone numbers are extremely easy to obtain. This won't achieve anything in the long run.

Can I have 100 phone numbers for free? I don't believe it is so easy.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#64

Post by jordanwallwork »

zipperhead wrote: post #47
Pfhreak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a really split opinion about this. On the one hand I've seen a lot of really hateful stuff lobbed around on sites like Twitter, and I suspect that linking accounts to phone numbers would dramatically reduce that. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want Twitter (et. al.) knowing my phone number.

I agree. I would rather pay them some fee. But they don't seem to want to monetize their service via user fees.

Seems like it would make a lot of sense for them to offer both options; either would discourage bots, and you'd give people the choice whether to go the free route or the privacy-conscious route

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#65

Post by gruez »

mirimir wrote: post #31
puttycat wrote: post #21

Handy tip: buy the cheapest pre-charged SIM and use it for this kind of verifications.

That still allows geolocation. But one can lease hosted SIMs. Actual SIMs in server farms. So they're "real" mobile numbers. Just not located where you are.

>That still allows geolocation.

I doubt twitter is going to get your cell tower location just from your phone number. Sure, the cell provider has it and is probably keeping it around, but unless you attract significant attention to yourself (eg. bomb threat), it's not going to be disclosed. If you're really paranoid you can use it a few blocks away from your usual location.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#66

Post by tyingq »

ridgewell wrote: post #61
tyingq wrote: post #59

I don't use Twitter much, but every time I click on a Twitter link from my Android phone...it pops an error page. The page says either something about an error, or that I'm rate limited. A page refresh usually then works fine and displays the page. Is this related to similar attempts to block bots/spammers? Or maybe just something wrong on my end?

Are you trying to do so from Firefox / a reddit app? This is fairly normal and the general conspiracy theory is that it's an erroneous error to get you to download the Twitter app once and for all.

Stock chrome on an Android phone. Most often from a Twitter link on HN. I'd say I get an error 90+% on the first try, and the refresh usually works the first time... occasionally, I need to do two.

Bone stock phone, nothing notable about it or the browser. Doesn't happen on my Windows or Linux desktops.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#67

Post by fogetti »

lima wrote: post #46
_jomo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to ignore that this constrains abusers as much as it does legitimate users. Collective punishment in order to mitigate abuse by a few is the wrong way to go.

Well, it works, and it's a minor annoyance at most for our legitimate customers. Abusers, on the other hand, have to burn a phone number on each account that gets locked.

I think you don't get it. It's not about annoyance. It's about the complete unreliability of any online service today. All and every customers show (and should rightfully show if they don't yet) complete distrust for a good reason.

You are asking my phone number today and next day I will find it out in the open because of your and others' businesses don't give a .... when it comes to security.

And don't tell me that's only a minority or the exception. Because that's just simply not true.

500px, Quora, Facebook, Twitter, Equifax among others all have been hacked at one point or have been exposed as unreliable and untrustworthy. It's just simply not a logical proposition to trust any online platform with private and/or sensitive data.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#68

Post by ebg13 »

tyingq wrote: post #59

I don't use Twitter much, but every time I click on a Twitter link from my Android phone...it pops an error page. The page says either something about an error, or that I'm rate limited. A page refresh usually then works fine and displays the page. Is this related to similar attempts to block bots/spammers? Or maybe just something wrong on my end?

It happens to me too, only when linked from HN.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#70

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

jrockway wrote: post #41
deogeo wrote: post #37

It's understandable they might require a phone number to keep down spam. It's less understandable they'd lie to new users on the reasons their account was blocked. We can't expect even the smallest scraps of honesty from corporations anymore.

It is understandable why they'd lie. If the error message was something like, "your request was blocked because you've included HTTP headers in the order [x-foo, x-bar], which is the header ordering in 99.9% of spam tweets", they would just change their agent's header order instead of no longer spending spam. I am not sure people realize what a high percentage of users of "free" services are spam bots of some sort. S…

I've wanted this as a service forever. Does anyone do it?
Post reply on HN