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Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

sucky.ninja

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

#101

Post by zokier »

Pfhreak wrote: post #10
burtonator wrote: post #6

This is the new norm... expect all services to require phone numbers due to spam and propaganda.

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.

This is bit of hypothetical, but does some sort of pki-like scheme exist that would allow me to hold a certificate (of sorts) from an authority that I could use to prove myself to an service, but also simultaneously would not leak any information about me to that service? Similarly service a and service b should not be able to link accounts behind my back. Sounds like a interesting crypto problem

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

#102

Post by munk-a »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #91
munk-a wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is slightly different though, twitter is silly and unnecessary - access to your money is not. During some of the recent shows highlighting issues with payday lending these sorts of strategic delays were mentioned in the light that they can cause irregularly paid workers to have problems actually getting money out of their paycheck - forcing them into more borrowing until they are able to clear their checks. Agai…

> twitter is just sillines Would you say the same about your phone number? If not, why? If I run my business on Twitter (or YouTube, or Facebook) is it that different from a bank?

No?

I'm not clear on what the real point of this question is - twitter is a terrible platform to use for actual communication. Their sorting by "relevance" can cause recent messages to get lost in the shuffle and randomly mess with your visibility. It may be you're considering twitter as a business in which to coordinate product sales, but I'll assume it's for customer relations management, many companies that have a twitter account for CS stuff also offer email, messanger (of some sort) and phone if you have an issue you need to resolve due to the fact that platform just isn't well suited for business - the network effect of it is surprisingly low (a _lot_ of people aren't on or don't regularly use twitter), it is semi-public which may violate your business concerns and... you're handing the keys to your reputation to the third party that has acted poorly in the past.

If you check out youtubers talking about youtubers (I have no specific example on hand) they tend to complain endlessly about how the trending algorithms can drive thousands of potential viewers toward or away from their channel for no particular reason - there the network effect is strong enough that they don't have an option though, if your business is streaming a show then YouTube offers a much richer starting viewer base.

I guess my assumption is, if your business doesn't force you to use a particular social media platform exclusively then... use some other communication method per preference?

I'm really just confused by the question though - these things are not the same and twitter is simply not as important as the place your money lives (and I think pretty much everyone would agree? Maybe I'm getting too old)

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

#104

Post by donretag »

It also happened to me. Signed up using an Outlook webmail account, residential IP, Firefox with Incognito Mode and Ghostery.

Once your account is disabled, the ability to delete (oops, I meant deactivate) your account is gone. I emailed support to delete my account since I am now unable to do so, and instead they re-enabled the account.

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

#105

Post by lightedman »

inopinatus wrote: post #80

We're going this way as well (requiring & verifying phone numbers, not locking accounts). We don't have a problem with bots, but users in the "not so tech savvy" segment tend to switch/discard/forget their email address. Rather than try to recover their account with us, this group will subsequently just create a new one, and then wonder & complain that their profiles/settings/content/histories aren't carried over. We…

"Turns out that phone numbers, whilst also subject to flux, have better long-term congruence to identity"

That isn't what I saw in the Verizon store today while I was disputing a charge on my bill ($10 trade-in on an account that never had a trade-in device at all?) Many people were changing their numbers.

To boot, I'm sure there are plenty of burner phones in use out there, I have six of my own with plenty of rollover minutes/texts.

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

#106

Post by cm2187 »

numbsafari wrote: post #38
_jomo wrote: post #25

They have been doing this for any account registered from a VPN or Tor. However, you can simply appeal the block and tell them you haven't tweeted and not broken any rules. They will send you an automated mail, offering to validate your phone number, or reply to the mail if your problem is not solved. Just reply to the mail. Unfortunately, processing the request takes anywhere between 10 minutes and 2 weeks; usually…

When I worked in banking we would do this with suspect transactions. The feature was called “Strategic Delay”. After awhile, all of our project plans (this was back in the days of Gantt charts) would include two weeks of effort on “Strategic Delay”, even if that feature wasn’t involved.

The same is an efficient email anti-spam technique (greylisting). Except that you get all your emails delayed by 20min-5h, which will not make any user happy.

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

#108

Post by bilbo0s »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #100
bilbo0s wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? Of course it's about the money. I'm not the CFO at Twitter or anything, but even I can see that spam and propaganda cost those guys a lot of money. The number of advertisers who stop paying Twitter because of spam will be orders of magnitude larger than the number of advertisers who stop using Twitter because of phone numbers.

I think you know what I mean.

Maybe I don't? Because that's what I thought you meant.

I thought you meant Twitter is trying to put the squeeze on the spammers and propaganda ministers because they will lose advertisers if they can't?

Did you mean something else?

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

#109

Post by lightedman »

donretag wrote: post #104

It also happened to me. Signed up using an Outlook webmail account, residential IP, Firefox with Incognito Mode and Ghostery. Once your account is disabled, the ability to delete (oops, I meant deactivate) your account is gone. I emailed support to delete my account since I am now unable to do so, and instead they re-enabled the account.

You've done what you can to terminate the business relationship. Any further contact from them is CAN-SPAM territory and you should get a lawyer.

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

#110

Post by tw1010 »

mythz wrote: post #35

I'm assuming it's to try de-anonymize users and make bots less cost effective. Nothing propagates faster than hate on Twitter and seeing as it's being actively weaponized to spread propaganda, I'm all for new measures that try slow the spread down - esp. given nothing else has worked thus far.

Guess that means old legacy bot accounts just got a whole lot more valuable.
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