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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

#111

Post by hombre_fatal »

jordanwallwork wrote: post #64
zipperhead wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Surely a phone number is no more identifying than a credit card payment in the age of KYC.

And accepting a cryptocurrency would probably have little impact on all the lucrative scams that get spammed around Twitter.

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

#112

Post by gruez »

inapis wrote: post #95
gruez wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Um wasn’t there a case where one of the big 3 providers in US was selling real time location data?

The ToS of those providers prohibit the use of that except with explicit consent. I'm aware that the providers do little verification that consent was given, but I'm doubt that established companies such as facebook or twitter are going to risk a PR fiasco to get better anti-fraud numbers.

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

#113

Post by goranb »

_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…

I tried to open a new account on Twitter app for Android, using only my email. It was going ok until it asked me to provide my phone after confirming my email. The reason: suspicious activity / spam behavior. The account is in limbo now, and I can't access it any more.

Time to spin up a Mastodon instance.

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

#114

Post by mbesto »

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, and thereby help us to detect account duplication and manage it.

What service do you offer? Because I would never give a company where I wasn't paying for the service my phone number. How do you guarantee you won't misuse it or have ample protections in case of a breach?

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

#115

Post by jdreyfuss »

daybreak wrote: post #22

I had this problem when creating a new Twitter account last month. Within minutes after setting up an account via iOS app, was locked out for "suspicious behavior". Didn't even tweet once. Residential IP. They wanted me to add a phone number. I went to the help section and wrote a pissed off message to customer support...if they wanted my phone # they should have asked for it instead of accusing me. Shortly after, my…

If you contact support and say you don't have a phone number, they unblock your account as well. That worked for me.

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

#116

Post by RandomTisk »

goranb wrote: post #113
_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…

I tried to open a new account on Twitter app for Android, using only my email. It was going ok until it asked me to provide my phone after confirming my email. The reason: suspicious activity / spam behavior. The account is in limbo now, and I can't access it any more. Time to spin up a Mastodon instance.

The same thing happened to me two years ago, though I had signed up with a PC with Gmail and my account was locked pending phone verification within an hour.

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

#117

Post by smhenderson »

When I signed up for Twitter it was so I could post short messages from my phone that hopefully my friends and family would see and perhaps some small number of other, random users. You’re phone was your ID essentially.

I guess we’ve come full circle.

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

#118

Post by packet_nerd »

My wife and I cancelled our phone services a while back to save money since we rarely if ever have to call anyone and just use messaging to keep in touch with each other and friends.

What are people like us supposed to do?

I do have a Google voice number, but I noticed one or two places recently that won't accept that anymore.

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

#119

Post by tictok4 »

Me too! Signed up yesterday and right away got an email saying my account was locked because I violated their rules.

Filled out a ticket saying I don't want to give my phone number and they replied with boilerplate message saying to follow these easy steps - provide your phone number.

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

#120

Post by est31 »

The other component is that once they have the phone number, they can do anything with it they want, unless you leave the network. E.g. facebook once did the same, they required phone numbers "for two factor authentication". They promised to not use the numbers for anything else. A few years later they started sending SMS spam to users about what their friends did on facebook, and now facebook users can enter the number and the associated accounts show up... even though the number was supposed to be only for two factor auth. Your only choice as individual user is to leave the platform.
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