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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

#331

Post by justaj »

_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…

This didn't work in my case.

I signed up using a Tutanota e-mail. Every time I got a verification code and then entered it into twitter I got an "Oops, something went wrong." message. After spending many hours in vain trying to find Twitter's e-mail support, I gave up and initiated a "Trouble logging into my account" help procedure. However, that ultimately failed since surprise! Twitter couldn't find any history under that account name.

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

#332

Post by selimthegrim »

reaperducer wrote: post #210
phs318u wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of going off topic (and without responding to the issue of Twitter requiring real phone numbers), I want to make a point regarding your last sentence. If a post is somehow sufficient to (potentially) warrant a prison sentence (eg for leaking state secrets or inciting terrorist acts), then I would suggest the amount of time that has passed is irrelevant (within jurisdictional bounds). If a crime has been c…

You're thinking too big. Think smaller and more common. Said something unpleasant about someone ten years ago? Guess what, he's the sheriff now, and has money in the budget to buy social media data on his enemies, or the freedom to tap into any shared federal database he likes. Next thing you know, there's a speed trap at the end of your block and each member of your family gets pulled over each day for a vehicle ins…

You laugh, but in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, this was very much a thing recently.

https://reason.com/blog/2017/09/08/sheriff-settles-over-blog...

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

#333

Post by ehnto »

I once signed up for an account and didn't give a phone number. Everything was fine and I filled out my profile. Later that day my account was restricted for "suspicious activity" ( I hadn't done anything except fill in the bio ) and the only way to reinstate it was to verify my account with a phone number.

Now, I am not saying it was a nefarious way to get my phone number. It's more likely a side effect of processes designed over time by many people.

But if I were trying to sneakily require someone to give me a phone number without explicitly saying so, that is how I would do it.

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

#334

Post by rux »

quakeguy wrote: post #152
ams6110 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why you should block ads and trackers even if you're not a Facebook user. I have blocked all their domains in my hosts file also.

Would you mind sharing the hosts file for blocking FB and all of their domains? I've done this too in the past, but my list seems outdated for a while now.

If you don't mind a bit more config to tune to your precise preferences, I'd highly recommend https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

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

#335

Post by ibejoeb »

It was only months ago that Lime and Bird were accused of racism and other discriminatory behavior due to the requirement that users have mobile phones to unlock the scooters. It was enough for them to develop cash-based access systems. Why is it acceptable for Twitter? Should I not be allowed to sign up on a public terminal and tweet without a mobile phone?

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

#336

Post by renholder »

ams6110 wrote: post #146
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your only choice as individual user is to leave the platform. That's not even enough anymore. You also have to make sure that every one of your contacts do not upload their address book to conveniently find friends like you who may or may not be on the network. And that they don't tag you in images, events, etc. You're an entry in the Facebook database, whether you have or have had an active profile or not.

This is why you should block ads and trackers even if you're not a Facebook user. I have blocked all their domains in my hosts file also.

>This is why you should block ads and trackers even if you're not a Facebook user. I have blocked all their domains in my hosts file also.

...but that's such a myopic view of the problem. Facebook has this data. There's an entire market, intentionally kept from the public, that specifically deals in the selling and trading of profile data. This is why the concept of "shadow profiles" is important.

Let's say I have three friends who are on Facebook and I am not (which I'm not). Those three friends upload my contact details to Facebook and, from these three data points, Facebook can derive certain assumptions:

Sex from my name.

General age-range based on my friends.

General occupation (let's say all three are co-workers or previous co-workers)

General interests based on their interests. etc.

So, now Facebook has an ad-targeting profile of me. All they need to do to get more information on me, regardless of I'm blocking their specific domains, is to purchase correlating ad-profiles on what I'll call the advertising market.

So, my credit card purchases, my Google search history, etc. can all be correlated back down into this one shadow profile that Facebook holds on me and this can, in turn, be used to target ads to my friends. Not only that, but if I ever do sign-up for Facebook, they can immediately start targeting ads to me. (read: I'm not a net-advertising loss for being a "new user".)

I'm not saying that you shouldn't block Facebook domains but I think that, in the overall scheme of things, it's tossing a drop of water onto a raging bush fire.

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

#337

Post by sleepyhead »

est31 wrote: post #120

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 num…

> The other component is that once they have the phone number, they can do anything with it they want

Unless you are an EU-citizen.

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

#338

Post by feketegy »

ibejoeb wrote: post #335

It was only months ago that Lime and Bird were accused of racism and other discriminatory behavior due to the requirement that users have mobile phones to unlock the scooters. It was enough for them to develop cash-based access systems. Why is it acceptable for Twitter? Should I not be allowed to sign up on a public terminal and tweet without a mobile phone?

This is what I don't get. Twitter is a company, a social network which has its own internal rules.

When you sign up, you accept the terms & conditions, now which requires that you have a valid phone number to use the platform. If this is not convenient for you, why should Twitter change? Why not just move on to other services?

To me it seems like that people want to be part of the "community" and sign up on the platform, but still dictate their own rules. Why would Twitter consider such users?

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