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Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

jacquesmattheij.com

41–50 of 276 posts

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#41
post #10

> Unfortunately, since my account is now blocked I can’t make noise about this on Twitter, which is probably the only place where making such noise would be effective. This is dangerously true, unfortunately. Were there ever adequate channels of recourse for upstanding citizens which we've let atrophy in the last two decades? Or has Twitter been an unprecedented innovation in elevating plebeian voices? Or are have bo…

In the days before the internet, you would write to local news and your legislative representatives instead of making noise on Twitter.

These days, local news doesn't really exist, and representatives will only listen to big campaign contributors. Social media has stepped in to fill that gap for the modern lower/middle class.

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#42

I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? It sounds like it was, but he doesn't seem very fussed about how it happened or keeping it from happening again, just annoyed that Twitter's response to it isn't faster. Is it this commonplace for twitter accounts to be taken over? Also, is saying things like "Go die" an insta-ban on twitter? I don't use it but I thought it took more than that.

> I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? I do not know. The tweet certainly looks like it was made by my account, but definitely not from this computer and definitely not using my password. I'm pretty precise about stuff like that and Twitter would be the least of my problems if my passwords were hacked. For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise…

You only mention password, do you also have a non-sms based 2FA configured?

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? I do not know. The tweet certainly looks like it was made by my account, but definitely not from this computer and definitely not using my password. I'm pretty precise about stuff like that and Twitter would be the least of my problems if my passwords were hacked. For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise…

Could this be a 3rd party twitter client that has been infiltrated? Maybe someone reused a session somewhere? I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application.

> I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application.

Yes, absolutely, and I only use the web, no other kind of client, no apps etc.

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? I do not know. The tweet certainly looks like it was made by my account, but definitely not from this computer and definitely not using my password. I'm pretty precise about stuff like that and Twitter would be the least of my problems if my passwords were hacked. For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise…

You only mention password, do you also have a non-sms based 2FA configured?

No.

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#45
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? I do not know. The tweet certainly looks like it was made by my account, but definitely not from this computer and definitely not using my password. I'm pretty precise about stuff like that and Twitter would be the least of my problems if my passwords were hacked. For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise…

is it possible that something that had api access did it?

No api accesses granted as far as I can remember. But good call, I had not yet thought of that one.

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think 2FA is to guard against someone gaming their "lost my password" process as much as against someone brute-forcing your pw.

Yes, but that would actually be less secure because my phone number is quite public and I'd be a SIM swap attack away from someone being able to compromise this account in a way that I would not be able to easily recover from (and to lose my long time phone number in the process).

You don't have to use SMS for 2FA on twitter.

Have you checked: https://twitter.com/settings/apps_and_sessions

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#47
I got my account suspended, in real time, this weekend for following people who liked my tweet. I can log into my account but am presented with a splash page about how my account might be compromised and how I need to reset my password to unsuspend it.

It seems like I am shadow banned and the "contact our appeals team" is a CYA measure since they will not do a single thing to help or even verify my identity. They might not even be handled by an actual support team.

I cannot reset my password to unlock my account due to it claiming my email does not match the account after inputting my phone number. I removed my email previously, so I only have my phone number associated with my account, no previous email addresses are accepted. The workflow redirects me to an appeals form if I say I don't have it associated with my twitter account.

There is a secondary password reset workflow but it requires your account to be unsuspended to use. Great.

Now, I am stuck in a catch-22. Their appeals team sends boilerplate about how they can not do anything to help me. I can log in, I literally have past emails from Twitter and previous Twitter codes sent by SMS, yet that is seemingly meaningless due to some oversight or dark pattern in this workflow.

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could this be a 3rd party twitter client that has been infiltrated? Maybe someone reused a session somewhere? I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application.

> I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application. Yes, absolutely, and I only use the web, no other kind of client, no apps etc.

Any browser extensions?

Ever used a friends computer to sign in?

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#49

Quoted post unavailable.

> Sorry OP but I just don't believe you.

I could not care less.

> Seems pretty obvious you made a mistake and are trying to wiggle out of it. Which is human, so I don't blame you. I have said plenty of dumb things online.

Except that that isn't the case. So sorry. My reputation is worth a lot more to me than a tweet or even my entire Twitter account.

Re: Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

#50
post #30

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm not so sure. If he really made that tweet (while drunk as you suggest) it would be better to just delete it and avoid the potential Streisand effect when the truth gets discovered, and I'm sure he's aware of that.

Social media accounts have been hacked before, it's nothing new.

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