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

Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make

jacquesmattheij.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 276 posts

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

#91

Post by pixl97 »

jacquesm wrote: post #64
MisterTea wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise of Twitter of some sort. How could you not notice your password being changed? I would think twitter would invalidate existing logins after a password change forcing you to log back in using the "new" password an your devices. Then again, I never used twitter.

Because that's the only thing that I can think of that makes sense. Whether or not I can still log in I do not know because, as I wrote, I'm blocked from using Twitter, the only thing I keep getting now is a page where they want my phone number.

You could use twitter without a phone number before this point?

They asked me for it a long time ago, I never gave it to them luckily as they proceeded to leak that information to everyone. I've wrote off the platform ever since.

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

#92

Post by latchkey »

OJFord wrote: post #87
latchkey wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Does Twitter support it? SMS-only I think.

https://twitter.com/settings/account/login_verification

Authentication app Use a mobile authentication app to get a verification code to enter every time you log in to Twitter.

https://help.twitter.com/managing-your-account/two-factor-au...

Update: they added Authenticator 2FA in 2017 and a security key in 2021.

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

#93

Post by dec0dedab0de »

jacquesm wrote: post #68
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I can't log in. All I get is that screen over and over again. So it must have already authenticated you, because it knows to show you that screen. It seems extremely odd that they would give you the option to delete the tweet, without actually giving you the ability. And if deleting the tweet was really enough, they could have simply deleted it for you and sent you a message that they did. It's probably an exploi…

> Wait, why not cancel your appeal, and try deleting the tweet on your own? Because that might remove any forensic data that might allow me to figure out how this was done.

That makes sense, I wouldn't rely on twitter saving the relevant data either.

It really seems that the real problem is that it's possible to be banned for a single tweet, and so quickly.

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

#95

Post by jacquesm »

latchkey wrote: post #81
jacquesm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a chance. Seriously, I'm if anything utterly paranoid about this sort of thing and this box is as secure as it ever was.

Paranoid would imply that you set up Authenticator app based 2FA and a Security key. ;-) https://twitter.com/settings/account/login_verification

I don't have a smart phone and don't want to give Twitter my phone number because I see that as a risk rather than a solution.

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

#96

Post by bilkow »

rexreed wrote: post #36
jacquesm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is Twitter supposed to know that the Tweet was made by the OP or was a compromised Tweet? For starters: it would be interesting to see what IP address the tweet was made from, whether or not it was preceded by a password change or contact with Twitter support to turn the account over to someone else. > When something is egregious what should Twitter do if it doesn't have resources to investigate whether the twe…

A side question for folks who work on these sorts of social media / UGC sites. Wouldn't a shadowban / deletion of messages be a lot less antagonistic as a way of dealing with problematic posts instead of instant and total account ban? I mean, if Reddit can shadowban so that your account still works, even if the posts go into the "ether", why can't Twitter do this? Instaban seems a bit... harsh, even if merited? Could…

A shadowban is IMO worse than an instaban, you still aren't able to post anything, but it will look like you can. It also feels morally wrong to shadowban people and there's no process to appeal, it's not even straightforward to discover you've been shadowbanned, you need a bot or searching for your posts in a private window[0].

Agree on the "simple way" of warning the user and putting the post on a queue though.

[0] https://nerdschalk.com/am-i-shadowbanned-on-reddit/

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

#97

Post by jacquesm »

pixl97 wrote: post #91
jacquesm wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that's the only thing that I can think of that makes sense. Whether or not I can still log in I do not know because, as I wrote, I'm blocked from using Twitter, the only thing I keep getting now is a page where they want my phone number.

You could use twitter without a phone number before this point? They asked me for it a long time ago, I never gave it to them luckily as they proceeded to leak that information to everyone. I've wrote off the platform ever since.

Yes, I have never given them my phone number.

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

#98

Post by juggly »

jacquesm wrote: post #89
LightG wrote: post #85

With the greatest respect. Who cares? It's twitter. A cesspit, now run by raggety old billionaire on an ego trip. Don't like it. Leave and find somewhere better!

I care because I have about 11K followers there and apparently someone is able to write stuff that looks like I wrote it and that opens me up to all kinds of damage. So this may not be a 'big deal' to you but it is to me.

No post body was provided.

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

#99

Post by vorpalhex »

jacquesm wrote: post #57
vorpalhex wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any browser extensions? Ever used a friends computer to sign in?

Tree style tabs, adblock plus, umatrix, all as far as I know reputable and clean. Don't use other computers besides this one for Twitter. The password is very long, generated, so impossible to guess and I have never moved it to another machine.

Probably time to shut down the machine in question, clone it and do a forensics run on the clone. Use a new machine temporarily.

Obviously other vectors are possible, but in the absence of knowledge it is likely appropriate to react in a secure by default way.

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

#100

Post by jacquesm »

hezralig wrote: post #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 mig…

Oh that really sucks.
Post reply on HN