Ask HN: How does a private, nearly-inactive Twitter account get suspended?

My Twitter account got suspended today. I've had it since 2008, and it's under my real name. (Years ago, I was offered the option to get "Verified" by Twitter.)

My account has been private for years. I haven't tweeted in years, though occasionally I will like someone's tweet. I don't accept new followers and haven't in years. I also think it's unlikely any of my legacy followers would have reported me.

I do NOT think I have "liked" a tweet from an account that was later suspended. (I generally only like CS-related accounts—mostly 3D graphics, machine learning, etc. and occasionally, sports. Definitely nothing political or remotely controversial.)

I have NOT gotten an email from Twitter about the suspension.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss to discover what may have caused it, or even what to do. They are NOT asking for my phone number.

Update: I had over 1400 tweets or retweets over nearly 12 years, tons of legit follows/followers (lots from HN), and I accessed Twitter most days. So not "inactive", just "not tweeting so couldn't possibly be breaking any content rules."

Update 2: It will let me log into it. It puts up a message that says "Your account is suspended and is not permitted to perform this action."

Uggh, now HN won't let me reply to people posting here. ("Please slow down.") Were any of you who got your accounts back able to get your likes/followers/followees back?

12 points | by erichocean 1153 days ago

8 comments

  • ValentineC 1153 days ago
    I wonder if your account got hijacked.

    My private account was hijacked on Wednesday — username changed, email changed, password changed, and through a friend working at Twitter, I found out that my account was suspended.

    After a few escalated tickets, I somehow managed to get back my account (thanks, Twitter support!), and finally got around to putting 2FA on it.

    When I first logged in again, Twitter showed me some tweets of a death threat that the hijacker posted using my account, and asked me to delete them. Those tweets caused me to get suspended — but I didn't get a full suspension, just the limiting of posting/retweeting/liking features.

    I've since deleted those tweets, and my account seems to be in good standing.

    Anyway, to address your case specifically, it'll help to open a ticket with Twitter support, and possibly find friends working at Twitter to validate your identity and help vouch for you.

  • erichocean 1153 days ago
    Needless to say, I have not violated the "Twitter Rules"—I haven't even DONE anything on my account that could violate them.
    [-]
    • epc 1153 days ago
      Were you actively using it (even just to read tweets)? I’ve had several dormant accounts suspended over the years (accounts I had but was not actively using to read or post). Was able to get them reactivated after going through their procedures. I had to add a cell phone number to each to reactivate them. I think Twitter got more aggressive about dormant accounts in 2019.
      [-]
      • erichocean 1153 days ago
        I used it daily.
        [-]
        • epc 1153 days ago
          This is purely a guess based on my own suspensions but: some jerk reported your account and Twitter's automated bot routines went ahead and suspended it.
    • erichocean 1153 days ago
      Also, if your account is un-suspended, do you get back the accounts you were following and your likes? Everything has been wiped out—over a decade's worth of likes (which I used to remember tweets to projects and people I was interested in) are all gone.
    • theli0nheart 1153 days ago
      Have you connected a phone number or set up 2FA?
      [-]
      • erichocean 1153 days ago
        I have not, just a password (a hard one, I use 1Password).
        [-]
        • theli0nheart 1153 days ago
          This happened to me with an old account within the last year. When I connected a phone number, it was unsuspended (you can always remove it afterwards, I'm assuming?).
  • aminozuur 1153 days ago
    Same here. One of my accounts had zero activity, not a single tweet, like, following or follower. Yet it got suspended a few months after registration. A google search showed lots of others with the same issue.

    I filed an appeal and they unsuspended it a week later.

  • ancymon 1152 days ago
    Maybe you used (i.e. were assigned) "bad" IP? For my account using shared VPN triggered suspension (but in my case, I am allowed to get verified by providing my phone number (but after providing the number I am not receiving verification messages and there's no other way to get verified)).
  • templarchamp 1153 days ago
    May be I am cynical - so randomly suspending accounts works in Twitter's favor, right? It causes anxiety/pain for customer and the customer is "morally-forced" to pay for good standing - something in line with the new features twitter is rolling out.
  • tanylak 1153 days ago
    I think twitter sees inactive accounts as accounts created for the purpose of circumventing the fake followers/anti-spam rules.

    Same thing happened to me a while back.

    I don't remember what I did to get it unsuspended. I think there as an email that I got, and I had to show some activity.

  • ttt0 1153 days ago
    Twitter sometimes does purges and people are bleeding followers and followings left and right whenever that happens. And apparently another purge just happened. Twitter says they're just getting rid of bots, but maybe you got caught up in it.
  • erichocean 1153 days ago
    I've tried adding my phone number, but the system won't let me: "Your account is suspended and is not permitted to perform this action."