Twitter suspensions
Twitter (X) may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile accounts often attract media attention,[1] and Twitter's use of suspensions has been controversial.
Policy[edit]
Users who are suspended from Twitter, based on alleged violations of Twitter's terms of service, are usually not informed which of their tweets were the cause. They are told only that their accounts will not be restored, and they are told which of Twitter's rules the company claims were violated.[2] In addition to community guideline policy decisions, the Twitter DMCA-detection system and spam-detection system are sometimes manipulated or abused by groups of users attempting to force a user's suspension.[3]
Some commentators, such as technology entrepreneur Declan McCullagh and law professor Glenn Reynolds, have criticized Twitter's suspension and ban policies as overreaches of power.[4][5]
History[edit]
Between 2014 and 2016, Twitter suspensions were frequently linked to ISIL-related accounts. A "Twitter suspension campaign" began in earnest in 2015, and on one day, 4 April 2015, some 10,000 accounts were suspended.[6] Twitter repeatedly shut down accounts that spread ISIL material, but new ones popped up quickly and were advertised with their old Twitter handle; Twitter in return blocked those in what was called an ongoing game of Whac-A-Mole. By August 2014, Twitter had suspended a dozen official ISIL accounts,[7] and between September and December 2014 it suspended at least 1000 accounts promoting ISIL.[8] Twitter said that between mid-2015 and February 2016 it had suspended 125,000 accounts associated with ISIL and related organizations,[8] and by August 2016 had suspended some 360,000 accounts for being associated with terrorism (not all these were ISIL-related).[7]
In January 2016, Twitter was sued by the widow of an American man killed in the 2015 Amman shooting attack, claiming that allowing ISIL to continually use the platform, including direct messages in particular,[9] constituted the provision of material support to a terrorist organization. Twitter disputed the claim.[10][11] The lawsuit was dismissed by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, upholding the Section 230 safe harbor, which dictates that the operators of an interactive computer service are not liable for the content published by its users.[11][12] The lawsuit was revised in August 2016, providing comparisons to other telecommunications devices.[9]
Twitter suspended multiple parody accounts that satirized Russian politics in May 2016, sparking protests and raising questions about where the company stands on freedom of speech.[13] Following public outcry, Twitter restored the accounts the next day without explaining why the accounts had been suspended.[14] The same day, Twitter, along with Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, jointly agreed to a European Union code of conduct obligating them to review "[the] majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech" posted on their services within 24 hours.[15] In August 2016, Twitter stated that it had banned 235,000 accounts over the past six months, bringing the overall number of suspended accounts to 360,000 accounts in the past year, for violating policies banning use of the platform to promote extremism.[16]
On 10 May 2019, Twitter announced that they suspended 166,513 accounts for promoting terrorism in the July–December 2018 period, stating there was a steady decrease in terrorist groups trying to use the platform owing to its "zero-tolerance policy enforcement". According to Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy and Trust and Safety Lead at Twitter, there was a reduction of 19% terror-related tweets from the previous reporting period (January–June 2018).[17][18][19][20][21]
In September 2017, Twitter responded to calls[22] to suspend U.S. President Donald Trump's account, clarifying that they will not do so as they consider his tweets to be "newsworthy".[23]
In October 2017, Twitter posted a calendar of upcoming changes related to enforcement. Among other things, Twitter promised to provide "a better experience for suspension appeals", including a detailed description to the user of how a suspended account violated the rules.[24]
In November 2017, Twitter gave a deadline of 18 December to comply with their new policy, adding: "You also may not affiliate with organizations that—whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform—use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes".[25] On 18 December, the accounts of several high-profile organizations were suspended.[26]
Following Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, it was reported that the platform was planning to end the use of permanent suspensions.[27] In November 2022, Musk stated that accounts that engage in impersonation without a "clear" parody label would be permanently suspended without warning.[28]
Many anti-fascist activists were purged from Twitter in November 2022 after Musk outsourced content moderation decisions to the platform's users, notably inviting right-wing journalist Andy Ngo to report anti-fascist accounts directly to him. Among those suspended were a group that provides armed security to LGBT events, accounts parodying Elon Musk, and a Palestinian news outlet known for criticizing the Israeli military.[29][30][31]
Incidents[edit]
Rose McGowan[edit]
In October 2017, actress Rose McGowan said that Twitter had suspended her account for 12 hours after she repeatedly tweeted about former film studio executive Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct toward her and others. Twitter explained that McGowan's account had violated its privacy policy because one of her tweets included a private phone number. According to The New York Times, "Many Twitter users expressed outrage over Ms. McGowan's account being locked". After the tweet was removed, her account was unlocked several hours before the 12-hour ban was set to expire. A Twitter representative stated, "We will be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future".[32][33] Later that day, software engineer Kelly Ellis, using the hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter, urged women to shun Twitter for 24 hours, beginning at midnight, in solidarity with McGowan and with "all the victims of hate and harassment Twitter fails to support". Several activists, celebrities, and journalists joined the boycott.[34] Others criticized the level of organization and the fact that it was only 24 hours.[35]
2018 fake followers purge[edit]
On 11 July 2018, The New York Times reported that Twitter would begin to delete fake follower accounts to increase the authenticity of the platform.[36][37]
The issue of fake follower accounts was highlighted in 2016 when Russian trolls, using both human-operated and bot accounts to appear legitimate, leveraged Twitter's reach among American voters in an interference campaign in that year's US elections.[38][39]
Several celebrities and public figures lost substantial numbers of followers from their Twitter accounts before and after the closure of these accounts.[40] These included Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Dorsey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ari Fleischer, Pope Francis, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Kathy Ireland, Paul Kagame, Ashton Kutcher, The New York Times, Shaquille O'Neal, Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Queen Rania of Jordan, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, Twitter themselves, Variety magazine, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, and YouTube.[40][41]
U.S. President Donald Trump said that social networks such as Twitter were "totally discriminating" against Republican Party and conservative users.[42] Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey clarified that the reduction in the followers count was part of the platform's efforts to cut down on spamming and bot accounts.[37][41] Dorsey's own account lost about 230,000 followers in the purge.[40]
On 27 July 2018, Twitter's stock went down by 20.5% (equivalent to $6 billion).[38] The user base declined to 325 million, down from 326 million.[43]