Published 13:13 IST, September 24th 2020
Twitter restores accounts after mistakenly suspending them; conspiracy theories abound
Twitter ran into trouble with users on Wednesday after several accounts were 'mistakenly' locked, suspended or limited at random leaving netizens confused.
Twitter ran into trouble with users yet again on Wednesday after several accounts were 'mistakenly' locked or limited. Several users accounts go suspended or limited just out of the blue while others complained that there was a delay in tweets showing up on the profile. Twitter's support account responded to the concerns and informed the users that it was just a glitch and accounts have been restored. Twitter troubles didn't end there for users as many pointed out that their followers/following count was automatically reset after the accounts were restored. This came just days after Twitter users alleged AI bias against women and people of colour.
"We're seeing a number of accounts that have been locked or limited by mistake and not because they Tweeted about any particular topic. We're working to undo this and get those accounts back to normal," read Twitter supports tweet.
Apologising for the incident, Twitter Support said, "The accounts that were mistakenly locked or limited have been restored. We’re sorry, this happened in the first place."
"We also noticed that some accounts were suspended by mistake and we’ve restored them too. This could have affected follower and following counts for some of you and those should be fixed soon as well," said Twitter while addressing the concerns of the users.
Netizens react to Twitter's 'Mistake'
Several users reacted to Twitter's 'mistaken' suspension and restriction of accounts especially around the time of the 2020 US Presidential election. A user suggested that these 'mistakes' were Twitter's way of 'suppressing voices' and that it happened more often around the time of US polls. There were users who also claimed that Donald Trump's account and that of his followers were not suspended suggesting that the people who did not support the current US President had to deal with the Twitter glitch. While others linked it to the Breonna Taylor case.
Many users asked the others to not bring politics into a petty technical problem on the micro-blogging site. There were those users too who simply enjoyed the chaos and arguments among the Twitter users on the thread. While others asked Twitter when the 'edit' button for tweets would come.
Updated 13:13 IST, September 24th 2020