Go To Latest Video ReviewsTwitter Accidentally Suspends 1000s of Accounts
| Author | Gordon Kelly |
| Published | 6th Jul 2009 |
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TrustedReviews NewslettersWhat a mess...
For the last 12 months it has been virtually nothing but good news for micro blogging sensation twitter. Exponential growth, high profile media coverage and numerous celebrity members have catapulted the site into the public consciousness and it has coped pretty well. Until now...
Starting Sunday afternoon the site began to accidentally ban its users - not the best public relations experience. It began innocently enough with a few members querying the site about what seemed to be unprovoked account suspensions but it quickly escalated to the point of becoming a trending topic on Twitter itself.
At first there was widespread panic that a mass hack had successfully infiltrated the site and thousands of its users but as the dust settles Twitter has confirmed it was nothing more than a simple human cock-up error.
"Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts," admitted the site on its status blog. "We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours. One additional note: some the accounts suspended were using the third-party site Tweetlater. However, Tweetlater is not to blame for these suspensions nor is it in violation of our Terms."
Of those cruelly taken offline is yours truly at twitter.com/gordonkelly (no knowing what I had for breakfast today!) but thankfully our main TrustedReviews twitter account is so far unaffected.
Yes people, computers may indeed be getting ever smarter. The problem is the people who operate them aren't...
Update: I'm back!
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Greg said on 6th July 2009
Gordon said on 6th July 2009
@Greg - ouch. I think that'll turn out to be a very '2009' answer. Twitter is entirely what you make of it. Wheter you listen to people saying they just drank a cup ... more
Greg said on 6th July 2009
^^ I rest my case.
And if I am wrong, I duly note that it is still 2009 at the time of typing anyway!
ravmania said on 6th July 2009
didn't affect me at all.
twitter's great but it is a grower. you need to find some good people to follow and build up your own followers. which does take ... more
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"The problem is the people who operate them aren't..."
Absolutely. Hence why Twitter is popular.