Twitter Accused Of Unfairly Banning Accounts Of Users It Assumed Were Underage

Twitter is being called out by XDA Developers for unjustifiably blocking their accounts based on the assumption that they were being run by underage users.

The firm has hit back with claims that there was no justification or logic provided as evidence for the shocking behavior.

For starters, it baffled many because it was a business account and those can’t be run by anyone in the pre-teenage age bracket. Secondly, the account comes underneath the verified category and that means it’s been reviewed by the organization itself and only then been given the green light to operate.

Now, when we dig down deep into the past, there’s another element that the company finds baffling. This account was made in the year 2009 and there was no birthdate added. And when they randomly chose to add one, it was called out as an error and immediately blocked, appearing like it didn’t exist ever.

Many at the firm are beyond baffled as to what went wrong and it has left them in a state that’s questionable, wondering if their account would ever get back to them.

This is definitely not the first time that we’ve seen the mega social network behave in this way, blocking accounts unfairly with vague descriptions and no proof. Moreover, it’s hard for many to see why the company can’t fix its own age verification glitches.

Just a few years back, a group of young and enthusiastic users of the app was barred from using it when their birthday made the suggestion that they were below the age of 13, during the time of signing in.

Many assumed that this was like getting an account blocked, not realizing that they were now in the age bracket of being 20. And just in case that form of drama was not enough, Twitter verified their real age and still failed to give back their accounts.

Their justification here was that you just can’t separate the content being provided now from that of the past.

For some, getting back to old accounts meant regaining access after more than one year. And even after that, their woes and worries didn’t stop as they were asked to give the app complete access to delete content that was posted when they had signed up at the age of 13.

Leading tech media outlet, 9to5Mac has also been the victim of the same policy and they’ve been blocked for underage reasons, even after all of the justifications that they’ve been given.

Now, why has a leading social network suddenly been so keen on worrying about age? Well, that is because it had no choice but to, after getting instructions from GDPR. And yes, the EU’s data regulation policies are why so many apps are being forced to deal with the matter.

This policy says that those below the 13-year age mark can’t make accounts on Twitter. But we’re in the year 2022 and if Twitter is yet to get its act together in this regard, things can truly be worrying.

We get that Twitter is worried about being fined but it’s high time they use common sense instead of behaving irrationally.


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