Sometime overnight on the morning of August 4th, my main X (Twitter?) account (https://X.com/chairthrower) was suspended.
Update: Around 3pm on August 5th my account was restored. I have yet to receive a communication from X about what happened. It wasn’t all at once–my follower counts were zeroed out for a few minutes after everything started working again. My thoughts below are still valid.
Message I get when I log into my X account @chairthrower
I guess it’s worth noting this “careful review” occurred in the middle of the night on the weekend. Examination of the “X Rules” does not help me figure out what I may have done to get suspended. I have been getting occasional “prove you’re really a human” prompts from my Meta-based social media accounts, so perhaps there’s been some automated activity against my account that gave X pause. I sincerely doubt my political/personal posting content rose to a level of attention that would have prompted this. The functionality/UX of being suspended on X is such that it easily feels like something may just be broken. All I can do is email X Support and ask to be reinstated, even though they did not identify which violation of the rules I may have made.
I know many of my professional connections have abandoned the former Twitter for numerous reasons, most around its new leadership and amplification of voices they disagree with (the new boss there talks about free speech but has a record of stifling voices he disagrees with). I have literally been on Twitter longer than the current owner of the company. My time there on my existing account may be coming to an end. (None of my other accounts have been blocked at this time, and I do have a dormant account that I may move to if my existing account is not reenabled). At any rate I have been spending more and more time on Threads, Instagram, and LinkedIn and strongly suggest you look for me there regardless of what happens on X. I’m also on Bluesky and Mastodon but have been less active on those, even though I like them both quite a bit. (and I guess you can get to my Threads on ActivityPub so if you’re in that world feel free to connect to me that way.)
I’m posting this on my blog because it’s the one place at the moment where I am not subject to the policies and whims of eccentric billionaires (although Meta seems to be okay for me at the moment I’m not naive enough to think that will always be the case), and (at least as much as I trust my provider) a space that is mine to own and use as I see fit. It’s disturbing to think that something that’s been a part of my professional life for over 15 years can just be taken away from me; while I can hope my account is reactivated it’s an important reminder that your personal “brand” management strategy should not be all in one place. Perhaps this is the push I needed to be more diverse and rely more on this space.
Stay tuned.
