Twitter says sorry after furore, blames tech glitch for suspension of accounts

Update: Twitter has apologised over the issue and said that the suspension was accidental. Check out the tweet below.

Twitter India is brewing with fresh controversy today after some accounts were suspended without a warning from the social media site. Some prominent Indian Twitter personalities such as Faking News editor Rahul Roushan and Rupa Subramanya were affected by the suspension, which has currently caused a minor storm on the social networking site. It all started with a tweet posted out Subramanya who said that her account was suspended and that she had no idea about the reasons as to why. She also tweeted saying she got an email from Twitter telling her that she might have shared an update that was spam and thus her account was suspended. She added that in the email Twitter asked to her ‘change her behaviour’ else she would be permanently suspended from the social networking site. [caption id=“attachment_1705441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. AP[/caption] Check out the initial tweets by her below:

Subramanya also alleged that it was only RW aka Right-wing accounts that were suspended by Twitter and on the list were names like @AgentSaffron, @Sushuptii, @wallflower_ish, @sureshnakhua, @readernewspaper were also on the list. It was also discovered that Faking News editor Rahul Roushan’s account was also suspended.

Roushan wrote on Twitter, “Worst part about suspended period was that while I could not tweet, I could read mentions on Android app, even of idiots who were blocked.” Firstpost spoke to him over the phone and he told us that he was given no warning about a suspension and so far hadn’t got an email, though he couldn’t confirm the same since he was in the middle of international travel.

Meanwhile Subramanya tweeted out to Twitter’s India head of News, Politics & Govt Raheel Khursheed, asking him to explain the glitch, which in her words had affected mostly Right-wing Twitter account users. Khursheed didn’t comment saying that, “Have no context to this. Anything I say right now will fall in the realm of speculation. Will check.” And he hasn’t commented on the issue so far, (Firstpost tried getting in touch with Khursheed, but have not received a response so far. We will update if and when he responds). But well-known journalist Shiv Aroor then put out the fact this was just a technical bug. He tweeted,

While it appears that the so-called suspension list included many ring-wing commentors, as Firstpost columnist Rajyasree Sen pointed out it wasn’t just RW accounts that were affected. One confirmed non-right wing casualty was Arunabh Saikia who’s part of Newslaundry and has the handle @psychia90. Check out tweet below:

Where the whole behaviour correction deal is concerned, something that had riled up Subramanya the most, it appears to be part of a standard email that Twitter relies on when blocking an account. Another user @Stupidosaur, who also said that he’s a right-wing user, and whose account was suspended as well, put out a copy of the same letter, which asks users to change ’their behaviour’ and once again click on the terms and conditions so that their account can be reinstated. Check out the letter below:

The letter clearly states the account was suspended because it got caught in Twitter’s spam-checking systems. The email also notes that the account might have posted an update that was spam or looked like spam and thus the action was taken. It warns the user to change their behaviour in order to avoid getting permanently blocked on the site but notes that only repeated violations will lead to that. Problems with a such a vague letter aside, Subramanya wrote was quick to point out that she was not “buying this”. She wrote, “HUGE contradiction in first & last part.Not buying it. Context could be thought control.” While calling it “thought control” or claiming that only right-wing accounts were affected may not be accurate, there’s no doubt that these suspensions have caused some chaos. For instance affected users like Roushan appear to have lost followers, while others like Saikia were unable to see their followers at all. Also why not point out the so-called spam tweet. With Facebook if your post or photo gets reported by someone, the company tells you that someone is reporting that particular post for nudity or spam or whatever reason. At least you know, why the action was taken. In this case, no evidence is given of the spam tweets. According to the latest update, this appears to have been accidental, but for a company that is struggling to increase user engagement, such technical errors need to be handled more delicately. Disclaimer: Faking News is a part of Firstpost.com