Twitter goes on account-suspension rampage -- @BostonTweet shut down!

Published Jul 05 2009, 11:29 PM by Carly Carioli

If you've been on Twitter today you've probably noticed some chatter about an abnormal number of accounts being suspended -- one tweet guesstimated the number to be in the hundreds of thousands, which seems apocryphal. But something is definitely very, very amiss. Mashable reports that one of its own reporters, and one of the LA Times accounts, have gotten shut down. A quick search of the terms "suspended" or "account suspension" will give you a sense of the shock and outrage. The best guess appears to be that Twitter is going on a suspension rampage to combat rampant spamming -- which, y'know, would be nice. This post suggests the net has been thrown extraordinarily wide (@blockbuster -- dead?), and suggests steps for getting your account back. Except that there's also an awful lot of collateral damage . . . including Boston's own BostonTweet, a threaded message-board-style application that's been gaining traction for months.

We attemped to email BostonTweet honcho Tom O'Keefe, and for all we know he may have emailed us -- we just found out that our IT dept locked our email account, and we won't have access to it until tomorrow. (When we get in, we will be visiting upon our IT department the same wrath that BostonTweet is likely wishing upon Twitter right now.) While the @bostontweet account is down, the BostonTweet website is up . . . just inactive at the moment, with a couple of users more or less screaming, "WTF?"(Worse, it appears that while @bostontweet was taken down, a spambot account at @bostontweets is still up . . . did Twitter shoot the hostages?!)

In the meantime, if anyone has been shut down for no reason, let us know in the comments . . . or if you've got an alternate Twitter account, shout at us @bostonphoenix, we'll be attempting to RT as many cries for help as possible.

SHOCKING: Boston man's Twitter account suspended, uses TELEPHONE to ask friend out for ice cream

Awesomely creepy marketing, or creepily awesome marketing?

8 Comments

Marie said:

Yep - I'm with ya...been suspended as well. Wasn't even on much today - and tried to log in.

Hopefully will get it back soon.

I am @spreadingjoy

Thanks for the article - as I was wondering what in the world spreading a little joy could have done to have the account suspended.

July 6, 2009 12:36 AM
Kevin Stirtz said:

Twitter (finally) announced to the world what was going on. Human error is the whipping boy and they are fixing it as we blog.

From their status blog:

status.twitter.com/.../restoring-accidentally-suspended-accounts

July 6, 2009 12:52 AM
Tom OKeefe said:

Hello Carly,

First off, thank you! I really appreciate the above article and the "Free @BostonTweet" tweet at @BostonPhoenix. Thank you!

As you can guess I was very concerned about the suspension until I realized that it was a much larger problem than just my account - I didn't think I did anything wrong. I was pulling my hair out there for a few hours until I decided it was out of my control and that I should go out for some ice cream! Since I couldn't DM or Tweet I decided to use an ancient form of communication, the telephone, to call my friend @Erin_O to go to JP Licks in Coolidge Corner. During this time you emailed me and I apologize that I wasn't able to comment on this article but you pretty much knew what I knew.

Thank you again for your concern, I really appreciate it, and feel free to call or email me tomorrow for a follow up.

Tom O'Keefe

@BostonTweet

July 6, 2009 1:48 AM
Simple Vitality said:

@mtnmd Quite a day!! I'm finally back up and grateful but I hope they get this situation under control!!

Thnx,

http://twitter.com/mtnmd

July 6, 2009 3:07 AM
Kanokwalee Pusitanun said:

I was suspended as well. It seemed that it's back up but not fully. I can't see the whole tweets, just people's avatar and name (sometime link in the tweets) but not the message.

July 6, 2009 10:24 AM
Elle said:

I too bore the shame and humiliation of suspension! Happily back up..Twitter did resolve quickly but none the less I wonder how many hours people spent frantically writing explanations..pleading to have accounts restored..to find that the ticket was instantly resolved..(but not really) Thanks to TweetLater for alerting folks and keeping them up to date!

July 6, 2009 1:01 PM

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Twitter goes on account-suspension rampage -- @BostonTweet shut down!

8 Comments

Marie said:

Kevin Stirtz said:

Tom OKeefe said:

Simple Vitality said:

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Elle said:

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