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> "And finally, keep in mind that after all this, Twitter can always kick you off for their own reasons." The problem with anonymous e-mail address + burner p

> "And finally, keep in mind that after all this, Twitter can always kick you off for their own reasons." The problem with anonymous e-mail address + burner phone + always use TOR to access the account is that this doesn't play out well in the medium term. This triggers various automatic "anti-abuse" measures on Twitters side. Those measures include: random prompt for re-verification of the phone number, which fails with the burner phone number used to create the account. It's hard (if not impossible) to maintain such an account in the long run while protecting ones identity.

mirimir 10y ago
It is indeed hard to maintain Twitter accounts via Tor. Establishing accounts via Tor, using burner phones for verification, isn't hard. And there's no problem reading feeds via Tor. But tweeting via Tor, in my experience, is indeed a crap shoot. So is tweeting via commercial VPN services. What seems to work is tweeting via private VPNs, running on anonymously-leased VPS. To route that VPN through Tor, you just run the VPN server (in TCP mode) on the VPS as an onion service. But there's still the risk of cellphone re-verification. So for long-term accounts, you need a persistent number. One solution is to have trusted friends in other jurisdictions, who can activate the number for you when needed.
- cesarb 10y ago
  > One solution is to have trusted friends in other jurisdictions, who can activate the number for you when needed. If you have a trusted friend in an independent jurisdiction, the whole complicated dance with burner phones and so on becomes unnecessary. Just have the trusted friend create the account for you and hand you the password.
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Sure, that's doable too. But then you have a major IP address change, which could raise flags.
- stagbeetle 10y ago
  There are "Burner" apps out there that give you a different phone number. I'm unsure if it'd be easier to maintain. But off the top of my head I'd think it'd be easier to spoof.
  - schlowmo 10y ago
    Almost all numbers from free "burner apps"[0] I came across are already burned for all major Social Networks (probably because someone else already used those numbers for registration). I don't know if it works with paid services, but then you have the problem of paying for it anonymously. [0] I guess you mean those services which offers some mobile numbers for receiving SMS to anyone without registering.
  - jandrese 10y ago
    Virtual phone numbers are flagged as such and all of the major providers will refuse to use them for verification purposes. Social media companies already thought of this.
- nkrisc 10y ago
  Or you could keep creating new accounts with new phones, tweeting the next account as the last tweet of the previous one. You won't get an easy to digest single thread of tweets, but you can maintain a chain of trust, insofar as the accounts are trusted to begin with.
elchief 10y ago
you don't need to burn the burner phone necessarily. Just take out the battery and store it somewhere safe.
- schlowmo 10y ago
  > "which fails with the burner phone number used to create the account." Maybe I expressed that a bit unclear: I didn't mean it fails because you have no longer access to the number (= you burned the burner). It fails because Twitter don't accept this same number which worked while sign-up anymore for re-verfification. To be honest: I'm not sure if Twitter accepts any other number in that case or if the prompt for phone number re-verification is just an obscure way of saying "Your account is permanently locked for any reason."
WillyOnWheels 10y ago
One of my Twitter accounts is a Friends Only twitter account that has only been used via twitter + bitlbee connected to the internet via a tor proxy, plus IRC client https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoTwitter https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoTwitter https://github.com/nillab/dotfiles/blob/master/bitlbee.conf#L115 https://github.com/nillab/dotfiles/blob/master/bitlbee.conf#... https://irssi.org/ https://irssi.org/ It's always worked, I've never been prompted for verification. I'm not sure how twitter would prompt me for verification!
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

mirimir 10y ago

It is indeed hard to maintain Twitter accounts via Tor. Establishing accounts via Tor, using burner phones for verification, isn't hard. And there's no problem reading feeds via Tor. But tweeting via Tor, in my experience, is indeed a crap shoot. So is tweeting via commercial VPN services. What seems to work is tweeting via private VPNs, running on anonymously-leased VPS. To route that VPN through Tor, you just run the VPN server (in TCP mode) on the VPS as an onion service. But there's still the risk of cellphone re-verification. So for long-term accounts, you need a persistent number. One solution is to have trusted friends in other jurisdictions, who can activate the number for you when needed.

cesarb 10y ago
> One solution is to have trusted friends in other jurisdictions, who can activate the number for you when needed. If you have a trusted friend in an independent jurisdiction, the whole complicated dance with burner phones and so on becomes unnecessary. Just have the trusted friend create the account for you and hand you the password.
- mirimir 10y ago
  Sure, that's doable too. But then you have a major IP address change, which could raise flags.
stagbeetle 10y ago
There are "Burner" apps out there that give you a different phone number. I'm unsure if it'd be easier to maintain. But off the top of my head I'd think it'd be easier to spoof.
- schlowmo 10y ago
  Almost all numbers from free "burner apps"[0] I came across are already burned for all major Social Networks (probably because someone else already used those numbers for registration). I don't know if it works with paid services, but then you have the problem of paying for it anonymously. [0] I guess you mean those services which offers some mobile numbers for receiving SMS to anyone without registering.
- jandrese 10y ago
  Virtual phone numbers are flagged as such and all of the major providers will refuse to use them for verification purposes. Social media companies already thought of this.
nkrisc 10y ago
Or you could keep creating new accounts with new phones, tweeting the next account as the last tweet of the previous one. You won't get an easy to digest single thread of tweets, but you can maintain a chain of trust, insofar as the accounts are trusted to begin with.

elchief 10y ago

you don't need to burn the burner phone necessarily. Just take out the battery and store it somewhere safe.

schlowmo 10y ago
> "which fails with the burner phone number used to create the account." Maybe I expressed that a bit unclear: I didn't mean it fails because you have no longer access to the number (= you burned the burner). It fails because Twitter don't accept this same number which worked while sign-up anymore for re-verfification. To be honest: I'm not sure if Twitter accepts any other number in that case or if the prompt for phone number re-verification is just an obscure way of saying "Your account is permanently locked for any reason."

WillyOnWheels 10y ago

One of my Twitter accounts is a Friends Only twitter account that has only been used via twitter + bitlbee connected to the internet via a tor proxy, plus IRC client https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoTwitter https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoTwitter https://github.com/nillab/dotfiles/blob/master/bitlbee.conf#L115 https://github.com/nillab/dotfiles/blob/master/bitlbee.conf#... https://irssi.org/ https://irssi.org/ It's always worked, I've never been prompted for verification. I'm not sure how twitter would prompt me for verification!

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]