5 ms·

I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? It sounds like it was, but he doesn't seem very fussed about how it happened or keeping it from happening

I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? It sounds like it was, but he doesn't seem very fussed about how it happened or keeping it from happening again, just annoyed that Twitter's response to it isn't faster. Is it this commonplace for twitter accounts to be taken over? Also, is saying things like "Go die" an insta-ban on twitter? I don't use it but I thought it took more than that.

rexreed 4y ago
I'm also confused. How is Twitter supposed to know that the Tweet was made by the OP or was a compromised Tweet? When something is egregious what should Twitter do if it doesn't have resources to investigate whether the tweet was "intentional" or not, if action must happen quickly to avoid problems? And isn't a claim of "wasn't me" an easy claim whether or not it's true? I'm likewise confused. He says "What really pisses me off is that this is fairly obviously not my fault " But I can't find out where it is so obvious. Am I missing something? To an outsider it looks like a threat, without any indication that it wasn't made intentionally.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  > How is Twitter supposed to know that the Tweet was made by the OP or was a compromised Tweet? For starters: it would be interesting to see what IP address the tweet was made from, whether or not it was preceded by a password change or contact with Twitter support to turn the account over to someone else. > When something is egregious what should Twitter do if it doesn't have resources to investigate whether the tweet was "intentional" or not, if action must happen quickly to avoid problems? Good question. That makes me wonder if they are able to operate safely at scale at all. > And isn't a claim of "wasn't me" an easy claim whether or not it's true? Yes. And yet: it wasn't me. > He says "What really pisses me off is that this is fairly obviously not my fault " But I can't find out where it is so obvious. Obvious to whom? To me, and presumably, to those who know me and presumably to Twitter employees who have access to a whole lot more data than I do.
  - rexreed 4y ago
    A side question for folks who work on these sorts of social media / UGC sites. Wouldn't a shadowban / deletion of messages be a lot less antagonistic as a way of dealing with problematic posts instead of instant and total account ban? I mean, if Reddit can shadowban so that your account still works, even if the posts go into the "ether", why can't Twitter do this? Instaban seems a bit... harsh, even if merited? Couldn't you combine shadowban with account ban if there's a persistent set of violation posts? Is there a practical reason why shadowbanning on twitter doesn't work? I mean if we're going to use fairly simple approaches (keywords on ban lists or user-based flagging / reporting), then shouldn't step one simply be not allowing the post at all, instead of a retroactive instaban on the account after the post has been shared? To me, the simple way is delete the post, or put in a hold queue (warning the user), or at very least not actually share the post on a timeline. Warn the user, don't share the post, and/or delete the post. Then you can still have the desired effect of keeping the platform "safe". Am I missing something? I'm confused all around about social media practices, honestly.
    - bilkow 4y ago
      A shadowban is IMO worse than an instaban, you still aren't able to post anything, but it will look like you can. It also feels morally wrong to shadowban people and there's no process to appeal, it's not even straightforward to discover you've been shadowbanned, you need a bot or searching for your posts in a private window[0]. Agree on the "simple way" of warning the user and putting the post on a queue though. [0] https://nerdschalk.com/am-i-shadowbanned-on-reddit/ https://nerdschalk.com/am-i-shadowbanned-on-reddit/
      - tablespoon 4y ago
        > A shadowban is IMO worse than an instaban, you still aren't able to post anything, but it will look like you can. It also feels morally wrong to shadowban people and there's no process to appeal, it's not even straightforward to discover you've been shadowbanned, you need a bot or searching for your posts in a private window[0]. I think that's true on a first offense. But if the user has demonstrated they have no intent to behave or their offense is egregious or demonstrates they know what they're doing, then I don't think there's any problem with a shadowban.
- jeremymcanally 4y ago
  There are several things they could check and factor into the score before banning someone. Client source (if the use the website 100% of the time and suddenly this was from the Android client for example), IP address (do they tweet from the U.S. exclusively and then suddenly they're tweeting from Moscow?), VPN affiliation (did this tweet originate from a known VPN egress?), and so on. These things _should_ be factored into the "omg ban this account" score IMO, but I have no idea if they are.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Yes, I'd be quite interested in all of that, but of course only Twitter can see this.
jacquesm 4y ago
> I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? I do not know. The tweet certainly looks like it was made by my account, but definitely not from this computer and definitely not using my password. I'm pretty precise about stuff like that and Twitter would be the least of my problems if my passwords were hacked. For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise of Twitter of some sort. > but he doesn't seem very fussed about how it happened or keeping it from happening again Lack of information... of course I'm 'fussed' but I just don't know. All I know is that as far as I can see my setup here is still secure and was not a factor in this. > just annoyed that Twitter's response to it isn't faster. No, mostly annoyed that Twitter would not detect a fairly obvious Joe-Job. > Is it this commonplace for twitter accounts to be taken over? Good question, I don't know. > Also, is saying things like "Go die" an insta-ban on twitter? Apparently, but even then: I didn't say that...
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  Could this be a 3rd party twitter client that has been infiltrated? Maybe someone reused a session somewhere? I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    > I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application. Yes, absolutely, and I only use the web, no other kind of client, no apps etc.
    - vorpalhex 4y ago
      Any browser extensions? Ever used a friends computer to sign in?
      - jacquesm 4y ago
        Tree style tabs, adblock plus, umatrix, all as far as I know reputable and clean. Don't use other computers besides this one for Twitter. The password is very long, generated, so impossible to guess and I have never moved it to another machine.
usrn 4y ago
For many years most accounts have been locked shortly after they're created. I had deep OTM puts on Twitter before Musk bought it since it's pretty obviously a dying platform without some substantial change.
lampshades 4y ago
Also confused. Seems like the actual story here is that OP or Twitter was compromised, not that a Tweet was blocked. At least that's what I'm more curious about.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Me too.

rexreed 4y ago

I'm also confused. How is Twitter supposed to know that the Tweet was made by the OP or was a compromised Tweet? When something is egregious what should Twitter do if it doesn't have resources to investigate whether the tweet was "intentional" or not, if action must happen quickly to avoid problems? And isn't a claim of "wasn't me" an easy claim whether or not it's true? I'm likewise confused. He says "What really pisses me off is that this is fairly obviously not my fault " But I can't find out where it is so obvious. Am I missing something? To an outsider it looks like a threat, without any indication that it wasn't made intentionally.

jacquesm 4y ago
> How is Twitter supposed to know that the Tweet was made by the OP or was a compromised Tweet? For starters: it would be interesting to see what IP address the tweet was made from, whether or not it was preceded by a password change or contact with Twitter support to turn the account over to someone else. > When something is egregious what should Twitter do if it doesn't have resources to investigate whether the tweet was "intentional" or not, if action must happen quickly to avoid problems? Good question. That makes me wonder if they are able to operate safely at scale at all. > And isn't a claim of "wasn't me" an easy claim whether or not it's true? Yes. And yet: it wasn't me. > He says "What really pisses me off is that this is fairly obviously not my fault " But I can't find out where it is so obvious. Obvious to whom? To me, and presumably, to those who know me and presumably to Twitter employees who have access to a whole lot more data than I do.
- rexreed 4y ago
  A side question for folks who work on these sorts of social media / UGC sites. Wouldn't a shadowban / deletion of messages be a lot less antagonistic as a way of dealing with problematic posts instead of instant and total account ban? I mean, if Reddit can shadowban so that your account still works, even if the posts go into the "ether", why can't Twitter do this? Instaban seems a bit... harsh, even if merited? Couldn't you combine shadowban with account ban if there's a persistent set of violation posts? Is there a practical reason why shadowbanning on twitter doesn't work? I mean if we're going to use fairly simple approaches (keywords on ban lists or user-based flagging / reporting), then shouldn't step one simply be not allowing the post at all, instead of a retroactive instaban on the account after the post has been shared? To me, the simple way is delete the post, or put in a hold queue (warning the user), or at very least not actually share the post on a timeline. Warn the user, don't share the post, and/or delete the post. Then you can still have the desired effect of keeping the platform "safe". Am I missing something? I'm confused all around about social media practices, honestly.
  - bilkow 4y ago
    A shadowban is IMO worse than an instaban, you still aren't able to post anything, but it will look like you can. It also feels morally wrong to shadowban people and there's no process to appeal, it's not even straightforward to discover you've been shadowbanned, you need a bot or searching for your posts in a private window[0]. Agree on the "simple way" of warning the user and putting the post on a queue though. [0] https://nerdschalk.com/am-i-shadowbanned-on-reddit/ https://nerdschalk.com/am-i-shadowbanned-on-reddit/
    - tablespoon 4y ago
      > A shadowban is IMO worse than an instaban, you still aren't able to post anything, but it will look like you can. It also feels morally wrong to shadowban people and there's no process to appeal, it's not even straightforward to discover you've been shadowbanned, you need a bot or searching for your posts in a private window[0]. I think that's true on a first offense. But if the user has demonstrated they have no intent to behave or their offense is egregious or demonstrates they know what they're doing, then I don't think there's any problem with a shadowban.
jeremymcanally 4y ago
There are several things they could check and factor into the score before banning someone. Client source (if the use the website 100% of the time and suddenly this was from the Android client for example), IP address (do they tweet from the U.S. exclusively and then suddenly they're tweeting from Moscow?), VPN affiliation (did this tweet originate from a known VPN egress?), and so on. These things _should_ be factored into the "omg ban this account" score IMO, but I have no idea if they are.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Yes, I'd be quite interested in all of that, but of course only Twitter can see this.

jacquesm 4y ago

> I'm confused - was OP's account compromised, or not? I do not know. The tweet certainly looks like it was made by my account, but definitely not from this computer and definitely not using my password. I'm pretty precise about stuff like that and Twitter would be the least of my problems if my passwords were hacked. For now I am assuming either someone social engineered Twitter to change my password or a compromise of Twitter of some sort. > but he doesn't seem very fussed about how it happened or keeping it from happening again Lack of information... of course I'm 'fussed' but I just don't know. All I know is that as far as I can see my setup here is still secure and was not a factor in this. > just annoyed that Twitter's response to it isn't faster. No, mostly annoyed that Twitter would not detect a fairly obvious Joe-Job. > Is it this commonplace for twitter accounts to be taken over? Good question, I don't know. > Also, is saying things like "Go die" an insta-ban on twitter? Apparently, but even then: I didn't say that...

vorpalhex 4y ago
Could this be a 3rd party twitter client that has been infiltrated? Maybe someone reused a session somewhere? I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  > I'm assuming you are using unique passwords per application. Yes, absolutely, and I only use the web, no other kind of client, no apps etc.
  - vorpalhex 4y ago
    Any browser extensions? Ever used a friends computer to sign in?
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      Tree style tabs, adblock plus, umatrix, all as far as I know reputable and clean. Don't use other computers besides this one for Twitter. The password is very long, generated, so impossible to guess and I have never moved it to another machine.

usrn 4y ago

For many years most accounts have been locked shortly after they're created. I had deep OTM puts on Twitter before Musk bought it since it's pretty obviously a dying platform without some substantial change.

lampshades 4y ago

Also confused. Seems like the actual story here is that OP or Twitter was compromised, not that a Tweet was blocked. At least that's what I'm more curious about.

jacquesm 4y ago
Me too.