4 ms·

Twitter has suspended YC Hacker News account

16 points by syrusakbary 4y ago

syrusakbary 4y ago
Here's the latest "working" snapshot from the Internet Archive on May 28th (they had around 242k followers) https://web.archive.org/web/20220528044528/https://twitter.com/newsycombinator https://web.archive.org/web/20220528044528/https://twitter.c... It seems they suspended the account on June 4th, based on the most recent snapshot from Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20220604050840/https://twitter.com/account/suspended https://web.archive.org/web/20220604050840/https://twitter.c...
MeteorMarc 4y ago
How is it possible to appeal against the suspension if they do not say which of the Twitter Rules is violated? "Platform manipulation and spam" seems the most likely, but how to be sure?
- Ekaros 4y ago
  The goal is that it is not. After all you don't want the bad actors to circumvent the bans. Or trying to work at edge of them. Standard practise.
  - heavenlyblue 4y ago
    It is not standard practice in criminal law.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      What does any of this have to do with criminal law?
      - iinnPP 4y ago
        It's hard to avoid breaking the law when it is not clearly defined. Same can be said here.
        jacquesm 4y ago
        Maybe that's why they write down the law, in books. On the whole I would say criminal law is fairly clearly defined, the parts that are more muddy are more muddy because lawyers are good at splitting hairs, not because the law was muddy in intent.
  - pydry 4y ago
    This is a good way to drive off good actors who get caught in the crossfire too.
- meatsauce 4y ago
  You're not going to be sure. Everything done is done arbitrarily.
Fission 4y ago
To be fair, this doesn't appear to be an official account (i.e. one that is affiliated with YC). Seems like a project by an unaffiliated developer that happened to grab a relevant Twitter username. If anything, I believe that https://twitter.com/hackernews https://twitter.com/hackernews is HN's official, YC-affiliated Twitter account.
onion2k 4y ago
I think I'd bet a small sum that Twitter believes this bot posted links to HN stories, and also occasionally popped in a link that was actually an advert they were paid to post, but without telling anyone. Like most of the other HN bots do...
what-imright 4y ago
dang, how ironic
snowwrestler 4y ago
Twitter has suspended a fake YC Hacker News account. Does it make more sense now?
- usrn 4y ago
  The Hackernews bot on Mastodon is still up, lots of people like it.
- slotrans 4y ago
  There was nothing fake about it. It posted legit links to the top HN stories. It's how I've kept up with HN for the past... 6 years? maybe 8?
syrusakbary 4y ago
Small update from the creator of the twitter handle [1]: Working on getting @newsycombinator unsuspended(!) – got hit with a trademark infringement [1]: https://twitter.com/riklomas/status/1533811106015223821 https://twitter.com/riklomas/status/1533811106015223821

16 points by syrusakbary 4y ago

Here's the latest "working" snapshot from the Internet Archive on May 28th (they had around 242k followers) https://web.archive.org/web/20220528044528/https://twitter.com/newsycombinator https://web.archive.org/web/20220528044528/https://twitter.c... It seems they suspended the account on June 4th, based on the most recent snapshot from Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20220604050840/https://twitter.com/account/suspended https://web.archive.org/web/20220604050840/https://twitter.c...

MeteorMarc 4y ago

How is it possible to appeal against the suspension if they do not say which of the Twitter Rules is violated? "Platform manipulation and spam" seems the most likely, but how to be sure?

Ekaros 4y ago
The goal is that it is not. After all you don't want the bad actors to circumvent the bans. Or trying to work at edge of them. Standard practise.
- heavenlyblue 4y ago
  It is not standard practice in criminal law.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    What does any of this have to do with criminal law?
    - iinnPP 4y ago
      It's hard to avoid breaking the law when it is not clearly defined. Same can be said here.
      - jacquesm 4y ago
        Maybe that's why they write down the law, in books. On the whole I would say criminal law is fairly clearly defined, the parts that are more muddy are more muddy because lawyers are good at splitting hairs, not because the law was muddy in intent.
- pydry 4y ago
  This is a good way to drive off good actors who get caught in the crossfire too.
meatsauce 4y ago
You're not going to be sure. Everything done is done arbitrarily.

Fission 4y ago

To be fair, this doesn't appear to be an official account (i.e. one that is affiliated with YC). Seems like a project by an unaffiliated developer that happened to grab a relevant Twitter username. If anything, I believe that https://twitter.com/hackernews https://twitter.com/hackernews is HN's official, YC-affiliated Twitter account.

onion2k 4y ago

I think I'd bet a small sum that Twitter believes this bot posted links to HN stories, and also occasionally popped in a link that was actually an advert they were paid to post, but without telling anyone. Like most of the other HN bots do...

what-imright 4y ago

dang, how ironic

snowwrestler 4y ago

Twitter has suspended a fake YC Hacker News account. Does it make more sense now?

usrn 4y ago
The Hackernews bot on Mastodon is still up, lots of people like it.
slotrans 4y ago
There was nothing fake about it. It posted legit links to the top HN stories. It's how I've kept up with HN for the past... 6 years? maybe 8?

syrusakbary 4y ago

Small update from the creator of the twitter handle [1]: Working on getting @newsycombinator unsuspended(!) – got hit with a trademark infringement [1]: https://twitter.com/riklomas/status/1533811106015223821 https://twitter.com/riklomas/status/1533811106015223821