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Just having a phone number added to Twitter means your account is at risk of being taken over with a sim-swap. This was not 2FA related AFAICT. Twitter also req
by rgrmrts 3y ago
Just having a phone number added to Twitter means your account is at risk of being taken over with a sim-swap. This was not 2FA related AFAICT. Twitter also requires you to add a phone number, even on old accounts you can get locked out unless you add one.
- sschueller 3y agoDoesn't Twitter force you to add a phone number now?
- lxgr 3y agoAs far as I remember they only use it for spam protection (i.e. the phone number serves as a moderate-level "proof of humanity"), but not for 2FA purposes (unless you pay for their premium service).
- throwaway290 3y agoYes and they plan to require ID verification next, losing privacy-conscious users is clearly not a big issue for Musk.
- yomlica8 3y ago[dead]
- ssl232 3y agoI've got an account from 2009 and have never had to enter my phone number (if I ever get asked, that'll be the time when I stop using it).
- eddtests 3y agoNowadays if you create a new account it’ll get briefly banned while they do additional checks to ensure you’re human, which is fixed by giving a phone number. Id almost appreciate just asking for one on signup then the charade
- fossislife 3y agoThat's not always the case. Sometimes it asked me for a phone number, but most of the time not when not using a VPN or something similar. But last year I managed to create two Twitter accounts with the Tor browser and some sketchy email address and never got asked for a number, just had to do some captcha after a few minutes.
- eddtests 3y agoI created a few twitter accounts this year for various reasons and all of them had the same number requirement after around 24 hours!
- callalex 3y agoThe various Meta properties do this too, except instead of phone numbers they require government ID and headshots. It’s all a scummy dark pattern relying on the sunk cost fallacy.
- littlestymaar 3y agoI've used Twitter from 2013 to 2021, and have eventually been locked-out by Twitter requesting a phone number with no way to work around.
- ssl232 3y agoIt'll be a shame if that happens to my account, as I lurk on Twitter every day (but never tweet or like), but I value privacy of my phone number more than I value the enjoyment I get from it.
- littlestymaar 3y agoThat's when I ended up using nitter. Before stopping altogether when Elmo broke it.