Here’s what ‘Twitter jail’ means, and what you can do to escape it

• Twitter jail is a term popularised on social media for Twitter accounts permanently banned or locked out for violating the platform’s rules and regulations.
  
• The platform has already banned 54,000 accounts in India between August 26 and September 25 this year for policy violations.
  
• A suspended account can only be restored if the user submits a form highlighting that the reason for the ban wasn’t justified.

Since Elon Musk took over the microblogging platform Twitter in October, he has introduced multiple changes and updates, including a paid blue tick feature, which is currently on hold. It now appears that Musk may introduce another change – Twitter users whose accounts are suspended i.e. who’ve landed in ‘Twitter Jail’ are given reasons for the suspension.

Twitter Jail is a term popularised on social media for users whose accounts are permanently banned or temporarily locked for violating the platform’s rules and regulations. The platform has already banned over 54,000 accounts in India between August 26 and September 25 this year for policy violations.

Recently, Musk responded to a tweet from a Tesla engineer on Twitter, agreeing to the suggestion of sharing reasons for an account’s suspension or ban.

“Twit suggestion 2: Twitter Jail! Share both the reason for ban, number of violations, as well as when the account will be freed,” the Tesla engineer Emmett tweeted. To which, Elon Musk responded, “Agreed”.

What will put you in the Twitter Jail?

The microblogging platform has set in place a number of rules to regulate users on the platform. For starters, users can only post 2,400 tweets, send 1,000 Twitter DMs and follow 400 handles per day.

The platform may also temporarily lock an account if the user is aggressively following and unfollowing other accounts, tweeting offensive content, spreading misinformation, or posting graphic content that may be deemed triggering i.e sexual violence, gore, hateful imagery to name a few.

If a user continues to violate its set framework despite warnings and temporary bans, Twitter can permanently suspend the account. Consequently, all engagements like retweets, likes and Twitter replies are turned off. Additionally, the user is no longer allowed to create new accounts from the same email ID.

Another way Twitter jails its users is by limiting the profile reach of a user. Even though a user’s profile is active, the engagement and reach of their tweets are limited.

In fact, former US President Donald Trump’s account was suspended in January 2021 after he tweeted ‘misleading’ or false information about the riots at the Capitol Hill in Washington. However, Trump’s Twitter account was restored three days ago, following a poll that Musk conducted on Twitter. Accounts of rapper Kanye West, Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, right-wing satirical site Babylon Bee, comedian Kathy Griffin, and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson have also been reinstated since Musk took over.

Some of the other banned accounts include that of actor Kangana Ranaut, Indian playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, media executive Steve Bannon, former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, retired US army lieutenant general Michael Flynn and more.

How to restore your account, if suspended

Twitter usually locks your account temporarily when it witnesses “spammy or abusive behaviour”. However, your account could also be suspended if an updated email address or phone number hasn’t been provided, despite repeated reminders from the platform. If a user thinks the account was suspended without any proper reason, she can file an appeal on Twitter.

Twitter also locks your account if it notices that the email address associated with the account has been changed more than four times within a short time frame. Suspended account users can submit their queries in a form.

Automated following and unfollowing is not allowed on the platform. Unsolicited replies are also considered spam behaviour. The same goes for frequently using offensive hashtags which have been flagged by the platform as inappropriate/sensitive. Users advertising on Twitter need to include the hashtag “#ad” on their promotional tweets. It is essential to mark your content as sensitive (in case of hateful or graphic imagery, triggering information, etc.) to avoid getting banned by Twitter.

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