Don't Build On Rented Land

A cautionary Twitter tale

Over the last three months or so, Twitter has been making me pass an Arkose challenge every time I open the app. It was really annoying, and I didn’t really understand why Twitter was so suddenly obsessed with my ability to pass the stupid ass matching game.

Then, two weeks ago, this happened:

What the hell? I’ve never even been suspended, so how could I be evading suspension? The only thing I could think of was that Twitter thought I was a bot, and that me passing those stupid ass games was me hiding my botness? Whatever the case was, I appealed expecting this to get resolved quickly. After all, I’m not a bot. I’ve had an account for two years. I pay for Premium Plus. I’ve even received Elon bucks before.

Yeah, about that.

So, because there’s no Twitter support email or number, it appears that I am shit out of luck. Beyond being very annoying because of how long I spent building an account, it’s a pretty big setback for my career. I work in tech. Tech hangs out on Twitter. If I can’t get on Twitter, then that’s no bueno.

At the end of the day, I have nobody to blame but myself. I was aware of the risks of building on rented land and chose to anyway. So, I’ll give you the same advice that I largely ignored: if you’re investing a lot of time building a brand on a platform where you don’t own your followers (Twitter, Insta, YouTube, etc), funnel them into an email list. That way you won’t be completely screwed if you do get banned for whatever reason.

As for me, this is why I’m back on Substack. Tech people hang out here, and any subscriber I pick up on Notes is mine forever.