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A large number of Twitter users in South Africa have complained that their accounts have been suspended.
The volume of people complaining about suspensions was so high on Saturday, February 13, 2021, that the word “suspended” was trending on Twitter in South Africa.
These suspensions were compared to Donald Trump’s ban following the riots in the United States Capitol Building on January 6.
The suspensions also come in the context of Twitter facing a free speech riddle in India amid farmers’ protest over three new laws passed by the Indian Parliament.
Twitter initially complied with the Indian government’s directives to suspend accounts of more 500 people, including some members of the media.
However, the company backtracked on the decision after a backlash on social media, resulting in the Indian government criticize Twitter for not showing the same concern for violent protests in India as it did during the attack on the United States Capitol building.
Violation of Twitter’s terms of service
While the large number of account suspensions in South Africa raised questions about whether they are related to political bans in the US and India, it appears that it was primarily ‘influencer’ accounts that were targeted.
People who were banned took to Twitter to announce that they had been suspended and asked them to follow them on their “backup accounts”, rather than campaigning to reinstate their main accounts.
So this wave of Twitter bans was likely due to terms of service violations related to the way these influencer accounts were behaving.
There was speculation on Twitter that people who publicly offered to promote products or services, such as using the phrase “DM for promotion” in their bio, were banned.
However, Twitter does not prohibit influencers from promoting things on the platform.
Twitter’s policies strictly prohibit what it calls “platform manipulationAnd spam.
Among other things, this policy establishes:
- You may not artificially amplify or interrupt conversations by using multiple accounts or coordinating with others to violate the Twitter Rules.
- You cannot artificially inflate followers or engagement from yourself or others.
- “Follow abandonment” – Follow and unfollow a large number of accounts in an effort to inflate your own follower count.
- Indiscriminate Tracking: Following and / or unfollowing a large number of unrelated accounts in a short period of time, particularly by automated means.
- Doubling the followers of another account, particularly through automation.
MyBroadband reached out to Twitter for comment on the account suspensions, but the company did not respond at time of publication.
Speculation on Twitter about massive bans on influencer accounts
I would like to alert some people and prevent their accounts from being suspended, if you have written “DM for promotion” in your bio, please quickly delete it before it is too late. Twitter is targeting accounts that openly state that they are doing promotions. Watch this. pic.twitter.com/QGgeuOXT29
– 🇿🇦 Charisma 🇿🇦 (@AskCharisma) February 13, 2021
so it’s not true pic.twitter.com/GNrkhWGENt
– Vananda Soapery ® (@Vananda_Soapery) February 13, 2021
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