Breaking up with my X
posted on
About 2.5 years ago, I was banned from Twitter for no apparent reason. I wrote about it on this blog and described the events and personal consequences.
When I was first shadow-banned and then permanently banned, I tried a couple of times to contact Twitter support and get my account back, but I wasn't successful. The problem was that this whole thing happened three days before Musk took over and fired many people, including people who were responsible for this kind of matter.
At first, I tried to get my account back because I wanted to be back on Twitter. When Musk started firing more people, changing the terms of services, and doing other despicable things, I didn't wish to be back anymore, but I still wanted my account back. That loss of control over my name, images, and other data didn't feel well. I tried again several times in the following weeks and months until I finally gave up.
In the last three weeks, I deleted my Instagram and WhatsApp, which reminded me that I still have a Twitter account. So I tried again, and this time I was lucky. A day after my e-mail to the support team, I got the confirmation that I had been unbanned.
I still don't know why they banned me in the first place and why they finally reverted it, but I don't care. What I care about is that I can finally close this chapter. Initially, I immediately wanted to delete my account, but several people suggested it may be wiser to leave it as is so that no one can take over the handle. Finally, I did the following:
- I downloaded my data.
- Changed my name and avatar.
- Used Luca Hammer's tweetXer to unfollow all people I had been following.
- Used tweetXer to delete all my tweets.
I may delete the account entirely in the future, but for now, only clearing the data feels right. I'm just happy that I got back control over my content.