The Krassenstein Brother’s Open Letter & Plea to Twitter Regarding Their Suspension

UPDATE from the Krassenstein Brothers 5/25/19:

We ask that those in the media try to get more answers from Twitter in regards to the exact details of our suspension. Twitter won’t tell us specifically what we did to violate the rules. They haven’t even made contact with us. They released a broad statement saying “The Twitter Rules to apply to everyone. Operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions are strictly prohibited. Engaging in these behaviors will result in permanent suspension from the service.”

While they released this statement they haven’t and seemingly refuse to accuse us of doing these things. That’s why we think that something a bit fishy could be going on here. If Twitter has evidence of an account violation they should easily be able to release it to the media. We give them our full permission to do so.

We never purchased account interactions, so we are perplexed. We did have multiple accounts but they were only used so we could view tweets made by people who had us blocked, such as those threatening us or for other journalistic reasons, as Twitter doesn’t allow you to view someone’s Tweet-replies unless you are logged in with an account that isn’t blocked by that individual. We didn’t use these accounts for anything misleading or malicious, so that can’t be the reason for our suspension. It’s very strange. We hope the media will dig harder to get a more detailed reason for the ban, as we don’t believe they have any specific reason. It does seem odd that this comes just weeks after Trump meets with Dorsey.

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Below is the email that we sent to Twitter concerning the suspension of our Twitter accounts on May 23, 2019.

OPEN LETTER TO TWITTER

Dear Twitter, I hope you can read this email and also pass it onto whoever was in charge of suspending our 3 accounts (@Edkrassen, @Krassenstein, @Krassencast).

When I spoke to Twitter on Saturday, you told me that I had nothing to worry about and that no one was reporting our accounts. Our accounts had been locked 4 times in 6 days and you said there is no record of anything wrong with them.

The most aggravating part of this suspension, is the fact that Twitter is spreading disinformation to the Press and via Twitter moments (see below).

The claim that we purchased Twitter accounts and interactions is not true. Like we said before, we never did this. The part that has us angry is that Twitter keeps claiming that this is the reason for our suspension, but fact is they could easily check to see that this never happened. If they believe we actually bought any Twitter accounts, they could simply tell us which account(s) they believe we purchased and tell us the original registration email address. We could very easily prove to you that we were the original creators of these accounts, simply by providing you with the login details for the original registration email address you have on record for those accounts. You could then login to our email accounts to confirm. Most likely it’s an email that we have been using for years and still use. This should be very easy for us to disprove. Besides this, all of the IP addresses ever used for those accounts should direct back to Cape Coral or Fort Myers Florida, which would also prove that we always owned them.

The idea of us buying interactions is just crazy to me. We have 1.7 million followers. Why would we pay anyone to interact with us? There is absolutely no reason for us to do this. We have always been super careful to obey all of Twitter’s rules. We refrained from using any automated services other than Tweetdeck to schedule tweets and years ago we used ManageFlitter, before Twitter banned the service (this was at least 3 years ago).

The only thing that we can think happened here is the following:

Because our Twitter accounts were unofficial fan clubs for musicians previously. (i.e. my account was a Bieber Fan Club account that we used to help promote a new website we were launching –AY.com — I know it’s kinda embarrassing to admit), perhaps Twitter thought that we purchased this account from someone and then rebranded it. (Note: we are not Justin Bieber fans, not that there is anything wrong with that). I can prove that this account was mine from the start. Twitter can just look at the IP addresses. The only places it was ever accessed from from start to finish was Fort Myers and Cape Coral Florida (with the exception of a few vacations I’ve gone on). Additionally if you provide me with the registration email on this account (I’m sure I’ve changed it since it started), I will gladly provide you with confirmation that I still have access to that email account, proving no one else could have set it up but me.

The only other things we can think of which Twitter could have mistakenly thought is how we violated their rules, would be the fact that far-right Twitter users have been organizing to mass report us on Reddit and 4Chan, for any bogus reasons they can think of. I know I saw a post going around on Reddit with a link to a post from someone claiming to be us, looking to buy twitter accounts. I swear to you we never purchased any Twitter accounts. Again we had no reason to do this. My account was built up to over 200,000 followers when I ran the Justin Bieber fan club account. When AY.com never made it, I changed it to an Anti-Trump account (Jail Donald Trump) and began replying to Trump’s tweets with facts to prove his statements wrong. Then people began wondering who was behind the account, so I changed it to my real name. Brian did the same, first with an account named “Impeach Donald Trump” and then his real name. These accounts, nor any interactions were ever purchased, like Twitter is claiming, and which Twitter should easily be able to prove if their claim was legitimate. We started them from scratch and it took a lot of hard work. This should easily be able to be proven if we could speak with someone directly at Twitter.

I know it sounds absurd but we literally spent 4 years building these accounts up, spending hours a day doing so. We would have never done anything against Twitter’s terms of service that could result in us losing these accounts. We invested too much of our time.

I don’t know who suspended the accounts, but they have to be mistaken. We’d like for someone inside Twitter to contact us. We would be more than willing to speak to anyone on the phone and answer any questions you may have in order to prove to you that we did not violate these terms of service. We’d even be willing to fly out to your corporate offices if you think that would help us clarify things.

Again, we did have multiple accounts, and like we outlined in our op-ed (https://hillreporter.com/op- ed-krassensteins-respond-to- twitter-suspension-by-the- krassenstein-brothers-37041) they were for legitimate reasons. Even Twitter gives you instructions on managing multiple accounts (https://help.twitter.com/en/ managing-your-account/ managing-multiple-twitter- accounts). So I assume this is not the reason for the suspension.

It’s really upsetting to us that Twitter is making us out to be cheaters. Fox News just published an article that claimed that we ran bot-farms. Russia Today is reporting that we were suspended for harassing people, and multiple other outlets are calling us grifters and cheaters because they believe that we purchased Twitter accounts and interactions, when we DID NOT. Twitter continues to put this statement out there and it is 100% false, and a simple discussion with us could prove that it’s false.

This isn’t fair to us or our families. It’s not true and Twitter continues to make this claim without showing any evidence. If there is evidence, please feel free to release it for the public to see. It’s impossible that there is, since I know we never did it.

We can’t wrap our heads around what is going on. Did Twitter give into pressure from Trump and the right-wing media, so they decided to make up a bogus reason for banning us? Is it a mistake that will be corrected? Is Twitter buying into the people who have been attacking us and threatening us for 3 years, believing their conspiracy theories? We have no clue and just want answers.

Even Trump seems to have chimed in hours after news broke that we were suspended: https://twitter. com/realDonaldTrump/status/ 1131764098289602560

What is going on? We just want answers.

Again we would really appreciate it if Twitter corrects their statement saying we were purchasing accounts and interactions and would like to speak to someone at Twitter on the phone ASAP. You can reach me directly at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Thank you to all of the support we have received. Please share this on Social media and please tag @Twitter & @TwitterSupport.

In the meantime, you can find us both on Facebook at the links below:

Ed Krassenstein on Facebook

Brian Krassenstein on Facebook

You can also find our KrassenCasts Podcast on iTunes and Youtube.

Thanks

Brian and Ed Krassenstein