Twitter Timeout — does twitter go against it’s own TOS? J.M Follow Mar 7 · 4 min read

Twitter is a social media platform that’s been around for quite some time and that’s become a staple in the “social media” community, if you don’t have a twitter — you were probably banned from using twitter.

This is what happened to me when my account was suspended on 6th March 2020, I loaded up the twitter app on my phone to see that not only my main account — but every other account I have, was suspended with the same error message.

That I had done something that goes against the terms of service and my account(s) were now disabled — what was my crime? a stupid joke response to a tweet.

Twitter strives to be an environment where people can express themselves, and will rightfully crack down on abusive behavior, and twitter, unlike YouTube, actually has real people looking over these reports that come in, this means that a real person decided to oversee the situation and once they came upon my tweet, suspend my account for breaking the terms of service all the while completely overlooking the fact that DramaAlert host Keemstar made a tweet on his own account that should certainly be a violation of twitter’s policy.

Keemstar tweeted on March 6th a screenshot of a video thumbnail from YouTube channel Jen Atkin’s video entitled “I CUT EMMA CHAMBERLAIN’S HAIR (AND MADE HER CRY?)

picture: twitter.com/KEEMSTAR

He makes a tasteless joke about how he thought on first glance by the thumbnail that she had been kidnapped by a terrorist group I won’t even say the name of because I’m afraid I’ll get put on a list or something.

Keemstar made this tweet sixteen hours ago at the time of this article being written, his account is in tact and the tweet is still available to be read, which is more than I can say for my twitter — which was suspended for a different kind of joke.

Keemstar had previously tweeted about a moose head he hung up in his home, my response was a sarcastic joke about how he should get hit by a car next, as if my “call to action” was legitimately putting this man’s life in danger whatsoever, as if my tweet was going to inspire someone else to drive a car straight to this man’s home and run him over.

picture: twitter.com/KEEMSTAR

For the record, I understand that I was suspended for a reason — I made a tasteless joke that I shouldn’t have made, but there is no way in heck that it could have been taken as anything but a joke, I don’t like the man, but I’m not a sociopath wishing for him to come to harm, and anyone who knows me will know this is the truth.

The problem is, if my tweet gets me suspended from twitter for breaking the policy, surely Keemstar’s terrorism joke should get him in trouble as well? Apparently not.

Does twitter have a bias against who it suspends? Does twitter pick and choose what goes against their TOS and what doesn’t? Even if both parties are guilty?

As shown in their own rules page for terrorism it states that you are not allowed to affiliate or promote the activities of terrorist or extremist groups, but there’s nothing in here saying that satire / parody tweets about these groups aren’t allowed.

Even if Keemstar’s tweet doesn’t go against this part of the TOS, surely there is some rule he is breaking by making light or reference to kidnapping, violent scenarios or any number of horrific and brutal things

Twitter policies state that my tweet did go against the TOS, but what about all the other people who respond to tweets in a more hostile way? what about the people who tell others to kill themselves on a regular basis and never get a suspension or even a warning? Keemstar himself has engaged in targeted harassment in the past on his twitter account, but his account still holds strong even though he has broken the terms of service.

If my joke tweet promoting violence against another person is enough to get me suspended from the site, why is Keemstar’s joke tweet that arguably promotes and makes light of these horrific situations not enough to get him in trouble?

In any case, twitter has denied my appeal request stating that a violation of policy did occur on my account, which is fair play to them, I didn’t make a terrorism joke, and apparently that goes against their TOS.