Prominent movie torrent release group ETRG had its Twitter account suspended today for an alleged copyright infringement. The incident is rather unique as ETRG hasn't tweeted any links to pirated material.

The ExtraTorrent Release Group, or ETRG for short, is one of the best known sources for pirated movies.

The group releases dozens of popular films on various torrent sites each week and has a steady following of movie fans looking for fresh content.

Some of these followers track new releases through ETRG’s Twitter account. While the group doesn’t link to any copyrighted material, it does list the titles of new releases there.

One would think that ETRG isn’t violating Twitter’s policies by merely pasting a title. However, a few days ago two tweets mentioning “The Signal” got them in trouble.

The tweets were targeted with a DMCA takedown request which led to the immediate suspension of the group’s account.

“Twitter suspended ETRG’s account with no logical or valid reason. In fact they didn’t even give the reason. All I got was a DMCA notification and next day the account was suspended,” ETRG tells TF.

In its copyright and DMCA policy Twitter explains that it takes action against “tweets containing links to allegedly infringing materials,” but ETRG didn’t post any links, just text.

And there are more strange things happening. The takedown notice was sent on behalf of “Wild Side” and also targeted tweets from @PRoDJi and @TorrentBird. These tweets were removed as well, but interestingly enough the associated accounts haven’t been suspended.

ETRG is disappointed with Twitter’s actions and says the company is caving in to unreasonable demands from copyright holders.

“It shows how these sites are influenced by the powerful movie industry to do anything they want,” the group says.

A few years ago the group stopped posting links after it has its account suspended and at the time Twitter re-enabled it within a day. But even without links it couldn’t escape another suspension.

Hoping to get its account reinstated ETRG filed a counter-notice, but several days have passed since and they have yet to hear back from Twitter. Meanwhile, the account remains suspended.

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