Mark Griffin: Twitter: Axis of Evil
It would be difficult to overstate how much I hate Evan Williams and everybody else at Twitter right now *. I've spent the last nine months learning to use Twitter, making contacts and networking with people, and generally trying to contribute something to the twitterverse. I've been a web developer for some fifteen years and I'm really into social media. As such I've been a positive enthusiast for Twitter, I've encouraged people to use it and given them guidance on how to do so. I'm a big fan.
As of now, however, I'm no longer a Twitter user. My account has been "suspended" pending "investigation" for "suspicious activity". No explanation has been offered, no warning was given, no questions were put to me beforehand. Bang. Everything freezes right in the middle of trying to post an update. I was being followed by over 37,000 Twitterers, I'm now being followed by none. I was engaged in meaningful business networks, I'm now out in the cold.
What compounds my sense of frustration and anger is that Twitter is an unresponsive juggernaut. They don't actually spell out the grounds for suspension and in the absense of an explicit reason, I can't even guess. I'm sure I'm not breaking the spirit of the service, it's not possible to follow any more than the daily limit lets you, and I know I don't do any of the dubious practices they rightly disapprove of, such as following then unfollowing lots of people. I know I'm not a porn merchant that Twitter seems to do nothing about, likewise I'm not one of those countless thousands who spam us all with invites to join the Mafia or their army or be a spy with them, or answer endless mindless, witless quizzes and surveys - then fill our screens with their answers. No, they're all okay, it seems it's people like me Twitter wants to get rid of.
But if they had concerns, shouldn't they have asked me first? Shouldn't I have had an opportunity to explain whatever deviant behaviour it was I was seemingly engaged in, before they pulled the plug? Twitter have done me real, actual, harm. All my investment in time and energy has been wiped out. So I think I'm entitled to be angry. It would be difficult to put a figure on my financial loss right now, it's mostly future earnings from consulting, speaking, and writing a book. My standing as an expert may have been irreparably damaged, harming my ability to find work.
Part of the problem is that Twitter make arbitrary changes that they fail to communicate to people. I've seen this before when I hit the 2000 follower limit. How many of you even know there is a 2000 follower limit? Nobody did until after they had introduced it. Likewise the limit on following more than 500 people per day. Nobody knew about that until after it had been introduced. The upshot was thousands of confused and upset users that Twitter did nothing whatsoever to placate, it was all completely unnecessary. As a fan of Twitter, it was very sad to see all these angry and upset people. Now I'm one of them.
The root cause is the people at Twitter know nothing about how to handle customers. "But it's a free service, you don't have to pay to use it," I can hear everyone saying. I pay plenty. I have put a significant amount of time and effort into using Twitter, as have many millions of others. If we weren't using Twitter in the numbers we are, it wouldn't be worth the one billion dollars it's currently reputed to be worth. I expect and demand better service. Twitter does not have the right to treat me in an arbitrary and unfair way, Twitter does not have the right to cause me actual harm with impunity. I want my account restored and I want financial compensation.
* For the benefit of any over-zealous law enforcement officials who may be reading, my hatred does not extend to wishing to do anyone at Twitter any actual physical harm, the statement is meant purely for the purposes of dramatic literary effect.