[Thread] Facts. @Twitter and @Jack are well aware that they've been infiltrated by a hostile dictatorship at least once. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/how-saudi-arabia-infiltrated-twitter

For years, unless you know how to work around Twitter's filters, you can't register an account over Tor without a phone #.

Enemies of dissidents absolutely love a phone #. It's an easy way to geolocate a person, which makes the usage of Tor essentially pointless.

We understand that Twitter has a political troll/misinformation problem, and a number of those accounts use Tor. However, they've recently adopted the approach of banning all Tor accounts unless a phone # is provided, which is a problem for activists, dissidents and the homeless.

Each of the above referenced people will have an IP address that either regularly changes, or has registered multiple Twitter accounts, which triggers Twitter's ban filters.

2 generic reasons are always given for bans. The account is either accused of "suspicious activity" or "posting automated content." An option to appeal is given. But, appeals are simply ignored at this point. For admins with this account, it's been over 3 months without a reply.

A cursory review of an account, that takes less than 30 seconds, can identify a bot. @Twitter cannot be bothered to do this. They just ignore now. Unless you know someone who works there, which we have at times, your account is dead.

In this era, as governments drift more and more towards torture, imprisonment and censorship for nothing more than disagreement, why is @Twitter making it so hard for activists to use the very tool that protects them from incredible harm? @Jack, any thoughts?

We again want to emphasize that we are sympathetic to the problems that @Twitter is facing with disinfo bots. But, the approach they have taken has silenced every activist that takes the prudent steps to hide their identity from those who seek to harm or silence them. Why?

We firmly believe that a more nuanced approach can be taken here. And given that every Tor user is still subjected to the same ads as any other user, we've paid our way to be here. @Twitter or @Jack, we'd appreciate a response.

[End of thread.]