A Lingering Perpetual Suspension Threat on X/Twitter
According to @elonmusk permanent suspensions no longer happen on X, but apparently, he only means it does not happen to those who are rich or famous. Strike one you're out!
According to @elonmusk permanent suspensions no longer happen on X, but apparently, he only means it does not happen to those who are rich or famous. The rest of us unknowns have to deal with shoddy customer service and hastily crafted entry level scripted email explanations from the X team while they are throttling our free speech, suspending us for unknown lengths of time, and if access is resumed it comes with veiled threats of suspension based upon unwritten and inconsistently applied X rules! Well, that is If you are lucky enough to get a response to your customer service support request 😏 What a great customer service experience (sarcasm)!
This is a story about my journey through a recent X/Twitter suspension. I initially wrote about this occurrence on LinkedIn and the suspension occurrence caused me to open a Substack account. I was suddenly suspended from X on May 16th and was allowed access again on June 12th. So yeah, lucky me, it was not permanent… this time. But I only know one action that I can change and feel that the punishment for my supposed crime was excessive, and the process overall lacked an adequate customer service response.
Getting suspended and not knowing why feels horrible. But then to come back on X and find that some followers have outcasted me and unfollowed me due to me being suspended, feels like I was a criminal. I lost followers and even a few that I thought were kind of friends. But they unfollowed me due to me being suspended. Is it harmful to their reputation on X to be following a suspended account? So, is your following membership like a social credit score and one reason X should NOT suddenly suspend people for breaking certain low-level rules. And what or who determines which rules are so offensive that an account must be suspended? And why are people not given warnings prior to suspension? As you can see, I have many questions… but the one and only one email response I got from X, simply generated more questions.
I waited nearly a month without ANY response or update about my account suspension and the appeal I submitted. It really is disheartening to wait almost a month with no acknowledgement that a pending appeal was in process and thinking my suspension was permanent, only to receive some random vague response with links to nonexistent rules and then being given new vague threats of suspension if I violate those unwritten rules. What are the rules? Well, the links given to me in the one email response did not link to actual rules, so I still don’t know.
The email response I finally got from X on June 12th has done very little to help me know what I need to do differently with my behavior and merely feels like a vague threat that I could be randomly suspended again at any time without any warning or notice! It feels horrible. And I feel like I had a bunch of labels slapped onto me for behaviors in which I never engaged.
All I have learned from this suspension is not to talk to Elon Musk or the tech bros on X will have a collective stroke. Apparently, only rich and famous folks get to talk to rich and famous folks! How dare a poor schmuck enter the convo! So, all the X team did was solidify my beliefs about elite snobbery.
Item #1 in the email is the one action I know I have done, but it is no different than the action I have done since I opened my account a couple years ago, so why is it now, suddenly, restricted behavior that qualifies for suspension?
And the Learn More Link has NO information about this rule. So, this is one rule made up in an email, but not clearly delineated on X site.
Also, why am I not allowed to reply to others on X? Why is the conversation only limited to certain folks? Aren’t all replies by all X users unsolicited since X is a public forum and not a private chat room? Basically yes, all X users are engaging in unsolicited response activity and thus this unwritten rule is not being consistently applied and seems to merely be a tool to use against accounts that certain folks don’t want to have entering their conversations.
When I read #2 in the email, I wonder what metric is used to determine when a post is unrelated and how did I do this? I honestly have no idea how I managed to break this rule. I don’t have any automated capacity to post many times like spam on many different topics. I am just a nurse folks, I don’t have any automated tech capacity on social media. Examples of the offense would be helpful. But why was nearly a month suspension required for this kind of activity?
And the Learn More Link has NO information about this rule. So, this is another rule made up in an email, but not clearly delineated on X site.
The #3 email point is unbelievable! What is “aggressive reposting or liking?” How is it not allowed to repost or like posts on a social media platform where liking and reposting is part of the functionality? What the actual… ? And now that likes are private on X will there be no further suspensions for “aggressive likes?” And why did I have to be suspended for alleged “aggressive likes” when now it appears that this unwritten rule has been rescinded? How absolutely disturbing for this kind of action to be pointed out as a rationale for my suspension. As you can tell, I am still aghast.
And the Learn More Link has NO information about this rule. So, this is another rule made up in an email, but not clearly delineated on X site.
And finally, #4 in the email is also very troubling.
No link for this one 😏
I don’t have any automated capability, so I have no idea how this supposed action occurred under my account? Examples would certainly help folks! And warnings about the behavior prior to suspension would be enough to halt the behavior. If this behavior even occurred on my account. I have no idea why I am accused of this action. I don’t mass unfollow when I follow people, and I only follow 486 people, so how on earth is this small amount considered a “churn?” This fourth point in the email is very inaccurate and seems like it was just randomly inserted.
None of the links to help topics within the poorly constructed email led to actual written rules that I was accused of breaking. And did chat GPT write that email for ya X boys? While I felt relief and gratitude for getting my account back on X, the long delayed and very non personalized and vague accusation type email response felt kind of draconian and big brother ish. X really needs better customer service support 😏
So, I wonder if I am merely an accidental suspension and nobody in tech bro world on X wants to acknowledge their own mistake! And the random impersonalized email makes me feel like I was simply targeted by some snob who felt I got too close and annoyed him too much for his comfort! And I say tech bros with affection, cause ya’ll X post monitoring folks know how I feel about that Mr. Elon, and I have inherent tech sis vibes in me. But alas, I am just a nurse 😉
Dodge designer… made a post recently about @ mentions and I wonder if he oversees the unwritten rule book that is being inconsistently applied upon certain X users, like me.
Who authorizes suspensions anyway? I suggest that function be a tightly structured process and minimal access granted to only certain X team members. Bias can compromise the performance of a public social media platform when rando suspensions are implemented against paying customers by biased employees. And again, is there anyone in customer service to help paying customers?
The final disturbing feature of the email was how it ended with a threat about possibly being suspended again and yet I don’t know how to prevent it! Also, the email stated how the case was closed, and replies will not be monitored 😳
😳😳 who was monitoring my replies? And if it was a real person and not automation that got me suspended, then why can’t they personalize the email and give me examples for why I was suspended so that I could know what NOT to do going forward? And if this process is automated by some AI system, then who is monitoring it and what are the parameters to determine what factors makes reposts or likes “aggressive?” And what are the parameters for when @ mentions are not allowed, or how many are allowed? And if there are measures then are they being applied to everyone on X? And how does that work on a public forum social media space when only a certain number of replies or @ mentions are allowed?
And how long was the case open? Don’t I have a right to know when/if my posts were being investigated/monitored, while they are being monitored? Just letting people know that they are being investigated would probably stop their behavior. For example, a notice could say: “You are being notified that your account is under investigation for such and such behavior.”
So many questions!
Ultimately, I am VERY grateful that I was allowed to keep the following and followers when I regained access to my account and did not have to start all over. However, it still feels quite raw to have a suspension happen overnight like it did. It felt so sudden and unexpected and random to get suspended immediately without any warning or attempts to get my behavior to change via warning messages. And I tell you, it is not a good taste to leave in the mouth of paying customers.
I also wonder, now that I have been suspended and unsuspended does that mean others will have to avoid interacting with me because my account will hurt their reps? And thus, am I effectively being throttled, yet again, and not allowed in public town square discussions because those worried about appearances will not interact with me! What a shame to allow random suspensions to happen on X and without giving warnings or telling the person specifically what they did wrong. And what a shame to not have rules written in the help section so that everyone could look them up and read them. The sheer level of hypocrisy, made up and unwritten rules on X make me want to vomit 🤮
I opened a Substack account while I was suspended by X. It is normal customer behavior when a product doesn’t provide them with expected service to look for another service provider who will. So, if there is a goal to increase user time on X platform and thus gather more user data, random and unexplained suspensions will not improve that metric or accomplish that goal 🤷♀️ Most folks suspended in the manner I was will probably leave permanently and not advocate for themselves. That is lost revenue folks, and I want to see X grow, not be harmed by ineffective customer service, unwritten rules and inconsistent application of rules upon paid customers.
So, in the end, the only lesson I learned is to not @ mention @elonmusk, but I wonder, is there a tabulation number counting in the background and if I hit that crucial number of @ to Elon then will I hit the jackpot of a tech bro collective stoke and BOOM my account will get switched off again? How is that an effective strategy for managing human behaviors? All it does is make me want to poke the bear and watch them stoke out over and over again. Even though I really value my X account access and the fact that it will take me about two years to build up the same level in Substack as I have on X, I wonder 😏🤔 is it worth it? Tell me what the tally is! I swear I can beat it quicker this time 😉
Overall, the resumption of X access notification email reeks of being slapped together carelessly over a few minutes without any real thought into the conversation nor any attempt to ensure a desired behavioral outcome will be achieved. And that is what the entire X rule summary links look like as well. Nothing written specifically to describe the so-called rules that were cited in the email to have been broken, and thus giving me the impression that my suspension was even more random and inappropriate than I suspected from the start. It was like someone made up some rules and didn’t put them into writing yet on X platform but still wanted to throttle my account so then they just slapped together some general accusations in an email. And I suppose, maybe I got a template letter that has absolutely no meaning for my specific “supposed” behaviors and is just an afterthought standard letter sent to all those who get throttled on X.
I deserve an apology, X boys. Cheers to you for being able to do the wonderful things you do on X but you need to learn how to properly respond to customer service issues and craft relevant somewhat personalized emails that will elicit the future behaviors you want the user to emulate.
So here I am sitting on the perpetual tentative suspension list based upon unwritten rules and without knowing much about why or how I can avoid being suspended again. Not a good feeling and hence why I posted this on Substack and did not use the article feature on X 🤷♀️