7 Veils: Twitter Is Locking Accounts, Here's How to Deal With It (XBIZ)

Read the full article by Lauren MacEwen at XBIZ.com

LOS ANGELES — Twitter has the worst way of delivering a surprise. It has been rumored that they are updating their UI (user interface) and adding some new and fun features. But instead of just doing that, they are locking accounts. The bonus surprise is that if you don’t yet have a phone number associated with your account, they may not unlock your account until you add one.

I know this is Twitter’s way of verifying that people are real, but I personally hate the data mining aspect of it. I have always loved the potential anonymity of Twitter, and they are chipping away at it, at least from an information gathering perspective. Plus, not everyone only has one Twitter account. You used to be able to have up to five accounts on one phone number, but now, for most people, it is one account per phone number. A good way around this is to set up a Google Voice number and use that for your Twitter account.

Twitter is clearly trying to re-verify account validity.

Here are the things I recommend doing to keep your account safe:

1. Make a backup code. 

2. Set up 2FA (Two Factor Identification)

This morning, when you log into your Twitter, if you get the dreaded, “Your account has been locked,” don’t panic — it’s not you, it’s them.

7 Veils Media is a social media solutions company. If you would like to discuss how they may be able to help you with your social media strategy, management or consulting, contact [email protected]. You can follow 7 Veils on Twitter @7_Veils.