This afternoon various people started text messaging me to ask why my Twitter account had been suspended. Needless to say, the news came as something of a surprise. No one from Twitter had contacted me and, after filing a complaint, I’ve been left kicking my heels and speculating.
The two competing theories are 1) that this guy complained about me (seems unlikely that Twitter would take him seriously) or 2) that I’ve breached some sort of ethical code for posting 4 or 5 30 second clips from the Pixies concert I attended the previous evening. (Again, this seems unlikely as there’s nothing about this mentioned in Twitter’s code of conduct.) But may all have been some ghastly mistake. Only time will tell.
If you’ve never had your account suspended then you probably won’t know that although you can’t respond, you’re able to read all your mentions. I guess it’s a bit like being a ghost at your own funeral. Despite the frustration, it’s been heartwarming to see the overwhelmingly positive response. Here a few of my favourite sympathy messages:
Hi @twitter I want @LearningSpy returned. He is my contrarian inner voice #didau
— Donal O' Mahony (@domaho) December 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/StuartLock/status/806590351096115200
Feeling eerie sense of @learningspy absence from twitter…as if there's been a great disturbance in the force… reinstate please @twitter
— Tom Boulter (@tomboulter) December 7, 2016
The 'Rescind @LearningSpy twitter suspension' seems to have reached 'Free Nelson Mandela' proportions already. Expect deification by morning
— Tony Parkin (@tonyparkin) December 7, 2016
Hi @twitter @LearningSpy is suspended- one of the UK's best education writers, who helps 1000s to help children. Please reinstate. RT #didau
— Tom Bennett (@tombennett71) December 7, 2016
Love the outrage of @LearningSpy twitter jailing. #freedidau
— Amy Forrester (@amymayforrester) December 7, 2016
.@twitter gets that @learningspy isn't a real spy, right? Let him back in!
— Ben Newmark (@bennewmark) December 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/teach_well/status/806521114163838976
And my favourite:
If you really care about @learningspy, you'd make this your avatar. pic.twitter.com/hTMZw406KC
— James Theobald (@JamesTheo) December 7, 2016
Sadly, there are always a few gits.
Not missed #didau at all…nasty and deserves to be banned by @twitter https://t.co/kb0Lt1fhf1
— Bob Harrison (@bobharrisonset) December 7, 2016
I’m not even sure who Bob Harrison is. I’ve certainly never knowingly interacted with him.
I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I know myself. Normal service will be resumed as promptly as the gods of social media permit.
‘The guy’ @richardolsen has deleted all his tweets and then blocked anyone he has disagreed with in the last week or so – says it all – probably the reason for your false ban based on malicious accusations – he’s now realised how popular you are and triggered has gone to hide in his safe space
Hope it’s sorted soon. #TeamDidau
Come back, David!
It’s obvious really – Twitter’s AI driven big data analytics engine has spotted the word spy and acted. AI just not very good at context (yet).Apparently Ofsted have expressed interest in the same technology.
No news yet? We will keep the flame alive. Your passing has certainly brought some of the nutters out of the wood work 😉
David – it’s a sad day when free (and polite) interaction is somehow classified as “Trolling” – had a similar reaction once when I dared to mention “I dont like Harry Potter” and “I don’t get the Beetles”.
Funny how asking questions and asking for evidence seems to rub people up the wrong way.
I feel your pain ;-(
I haven’t always agreed with your take on things but have always felt better informed for the debate that surrounds your work. Your twitter feed is a gateway to a lot of other useful stuff for me and I hope this daft mistake is rectified soon. Good luck and best wishes from Lincoln.
[…] my Twitter account unsuspended itself this evening. In case you didn’t get round to noticing, I’d been suspended the day before. Thank you so much to the veritable legion of supporters who inundated @twitter with requests to […]
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