diff --git a/blog/twitter-plea-2020-12-14.markdown b/blog/twitter-plea-2020-12-14.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..764e7b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/twitter-plea-2020-12-14.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +--- +title: Plea to Twitter +date: 2020-12-14 +--- + +**NOTE**: This is a very different kind of post compared to what I usually +write. If you or anyone you know works at Twitter, please link this to them. I +am in a unique situation and the normal account recovery means do not work. If +you work at Twitter and are reading this, my case number is `0184332145 +[ref:00DA0000000K0A8.5004w000023isx7:ref]`. + +# Plea to Twitter + +On Sunday, December 13, 2020, I noticed that I was locked out of my Twitter +account. If you go to [@theprincessxena](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena) +today, you will see that the account is locked out for "unusual activity". I +don't know what I did to cause this to happen (though I have a few theories) and +I hope to explain them in the headings below. I have gotten no emails or contact +from Twitter about this yet. I have a backup account at +[@CadeyRatio](https://twitter.com/CadeyRatio) as a stopgap. I am also on +mastodon as [@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me](https://mst3k.interlinked.me/@cadey). + +In place of my tweeting about quarantine life, I am writing about my experiences +[here](http://cetacean.club/journal/). + +## Why I Can't Unlock My Account + +I can't unlock my account the normal way because I forgot to set up two factor +authentication and I also forgot to change the phone number registered with the +account to my Canadian one when I [moved to +Canada](/blog/life-update-2019-05-16). I remembered to do this change for all of +the other accounts I use regularly except for my Twitter account. + +In order to stop having to pay T-Mobile $70 per month, I transferred my phone +number to [Twilio](https://www.twilio.com/). This combined with some clever code +allowed me to gracefully migrate to my new Canadian number. Unfortunately, +Twitter flat-out refuses to send authentication codes to Twilio numbers. It's +probably to prevent spam, but it would be nice if there was an option to get the +authentication code over a phone call. + +## Theory 1: International Travel + +Recently I needed to travel internationally in order to start my new job at +[Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/). Due to an unfortunate series of events over +two months, I needed to actually travel internationally to get a new visa. This +lead me to take a very boring trip to Minnesota for a week. + +During that trip, I tweeted and fleeted about my travels. I took pictures and +was in my hotel room a lot. + +[We can't dig up the link for obvious reasons, but one person said they were +always able to tell when we are traveling because it turns the twitter account +into a fast food blog.](conversation://Mara/hacker) + +I think Twitter may have locked out my account because I was suddenly in +Minnesota after being in Canada for almost a year. + +## Theory 2: Misbehaving API Client + +I use [mi](https://github.com/Xe/mi) as part of my new blogpost announcement +pipeline. One of the things mi does is submits new blogposts and some metadata +about them to Twitter. I haven't been able to find any logs to confirm this, but +if something messed up in a place that was unlogged somehow, it could have +triggered some kind of anti-abuse pipeline. + +## Theory 3: NixOS Screenshot Set Off Some Bad Thing + +One of my recent tweets that I can't find anymore is a tweet about a NixOS +screenshot for my work machine. I think that some part of the algorithm +somewhere really hated it, and thus triggered the account lock. I don't really +understand how a screenshot of KDE 5 showing neofetch output could make my +account get locked, but with enough distributed machine learning anything can +happen. + +## Theory 4: My Password Got Cracked + +I used a random password generated with iCloud for my Twitter password. +Theoretically this could have been broken, but I doubt it. + +--- + +Overall, I just want to be able to tweet again. Please spread this around for +reach. I don't like using my blog to reach out like this, but I've been unable +to find anyone that knows someone at Twitter so far and I feel this is the best +way to broadcast it. I'll update this post with the resolution to this problem +when I get one. + +I think the International Travel theory is the most likely scenario. I just want +a human to see this situation and help fix it.