Twitter worker on their last day at the job shut down Donald Trump's account

[midian182]

Back in December, Twitter implied that it wouldn’t hesitate to ban Donald Trump if he broke the site’s rules on threats and harassment. The company changed its stance in September, explaining that the “newsworthiness” of his tweets meant he wouldn’t be removed. But it briefly looked as if Trump really had been banned from his favorite site yesterday after the @realdonaldtrump account was temporarily deactivated.

Just before 4 pm PT, Trump’s twitter page brought up the message, “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist.” It remained there for 11 minutes before the account was reinstated.

Twitter initially said that the removal was due to “human error” by one of its employees. “The account was down for 11 minutes and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again,” the company said in a statement.

A second @TwitterGov post revealed that this wasn’t so much an error as a deliberate action by a worker on their final day at the company.

Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review. https://t.co/mlarOgiaRF

— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017

“Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review,” read the second statement.

Before Trump’s account returned, people speculated that Twitter may have listened to calls for the president to be banned over his threatening language toward North Korea. Others suspected he may have deleted the account himself, or had been hacked as a result of his notoriously bad security practices.

Trump’s Twitter was deactivated by a “Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day.”

!!! pic.twitter.com/9xYfL9SAVE

— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 3, 2017

The incident has raised concerns over how a single person could remove the president of the United States’ Twitter account, which he often uses for official policy announcements. Citing sources familiar with the company, Recode reports that Twitter’s Trust and Safety team can suspend or remove accounts, but this ability is limited.

There had been internal talks about introducing special requirements when removing high-profile accounts, but nothing was ever implemented.

Donald Trump has yet to post any tweets addressing the incident.

Update: Trump has now responded.

My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/71715-twitter-worker-their-last-day-job-shut-down.html

 

[dirtyferret]

Best 11 minutes of Twitter's history...

 

[andrewdoyle88]

Whoever did this will be on talk shows for weeks and probably come out with a book about it.

 

[stewi0001]

Drama drama drama

 

[Nobina]

Peak mental illness.

 

[Solar Flair]

11 mins of peace

 

[bolski]

Wonder if this had happened to Obama or any other person on the Democratic side if people would be crying foul? Regardless of who you side with, this is not a good thing. If you don't like what someone has to say, don't follow them! You have the freedom to do so. Obama or Trump, doing this is bad. What if someone didn't like what you tweeted in the Twitter company and they just banned your account just because you said something they disagreed with? Would you stand for it or would you fight back to get your account? THAT is censorship and oppression right there. Kudos to Twitter for reactivating the account. A rogue employee like that is not a good thing. Again, regardless of whether you stand for or against Trump or any other governmental person who Tweets, it's not a good thing to allow this to happen.

 

[Capaill]

"The incident has raised concerns over how a single person could remove the president of the United States’ Twitter account"
It's easy - open a GUI, see a button, click the button. Presumably the employee had access to an Admin user which would have those rights/permissions. And why should POTUS's Twitter account be given any more protection than any other user's?

 

[wiyosaya]

Perhaps the title of this should have read "Trump's Twitter Account Suspended, People Thought the World was Ending"

Wonder if this had happened to Obama or any other person on the Democratic side if people would be crying foul? Regardless of who you side with, this is not a good thing. If you don't like what someone has to say, don't follow them! You have the freedom to do so. Obama or Trump, doing this is bad. What if someone didn't like what you tweeted in the Twitter company and they just banned your account just because you said something they disagreed with? Would you stand for it or would you fight back to get your account? THAT is censorship and oppression right there. Kudos to Twitter for reactivating the account. A rogue employee like that is not a good thing. Again, regardless of whether you stand for or against Trump or any other governmental person who Tweets, it's not a good thing to allow this to happen.

No matter what side, people would be crying foul.

As I see it, the only context in which your comments would have been applicable is if this had been an official Twitter action. It was not. It is not possible to protect against rogues in all cases in any context. It just cannot be done, and this is not just my opinion, but the opinion of agencies like the FBI, CIA, and agencies from other countries, too.

Right now, we do not know the circumstances. Perhaps it was an innocent mistake, perhaps not. When Twitter figures it out, I am sure they will let the world know the outcome because, regardless of the outcome, they can blame it on the former employee.

 

[Teko03]

Wonder if this had happened to Obama or any other person on the Democratic side if people would be crying foul? Regardless of who you side with, this is not a good thing. If you don't like what someone has to say, don't follow them! You have the freedom to do so. Obama or Trump, doing this is bad. What if someone didn't like what you tweeted in the Twitter company and they just banned your account just because you said something they disagreed with? Would you stand for it or would you fight back to get your account? THAT is censorship and oppression right there. Kudos to Twitter for reactivating the account. A rogue employee like that is not a good thing. Again, regardless of whether you stand for or against Trump or any other governmental person who Tweets, it's not a good thing to allow this to happen.

Is this a troll attempt? Kudos to Twitter? Why wouldn't they correct the issue?

 

[mattfrompa]

I think they should ban his account from 9am-5pm every day. Do your f***king job that you are grossly overpaid for!!!

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

If the democrats only answer to someone they disagree with is to silence them then THEY are the problem. They need to stop acting like Hitler when it comes to Trump against their Liberal Nazi like doctrine.

 

[Evernessince]

Wonder if this had happened to Obama or any other person on the Democratic side if people would be crying foul? Regardless of who you side with, this is not a good thing. If you don't like what someone has to say, don't follow them! You have the freedom to do so. Obama or Trump, doing this is bad. What if someone didn't like what you tweeted in the Twitter company and they just banned your account just because you said something they disagreed with? Would you stand for it or would you fight back to get your account? THAT is censorship and oppression right there. Kudos to Twitter for reactivating the account. A rogue employee like that is not a good thing. Again, regardless of whether you stand for or against Trump or any other governmental person who Tweets, it's not a good thing to allow this to happen.

Last time I checked, Obama didn't incite violence, hate speech, the hacking of our own government, and so so much more on a constant basis, all of which violates Twitter's TOS. Let's be honest here, the only reason Trump's account is allowed to stay is because twitter earns far too much money from him to care. Ditto goes to facebook, who allowed Russians to influence the election with propaganda for a pultry sum of cash and even during the senate hearing they couldn't even guarantee they wouldn't do it again. This is why we need regulations. Just because the speed limit is "burdensome" doesn't mean you should remove it, republicans.

 

[Lionvibez]

The guy should have deleted the account then deleted it in the back ups not just temp shutdown.

 

[commanderasus]

The picture of the employee who deleted the account has been released to the media

 

[mbalensiefer]

Liberals being liberals. "Do as I say not as I do".

 

[mbalensiefer]

No, Obama only created BLM and took us 9T in debt while arming Iran.

 

[holdum323]

Wow! So much hate. We have Clinton haters, Bush haters, Obama haters, Trump haters. Discussing things and having different opinions is great, but all this hate and name calling turns this old veteran off. USAF 1958-1962 . C130 electrician Okinawa. John Kennedy was my Commander in Chief. Do we have some Kennedy haters? I'm sure there are some. There are several places to check the facts. Here's 6 that you can compare before you start spreading the rumors you hear on Facebook from Russia.
https://www.technorms.com/454/get-y...hecking-websites-that-help-you-know-the-truth
This is a good thread. Would be better if the truth was posted instead of all the rumors. Let's all wait and see what the next 6 months brings. Try listening to both sides and put your hate in the deep freeze.

 

[holdum323]

Hi! The thing that amazes this old country boy is; people are so happy to grab any thing they hear and agree with it, and then pass it forward as fact. Whether it be Fox news or MSNBC. They remind me of a flock of sheep that will follow the leader off a cliff. We need a good Shepard ; a good leader, not the divider that we have now. Yes the one with the 37% approval rating.
I was willing to give him a shot, but that time has came and gone. No different from the rest and even worse.

 

[mbalensiefer]

Hi! The thing that amazes this old country boy is; people are so happy to grab any thing they hear and agree with it, and then pass it forward as fact. Whether it be Fox news or MSNBC. They remind me of a flock of sheep that will follow the leader off a cliff. We need a good Shepard ; a good leader, not the divider that we have now. Yes the one with the 37% approval rating.
I was willing to give him a shot, but that time has came and gone. No different from the rest and even worse.

Don't worry. The "last" divider we had created BLM. Never had so many Americans been so divided.

 

[holdum323]

Don't worry. The "last" divider we had created BLM. Never had so many Americans been so divided.

What was this dividers ratings?? You seem to post things that are not factual. Lets not pretend and hide our real feelings with initials like (BLM)" Black Lives Matter"! Yes they do. All lives matter, but we will always be divided with those that think like this.
This divider you mention, didn't need Russia to help elect him. Lets see how many terms your divider serves or maybe he won't even finish his first term. No president has ever had this low approval rating his first year.
Here's the facts. You just need to know how to Google. I can get facts and news just like the creator of this forum, whom is admired and appreciated by this old man! This is a great forum. Not many allow this kind of chat.
https://qz.com/889644/obamas-approval-rating-from-his-first-day-to-his-last-in-charts/

 

[mbalensiefer]

The New York Times retracted an editorial that scolded Trump for refusing to acknowledge the “basic fact agreed upon by 17 American intelligence agencies” that Russia orchestrated the 2016 election cyberattacks and did it to help Trump be elected. That was a claim that Hillary made, and it became a constant talking point that remains today. One problem: It isn’t true.

As the New York Times was forced to admit, just 3 of the 17 intelligence agencies looked into this.

I’d like the remaining dozen or so intelligence agencies to explain why Russia would want to elect the candidate who was promising to rebuild US military might and over the one who exposed our Classified information to Russia and sold them ONE FIFTH of our uranium--all while receiving bank in her Clinton Cash machine.

The old admnistratation had eight years to become corrupt on massive scale; wipe out coservatives under the "guise" of the IRS, and host two (2!) Attorney's General who did nothing but grandstand in front of Congress and Plead the Fifth. Think about that. The average black family is worth $3,000 less in end-2016 than in 2009. So who did Obama help?

A new report citing a German intelligence agency claims that Iran is cheating on the terms of Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal. Iran took the money and is using it to finance more nuclear weapons technology and terrorist activities. Fact: They helped Bin Laden the whole time he existed.

Also, a new survey of Millennials found that half say they would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist democracy. Thanks, Obama.

I am sorry that Trump's approval rating is at 37% while Obama's low was at 40%. Is that the sign of successful president? Big deal.

 

[mbalensiefer]

PS Holdum you have a right to like who you like. "T" wasn't my first choice. He was my fourth. But anyone walking down the street is more qualified to me than "C"; who should be in prison. If Daddy Warbucks speaks the straight truth and pisses you off; maybe it's the truth that hurts; not him.

PS 4-year Navy veteran. USS John S. McCain DDG-56 Yokusuka, Japan.

 

[holdum323]

Why do you always have to bring Clinton in to all your replies. Clinton is not the leader of our country. Have you checked lately?
Trump won the election. Can I say for sure it was because of Russia? No I can't. I will wait for the facts, and I will not post hate statements like "Lock her up"! Give me the facts why Clinton should be in prison. I promise I will check it out.
Thank you for your service. My father was a Navy man. I'm USAF 4-year. 18 months in Okinawa. Extended because of the Cuba conflict. Never made it to Japan. I went TYD to several eastern countries trying to avoid hurricanes. Electrician C130 (Hercules)
PS I don't know Daddy Warbucks. I'll Google it and let you know if I think it's worth any thing. I think it's good to have discussions; if it can be done with respect, and you have the facts. Not the BS from the news media.

 

[mbalensiefer]

Thank you for YOUR service, Sir!!
We live well within our freedoms today off of the freedoms that you and your predecessors fought for.
Anyway, my point to yours: People may not like Trump (I'd rather live next door to Sanders than Trump, by a good amount). But if not for T than we'd be stuck with C. Soooo--people who complain about T can't (to me) *logically* say one thing about him that does not apply to her ~unless~ it ONLY applies to T. (Does he tick people off? Well so does she.) Thank you!