Twitter Bans User’s Account For Making Death Threats Against A Mosquito

We know and we can appreciate Twitter doing whatever they can to protect their users from harassment, which sometimes includes death threats (no matter how credible). However where does Twitter draw the line? Apparently it seems that any death threat matters, even ones made to mosquitos.

In a report out of Japan, it seems that one particular Twitter user found his account permanently banned after he made death threats to a mosquito. His (translated) tweet reads, “Bastard! Where do you get off biting my all over while I’m just trying to relax and watch TV? Die! (Actully you’re already dead).” He then posted a photo of the dead insect.

However it seems that Twitter’s automated systems can’t seem to differentiate between threats and he was then sent a notice which reads, “Your account has been frozen because it was used to send messages containing threats. Tweets containing threats are not allowed under our terms of service.”

Now we’re not sure how true this report is, or if Twitter got around to unbanning the account since this was a mistake on their part, but it is clear that if there is one thing such systems aren’t very good at is understanding context, but presumably this is an area that Twitter and other platforms will be addressing in the future.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Twitter, _cold