At the end of the last week, Twitter suspended my account for a response I sent to an intentionally transphobic reply to me. With such an explosive opening statement I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought my jailable offence was for something spicy. No doubt you are champing at the bit waiting for me to divulge all the juicy details (if your eyes haven’t already scanned below).

Unfortunately, the infraction is a bit of a letdown. The statement that instantly resulted in a 12-hour suspension after pressing send was:

If you’re scratching your head at how such a statement could result in a suspension, Twitter instantly provided its reasoning:

Specifically for: Violating our rules against promoting or encouraging suicide or self-harm. You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. When we receive reports that a person is threatening suicide or self-harm, we may take a number of steps to assist them, such as reaching out to that person and providing resources such as contact information for our mental health partners.

Twitter

It happened instantly after sending the tweet so I could only guess that it was an automatic action taken by the system, and that someone decided to code “go jump into a lake” as “self-harm”. I am not sure what dictionary they were using for that judgement call but it’s not one I’ve read.

I was bemused to be suspended for something so innocuous when my mentions are frequently clogged with Nazi imagery, libelous accusations, queer and transphobic comments, genocide denial, and the occasional death threat. Not once have I ever received a notification that a violent reply sent to me violated Twitter’s TOS. I’ve reported so many tweets over the years, and no matter how blatant the bigotry, they almost always escape suspension. This includes accounts whose handles are antisemitic or include a profile picture that is literal blackface.

The civility trap seems to apply to people on the receiving end of abuse and not enforced for the bucketload of obviously fake accounts doling out violent bigotry. All you need to do is search Twitter for my handle and a few choice slurs to see your results quickly fill up.

News that Twitter is worth half of what Musk paid shouldn’t come as a surprise.