Twitter is well known for issuing suspensions without cause to accounts that don’t deserve it, while others operate scot-free. The latest impromptu suspension has shaken the gaming community, as a treasured retro gamer and advocate for community building has had his account revoked - and it seems to be permanent.
Retro game superfan and former Sega counselor “segamastertim” has been left rather baffled over Twitter’s sporadic decision to suspend his account. Tim manged his account with over 19,000 followers for a lengthy amount of time, sharing his common passion for retro gaming with the community. Members of said community have been campaigning for his return for the past few days, attempting to contact Twitter support in order to get some answers.
Tim posted a video on his Instagram account - where he has encouraged his friends and followers to find him in the meantime - expressing his confusion over the suspension. He pointed out that the only reasons Twitter gave for banning his account was due to “multiple or repeat violations of our rules.” Tim explained how Twitter at no point highlighted any previous rule breaking, adding to his bewilderment. He was also visibly upset and defeated by the whole event, adding that there was not much hope for the return of his account.
In his absence, members of Twitter’s retro gaming community have banded together in protest with the hopes of raising awareness and getting some answers out of Twitter. A petition has also been started to reinstate Tim's account, but most members, including Tim, just want an explanation and a summary of what rules were broken. Social media platforms have a bad habit of issuing punishment in the wrong direction with no reasoning behind it. Twitter in particular has a slew of rules, therefore, it's hard to pinpoint which ones have been broken if they're not highlighted.
Professional esports star xQc was given a suspension from Twitter late last year, after using a clip from his own stream. While content creators are frequently hit with copyright takedowns, xQc was apparently suspended for using his own clip which Twitter thought was breaking copyright. Twitter’s automated system was apparently the culprit in this scenario - which detected a potential threat in the streamer’s 10-second clip - and perhaps this is the same bot that wrongly flagged Tim’s account.