I asked a question of Twitter and Twitter responded by suspending my advertising account. Why? I have no idea because I’m stuck in some automated black hole. I asked how would go about getting certified to run politically-related advertisements on Twitter. Why? Because it seems that my Twitter posts are considered political advocacy and thus to promote them I need to be certified.
The problem started when the form required to certify requires a U.S. passport. I am not a U.S. citizen and thus I do not have a U.S. passport. However, as a Permanent Resident I can advocate politically (freedom of speech) and I can contribute to political candidates. What I cannot do is cast a vote.
But Twitter does not provide an option on its certification form for residents, like me, so I figured I would ask what I needed to do to complete the process without an American passport. It was a simple question.
Somehow my question turned into the suspension of my Twitter advertising account.
At 12:02ET, about an hour after I submitted my question, I received the following response from Twitter.
Hello,
Thanks for your question about the status of your Twitter Ads Account.We’ve reviewed your Account and confirmed that it is ineligible to participate in the Twitter Ads program at this time based on our Inappropriate Content policy. Violating content includes, but is not limited to, that which is offensive, vulgar, or obscene.
If the violating content has been removed, please respond and we will re-review your Account for policy compliance. You can learn more about this policy here twitter.com/adspolicy/inappropriate.
Thanks,
Twitter Ads Support
Huh? My content violates Twitter’s standards?
Sure enough, I logged into my account and it was suspended.
So, I followed up at 12:52ET with:
Hello,
I am confused. I submitted a ticket asking how I went about becoming certified to run political ads. I stated that the self-certification form did not take into account resident aliens, people who are immigrants but live legally in the U.S. The form requires I submit a U.S. passport. However, I am not a citizen and cannot submit a passport, but as a permanent resident I can legally contribute to political causes and candidates. I can also support candidates.
Somehow my ticket turned into an “Inappropriate Content policy” violation. I am not sure why. I also do not have content that is “inappropriate”.
Would you clarify for me?
Thank you,
Martin
At 13:49, I received the following Twitter response:
Hello,
Thanks for your question about the status of your Twitter Ads Account.We’ve reviewed your Account and confirmed that it is ineligible to participate in the Twitter Ads program at this time based on our Inappropriate Content policy. Violating content includes, but is not limited to, that which is offensive, vulgar, or obscene.
If the violating content has been removed, please respond and we will re-review your Account for policy compliance. You can learn more about this policy here twitter.com/adspolicy/inappropriate.
Thanks,
Twitter Ads Support
Yes, the exact same response. It is as if there is a button labelled “response to questions not on the list” that the foreign Twitter support people use for questions outside of their workflow.
At 14:15ET, I tried again:
Hello again,
I remain confused. My ticket started out as a question and somehow turned into an issue of “inappropriate content.”
I have reviewed my content and cannot seem to find any that violates your content policies. I will also note that prior to my question, no issues about my content were brought to my attention.
Would you point me to one advertisement content that violates your policies so that I can take steps to correct it?
Thank you for time,
Martin
This time, the Twitter response took longer to get back to me. Finally, I thought, I’d gotten out of the automated Twitter wormhole I had ended in.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t so.
On Thursday, at 04:08ET, I received the following response:
Hello,
Thanks for your question about the status of your Twitter Ads Account.We’ve reviewed your Account and confirmed that it is ineligible to participate in the Twitter Ads program at this time based on our Inappropriate Content policy. Violating content includes, but is not limited to, that which is offensive, vulgar, or obscene.
If the violating content has been removed, please respond and we will re-review your Account for policy compliance. You can learn more about this policy here twitter.com/adspolicy/inappropriate.
Thanks,
Twitter Ads Support
It seems I’m stuck in some automated foreign support wormhole where the only answer I will receive from Twitter support is a canned response that has nothing to do with my particular question.
It also seems that my question will remain unanswered and that I will no longer be able to spend Starbucks coffee money on Twitter ads to spread my dislike of Donald Trump.
I guess, I’ll just enjoy an extra latte each week.
But this fiasco reveals the failures of not understanding election laws, immigration and over reacting to the Russian interference. I cannot vote, but I can support political candidates and advocate for public policy issues, like immigration.
However, Twitter has no clue about legal immigrants and elections and thus they put me into some endless cycle blocking me from using my right to free speech.
Welcome to PC America, Martin.
Ever since the “Russians are coming” hysteria and all that noise about it being an attack on our democracy, everyone has gone apes**t about Twitter, Facebook etc. as the doors to the Russians. So now these businesses are expelling, censuring, disallowing any type of writings, ads etc. they deem anti-USA lest the State comes down on them.
As a business it can set its rules and regulations like any blogger and ‘kick out’ those that ‘misbehave’. Freedom of speech can only be infringed by the State.
It seems to me that the Inquisition has backfired.