Twitter suspends your account if you remove your phone number

Posted by ifvictr on Monday March 08, 2021 @11:40AM
from the self-post dept.

I found out two weeks ago after removing it because I thought it was no longer needed after I switched away from SMS-based 2FA. No warning or anything at all in the UI that indicated the removal would result in a suspension, and they don't even let you go back to your settings to re-add it!

( 4 comments | 14 points | on HN )

Re:Twitter suspends your account if you remove your phone nu... by el_dev_hell on Monday March 08, 2021 @09:39PM (#26394777)

Tested with a personal tech project account and that's not the case for me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Twitter suspends your account if you remove your phone nu... by dmlittle on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @03:27PM (#26403724)

It might take a few days before it gets suspended. A side project account of mine was suspended and it took me 9 months to get it back.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Twitter suspends your account if you remove your phone nu... by el_dev_hell on Thursday March 11, 2021 @10:04PM (#26431818)

Certainly possible (I'll report back if that's the case).

I think the argument by @ddtaylor is more probable (that Twitter is using a "trust score" type metric to determine account suspensions).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Twitter suspends your account if you remove your phone nu... by ddtaylor on Monday March 08, 2021 @12:34PM (#26388662)

My guess is that they have some kind of scoring system and having a phone number increases your "trust" score. When you removed it your trust score went below some threshold.

[ Parent | on HN ]