
Ask HN: Twitter perma-banned my popular bot for a false reason - bitmexrekt
I run the bot @BitmexRekt that posts liquidations (when traders lose everything) on the Bitmex exchange.<p>It&#x27;s mildly popular on Twitter with 45k+ followers, and even got mentioned on Nouriel vs Arthur Hayes debate: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qlZukhN_C6c (~2:50 minute mark).<p>Yesterday the bot was permabanned by Twitter, and Twitter is accusing me of &quot;impersonation&quot; which is obvious to anyone that has seen the profile that it is clearly not impersonating anyone. However Twitter is sticking to their guns and insists that the bot, which has been running for more than 3 years, is an impersonator.<p>Is there no way of getting a real person from Twitter to review this?<p>I wrote a bit more in detail here: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;LittleLightLittleFire&#x2F;REKT&#x2F;issues&#x2F;7
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antihero
None of these companies are remotely accountable or fair in their process.
None of their rules are democratically decided, there is zero oversight, zero
recourse.

Imagine a world where they run stuff. Imagine a world where these companies
are in charge of things like currency or things necessary to live.

Legislation needs to recognise the power and responsibility companies like
this have, and mandate that those with sufficiently high traction or gravity
provide a transparent appeals and dispute process.

~~~
bko
> None of these companies are remotely accountable or fair in their process.
> None of their rules are democratically decided, there is zero oversight,
> zero recourse.

I'm pretty sure the people who "run stuff" today are not any more accountable.
They're elected sure, but considering that re-election percentage for US
Congress is in the 90s and Senate is in the 80s [0]. Local elections are also
generally in the 90s [1] and its worth noting that many people who "run stuff"
are appointed unelected administration officials (e.g. Federal Reserve,
Supreme Court).

[0]
[https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php](https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/reelect.php)

[1]
[https://ballotpedia.org/2018_election_analysis:_Incumbent_wi...](https://ballotpedia.org/2018_election_analysis:_Incumbent_win_rates_by_state)

------
creshal
Welcome to Twitter, where the rules are arbitrary and the legal recourse
nonexistent. All you can do is raise a stink and hope Twitter's PR department
notices.

~~~
kypro
And this is an extremely minor example of corporate totalitarianism. There
have been people who have lost their businesses because payment processors
like Visa, Mastercard and PayPal didn't like what they were doing despite
operating fully within the law.

It's strange to me how there are still so many people arguing that these are
private companies and they have the freedom to destroy someones life if they
don't like the business they run or their political views.

~~~
pavlov
I mean, they are private companies and thus free to choose who they do
business with, as long as it's not discrimination against very specific
categories of individuals defined in law.

If something needs to be a public utility, then vote for political parties
that are willing to expand the public sector. Saddling private companies with
semi-public duties tends to create the worst of both worlds where profits are
private but losses are public.

~~~
chii
Sounds fair on paper, but when a corporation reaches such monopolistic heights
like Google, they can simply wipe you from existence, but making them
utilities doesn't make sense at all.

There needs to be some level of complaints and appeals - and this needs to be
mandatory via regulation. Unfortunately, not politically viable.

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onion2k
Could Twitter think you're impersonating Bitmex? You're using their name,
you're reporting events that happen on there, you're (presumably) not
officially commenting on activity that happens on their exchange.

It could be argued that the reason for the ban is not false. Maybe it
originated from a complaint from Bitmex...

~~~
bitmexrekt
I emailed bitmex support and they said it is possible may have been
accidentally triggered by them. However they did say they have no issue with
the account and that "If you have any issues getting the account re-enabled
and think we can assist further please let us know."

I don't really fault them because ultimately Twitter is the one at fault here,
being the judge, jury and executioner.

~~~
onion2k
_I emailed bitmex support and they said it is possible may have been
accidentally triggered by them. However they did say they have no issue with
the account and that "If you have any issues getting the account re-enabled
and think we can assist further please let us know."_

So Twitter may have shut down your account because Bitmex asked them to.

 _I don 't really fault them because ultimately Twitter is the one at fault
here, being the judge, jury and executioner._

Depending on what's actually happened it could be the case that Twitter are
legally required to act. I don't think it's entirely fair to blame them until
you know more about what's going on.

~~~
bitmexrekt
Well there's thing. Even if Bitmex complained, Twitter has no justification to
shutdown the account. Because it complies with all of their policies (and
clearly states its not affiliated with anyone) [1].

Now, suppose it actually was Bitmex that requested the accidental take down,
it still doesn't help me in anyway since I have no way to contact Twitter.
Bitmex has a customer support that responds to emails and my experiences with
Bitmex has been quite jovial since the start. In fact, Ben (one of the co-
founders of Bitmex) has commented/reviewed some earlier versions of bitmexrekt
code many years ago when I had some questions about the API.

Ultimately, the only way to get any support from Twitter is to make big scene
on social media, and I really don't want to do this.

[1]. [https://i.imgur.com/dxsdPHI.png](https://i.imgur.com/dxsdPHI.png)

~~~
akuji1993
> Ultimately, the only way to get any support from Twitter is to make big
> scene on social media, and I really don't want to do this.

Then I'd suggest you look for something new to do, because nothing except that
will raise their attention to a level where they might investigate.

~~~
bitmexrekt
Well I guess we start over.

[https://twitter.com/bxrekt](https://twitter.com/bxrekt)

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weiming
Damn, that sucks. You are a hero to many.

Twitter 'enforcement' can be completely arbitrarily if you have been following
some of the news stories in the past months. Maybe you can make a new one that
doesn't use a trademarked name and see if it sticks.

~~~
weiming
PS Given how popular you are, maybe you don't even need Twitter. Just put up
your own site with a simple feed, the word will spread quickly.

~~~
bitmexrekt
I really hope to get it sorted with Twitter. Unfortunately getting support
from them is ridiculously hard.

~~~
eitland
Try setting up an account in the fediverse, create a new twitter account to
spread the word + a landing page. I guess a number of people here will help
you spread the news via both twitter and the fediverse.

This can help both to speed up twitters response to you (if they get scared
about their actions fueling the growth of the fediverse) as well as triggering
a number of peoples to create accounts in the fediverse ;-)

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_Nat_
> Twitter is accusing me of "impersonation"

"@BitmexRekt" probably looks like "@BitmexAsdf" to someone who can't parse
"Rekt".

Seems problematic for two reasons:

1\. If a Twitter rep doesn't get the alias, they may think it's an attempt at
impersonation.

2\. Even if a Twitter rep does get the alias, they _may_ have some reasonable
concern that third parties might misinterpret your alias as representing
Bitmex.

I mean, I can see someone who doesn't know what Bitmex is, nor the term
"rekt", thinking that "BitmexRekt" is just like a fuller name for Bitmex, or
something like that.

~~~
bitmexrekt
Sure, I can see how if somebody just looks at the name, and ignores all other
context, including Twitter's own policies, and deliberately interprets it in a
brain-dead manner can come to the conclusion that a bot is impersonating
Bitmex.

Hopefully they won't think @BXRekt is too close to Bitmex.

------
duxup
Science Fiction is full of the horrors of arbitrary / poorly reasoned
decisions made by computers, AI run amok.

But sadly were humans are all too happy to do it to each other.

------
bitmexrekt
For those looking for the bot I've decided to just to move bitmexrekt to
[https://twitter.com/bxrekt](https://twitter.com/bxrekt)

~~~
bitmexrekt
Twitter has never gotten back to me and I've given up trying to get support
from them.

------
rolltiide
Maybe Arthur Hayes made the claim for revealing too much about the truth of
using their platform

Word of your demise quickly spread in my groups earlier today

------
iicc
Mastodon.

~~~
davidgerard
Negligible userbase compared to Twitter. Suggestion doesn't solve the stated
problem in a way that solves it, instead advocates adviser's hobbyhorse.

~~~
A2017U1
It's very sad to see someone I highly respect say this. You're a champion
calling out the bullshit in cryptocurrency, shame you can't do the same with
large broken companies that literally hire psychologists to fuck with peoples
minds and make them use the site more.

Not enough reach isn't an argument, Mastadon works fine, twitter is incredibly
broken and evil, it encourages hottakes and bullshit.

