Edward Snowden has called out Elon Musk after his wife, Lindsay Mills, was locked out of her Twitter account for sharing a baby photo.
In the photo, Mills appears to be topless and holding the naked baby, but nothing is revealed other than the baby’s bottom.
Twitter just locked my wife @lsjourneys‘s account for an ancient baby photo that even *spineless Instagram* had no problem with. Do parents need to worry? Are baby butts, happy bath photos, etc. banworthy now? pic.twitter.com/DtRFdDXuHg
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 18, 2023
“Twitter just locked my wife @lsjourneys ‘s account for an ancient baby photo that even *spineless Instagram* had no problem with. Do parents need to worry? Are baby butts, happy bath photos, etc. banworthy now?” Snowden tweeted.
Does this look like pornography to you, @ElonMusk? If you have a machine handing out bans for pictures that could be on a Hallmark Card, it’s time to dial back the algorithm.
Just my opinion. https://t.co/3Ixmu6s7bK
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 18, 2023
In another tweet, Snowden wrote, “Does this look like pornography to you, @ElonMusk ? If you have a machine handing out bans for pictures that could be on a Hallmark Card, it’s time to dial back the algorithm. Just my opinion.”
In a follow-up, Snowden claimed that he was also shadowbanned after tweeting the photo.
Twitter appears to have just algorithmically shadowbanned (or otherwise blackholed) my account for this tweet. No engagement (nearly 6M followers), won’t even show tweet impressions. Was immediate, not the result of a human decision.
This is a show-stopper, @elonmusk. Insane. https://t.co/dMeVCtgHTM pic.twitter.com/QQIgWTelRj
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 18, 2023
“Twitter appears to have just algorithmically shadowbanned (or otherwise blackholed) my account for this tweet. No engagement (nearly 6M followers), won’t even show tweet impressions. Was immediate, not the result of a human decision,” Snowden wrote. “This is a show-stopper, @elonmusk . Insane.”
Snowden continued, “Can’t even view quote tweets for the original post. The feed shows as blank.”
This is wild. Where is @TwitterSupport? How many normal people who don’t have my visibility just had their accounts cast into the shadow realm like this?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 18, 2023
“This post has absolutely broken my TL. The tweet shows 800 replies now, but when I click ‘view replies,’ it only shows 3. All others are hidden,” Snowden added. “This is wild. Where is @TwitterSupport ? How many normal people who don’t have my visibility just had their accounts cast into the shadow realm like this?”
Update: suddenly I can see all the replies now. Maybe somebody’s on the case, or maybe a server just got plugged back in. My tweet to @elonmusk still has a grand total of 27 impressions… which is impossible (normal ones have 100ks-to-millions).
Tough times in the Twitterverse.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 18, 2023
In a later update, the NSA whistleblower wrote, “suddenly I can see all the replies now. Maybe somebody’s on the case, or maybe a server just got plugged back in. My tweet to @elonmusk still has a grand total of 27 impressions… which is impossible (normal ones have 100ks-to-millions). Tough times in the Twitterverse.”
Mills’ account has since been restored.