When Twitter Appears To Be In VIOLATION Of Their Own Policies

During February 2017 the MyZA Twitter Account published a link to an article on FraudAlert.co.za that sought to assist the South African Police Service in finding a suspected Fraudster. This was in response to an official media release from the SAPS that can be viewed HERE.

This same press release was picked up and remains online by a number of other online publications such as News24…

Twitter has recently found this Tweet to be in violation of their policies and restricted the MyZAcoza Twitter Account until an appeal process was followed or the relevant Tweet deleted.

The offending Tweet stated: “NAME REMOVED BY REQUEST (no money changed hands except between client and lawyer) – Fugitive Wanted on Fraud Charges” and nothing else except a link to read more.

In posting the tweet MyZA shared information that was publicly available elsewhere on an OFFICIAL Government web site via an official SAPS Media Release that is STILL publically available to this day. (Update: the SAPS Media Release has been removed after court action)

Despite MyZA lodging an appeal we were sent a reply minutes later saying that our appeal had been denied and that access to the MyZAcoza Twitter account would remain in place until the ‘offending’ Tweet had been deleted.

Now, Twitter says; “You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.”

They then go on to list a number of so-called violations that will result in restricting access to an account.

As far as we are concerned the ‘offending’ tweet DID NOT:

• Reveal a home address
• Reveal any identifying location information
• Show an identity document
• Show contact information – if we did then the SAPS wouldn’t have had to appeal for assistance
• Show financial information
• Show private info such as biometric data or medical records
• Show an image of the alleged fraudster
• Show a prisoner of war
• Threaten to expose private information
• Share info that could be used to hack and gain private info
• Share online banking credentials
• Seek a bounty to share private information

All the DID NOT’s above were clearly NOT taken into consideration when Twitter DENIED our appeal.

Twitters Violation Policy appears below.

Under this policy, you can’t share the following types of private information, without the permission of the person who it belongs to:

• home address or physical location information, including street addresses, GPS coordinates or other identifying information related to locations that are considered private;
• live location information, including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes, actual physical location, or other identifying information that would reveal a person’s location, regardless if this information is publicly available;
• identity documents, including government-issued IDs and social security or other national identity numbers – note: we may make limited exceptions in regions where this information is not considered to be private;
• contact information, including non-public personal phone numbers or email addresses;
• financial account information, including bank account and credit card details;
• other private information, including biometric data or medical records;
• media of private individuals without the permission of the person(s) depicted; and
• media depicting prisoners of war posted by government or state-affiliated media accounts on or after April 5, 2022.
• The following behaviors are also not permitted: threatening to publicly expose someone’s private information; sharing information that would enable individuals to hack or gain access to someone’s private information without their consent,e.g., sharing sign-in credentials for online banking services; asking for or offering a bounty or financial reward in exchange for posting someone’s private information; asking for a bounty or financial reward in exchange for not posting someone’s private information, sometimes referred to as blackmail.

We need to re-iterate: In posting the tweet MyZA shared information that was publicly available elsewhere.

Twitter also states that the following are not in violation of this policy:

• people sharing their own private information;
• sharing publicly available location information after a reasonable time has elapsed, so that the individual is no longer at risk for physical harm
• sharing information that is publicly available elsewhere (OUR emphasis), in a non-abusive manner (with the exception of live location information); and
• sharing information that we don’t consider to be private, including: name; birthdate or age; place of education or employment; location information related to commercial property or places of business, where this information is publicly available; descriptions of physical appearance; gossip, rumours, accusations, and allegations; and screenshots of text messages or messages from other platforms (unless they contain private information e.g., phone number).