Twitter's 'Memphis' moderation misstep gets a fix
The city in Tennessee had an odd weekend on social media.
- Carrie has lived on both coasts and can definitively say that Chesapeake Bay blue crabs are the best.
Twitter has fixed a bug that temporarily blocked people who tweeted out the word "Memphis." Over the weekend, Twitter's moderation system appeared to automatically hand out a 12-hour suspension to anyone who tweeted out the name of the city in Tennessee.
A moderation message warned that the "Memphis" tweets violated Twitter's rules against posting private information, according to a screenshot shared by Gizmodo. As a result, people were blocked from sending tweets and retweets, as well as some other interactions.
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"A number of accounts that Tweeted the word 'Memphis' were temporarily limited due to a bug," said Twitter Support in a post on Sunday night. "It's been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. We're sorry this happened."
A number of accounts that Tweeted the word “Memphis” were temporarily limited due to a bug. It’s been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. We’re sorry this happened.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 14, 2021
Twitter declined to share details on what caused the bug or how many people were affected. On Monday, a Twitter spokesperson reiterated that the system issue has been resolved and added that affected accounts are now reinstated.
Of course, some accounts on Twitter, including the one for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies, seemed to have fun with the bug.
when bots flood our comments with "say the m word" pic.twitter.com/X1qgsIRmm9
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) March 14, 2021