Twitter account's 29-hour ordeal: a full review from suspension to recovery

Author: anymose

How I Lost a Million-Dollar Account and My Reflections

Thinking back now, I still break out in cold sweat. If I could do it all over again, I would definitely…

Clickbait aside, my Twitter isn’t worth a million dollars; it’s just incredibly precious to me. Someone who makes a living by writing, losing their tool for survival is terrifying enough. Even more so because of a very basic mistake. This article will briefly summarize what happened, how I resolved it, and my reflections, hoping to serve as a cautionary tale for all creators to stay alert at all times.

What Happened

I set my age, which triggered a basic mistake.

To enable the “Subscribe” feature, I had to set my age. After entering my birth date as June 9, 1996, I was logged out and kept getting errors, unable to log in.

This account was an old one I bought; it was registered in 2007. So, entering a birth year after 1999 triggered the “under 13 at registration” age restriction. I was stunned—completely unprepared for this! If an account is under 13, it gets locked and requires re-verification.

In fact, before I learned I needed to re-verify, I was in error state for about ten hours, unable to log in and unsure how to handle it. Twitter has no customer service, only help articles with no submission portal. I was panicking, especially since I was on my way to Hong Kong for important Consensus events, and I had several projects that needed posting.

How I Solved It

I was prepared to start from scratch—painful but necessary. I’ve had my public account with over ten thousand followers banned before. On the way to the airport, I received an email from X, officially notifying me that my account was locked due to age restrictions and that I needed to submit documents for review. If approved, the following changes would occur:

‣ Posts made before age 13

‣ Likes on posts before age 13

‣ Private messages sent and received before age 13

‣ Personal profile information except username and birth date

‣ Your saved tweets, lists, and collections

All of these would be deleted. Additionally, your following and follower counts would take 24 hours to display correctly.

Step 1

Logging into Twitter again would redirect me to an informational page with a “form” at the bottom. I opened the form and resubmitted my information. Besides username and email, I had to upload a valid ID—I used my passport.

Many sources said you could submit any identity proof as long as it shows you’re an adult, and some foreigners even submitted their mother’s ID and got approved. Since I had already verified and was a creator, I played it safe and submitted real documents.

After submission, the page indicated the process could take up to 72 hours.

Step 2

In fact, I received an update within 24 hours. After 24 hours, the page changed, prompting me to confirm the above changes. It would automatically delete everything I did before age 13. There was a progress bar: Confirm - System Processing - Complete, which I believe was three steps.

At this point, I received another email indicating the system was processing.

Step 3

It was quick—about five hours later, I received an unlock email. When I logged in again, the page showed the process was complete. I finally got back in! My account was restored.

However, followers and following were both zero, and my avatar, banner, and bio were all gone… I had to set everything up from scratch. Seeing my profile again, especially the age field, was a shock. Some sources said that if your account is locked and then unlocked, the blue verification badge disappears. Since I’m under @GoKiteAI, I still have the badge, and creators don’t need to reset it.

Thank God, my account is back.

Some Reflections

If a system can run smoothly, don’t change it lightly.

If I hadn’t intended to enable “Subscribe,” I wouldn’t have entered my age. But I didn’t fully understand Twitter’s age rules, which led to this incident. Losing an account is a disaster for a creator. It also gave me some insight: I must immediately assess similar crises around me.

These crises are often unnoticed in daily life, but once they happen, they can change everything—that’s the “black swan” theory. In the crypto world, I believe the following crises deserve special attention.

Freedom

I rank freedom as the top priority, especially for industry practitioners still in mainland China. If your freedom is threatened, everything becomes complicated. Recent laws are becoming clearer; many previously ambiguous areas are now well-defined.

OTC traders, project teams, rebate programs—all are high-risk groups. Just because nothing has happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t. If your freedom is destroyed, nothing else matters. Under China’s unique circumstances, this must be taken seriously.

Many people deceive themselves, holding onto a false sense of security. I’m not just speaking alarmism—crises that are often overlooked tend to have more destructive power when they erupt. Do they qualify as black swans?

Health

Almost equally important as freedom, but slightly secondary. This circle severely damages people’s health—physically and mentally. Long hours sitting, irregular sleep, casual diet, constant mental stress—just going for a check-up might scare you.

Some teachers keep sharing supplements, which is fine, but the core is to change some habits: balance FOMO and FUD, take time to step outside, and reconnect with nature periodically. It’s definitely effective.

Communicate more with friends. Sometimes I talk to others for days and even feel a bit isolated… Currently, I focus on health issues like eyes, neck, and lower back.

Tools

When it comes to tools, you need a solid backup plan. Suppose you really can’t recover your account—what then? These are still centralized products, and there’s no widely accepted decentralized alternative yet. So, develop habits like:

‣ Prepare backup accounts

‣ Minimize risky operations

‣ Follow Twitter rules

Additionally, I’ve created my own Telegram channel, where I post content different from Twitter. If things go extreme, I’ll at least keep in touch with some old friends who interact more.