Banksy says STOP in the Name of Lulz
Ah, Twitter, you’re a tricksy little social media platform. You facilitate drama and then you facilitate misunderstandings around the drama so well you might almost be EZBoard (may it rest in peace). And you are constantly changing the way you work, although even all these months after buying them out you don’t seem in a hurry to integrate TweetDeck functionality, for which there is no excuse. I’m sorry, but Hootsuite just doesn’t do it for me.
But where was I? Right, testing what happens when someone blocks you, and how you would ever find out. So I asked for volunteers on Twitter and here’s what we found:
- If I was Following them when they blocked me, the big blue FOLLOWING button changed to FOLLOW when I reloaded the page. So, that’s a tell. Mind you, Twitter sometimes spontaneously unfollows you from people, so you should click to Follow them and…
- When I tried to Follow people who’d blocked me, I got a little “Sorry. You can’t follow that person because they have Blocked you.” Pretty straightforward.
- If I was not Following them before, their page looked exactly the same and functioned as above: when I attempted to Follow I got the message I’d been blocked.
- Their old tweets remained in my stream.
- Their new tweets didn’t show up in my stream, even when they @’ed me. But other people COULD rt them and then they would show up in my stream; I suspect this depends on how that rt’er is using Twitter: web Twitter, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or various other apps.
- Interestingly, if you’re using web Twitter and click on the username somewhere in your stream and the person has Blocked you, you get the little pop-up snippet of their profile page, but if you were Following them when they blocked you, you still appear to be Following them; the big blue Following button is on the pop-up, but not on the main profile page, so always go to the profile page to check.
- If I was on their profile page and tried to rt or favorite a tweet of theirs, I just got a generic “Sorry, we’ve done something wrong. Try your retweet in a few minutes”.
Here’s what it looked like from the flipside, and thanks to DavidBDale and Poliahu for taking part in the experiment:
So, to sum up, there’s nothing on their actual Twitter profile that says you’re blocked. And contrary to out-dated rumour, the twitterstream does not show up as a protected account. You could try re-Following them, but that might create drama and you can’t stop halfway through. Just try to rt something of theirs, and if it allows you to do it, you’re not blocked. If it stops and says “Something went wrong” or another of those mysterious non-explanations, you’ve been Blocked.
raincoaster media 
Richard
March 11, 2012
Life’s to short to bother with Twitter. I’d rather go to the beach.
raincoaster
March 11, 2012
Hey, I wouldn’t be gainfully employed (part-time) if not for Twitter! And the beach here is freezing cold.
readytochangenow
March 12, 2012
Twitter is on my list of new things (yes, I know I am way behind the times) to investigate. I can’t imagine anyone blocking you though!
raincoaster
March 12, 2012
Oh, Twitter accellerates the drama inherent in online communication. You’ll see.
Snertly
April 23, 2012
Something I learned from Andrew Breitbart: If you’re looking at a reply tweet from someone who has blocked you, you won’t be able to see the message they’ve replied to unless you’re willing to load up a different browser to view the same tweet without being logged in.
raincoaster
April 23, 2012
Not true any longer it seems. Trust me, I see reply tweets from people who’ve blocked me all the damn time.
But the value of having another not logged in browser cannot be underestimated!
Snertly
April 24, 2012
I think I described it badly. If X blocks Y, Y can see X’s tweets, but if Y views X’s reply to Z, when Y clicks on the “in reply to” link of X’s tweet, it will appear to open but the message replied to will not be shown.
It was subtle and aggravating. I’d thought my browser was broken in some weird fashion. Took me about a week to figure out I’d been blocked.
raincoaster
April 25, 2012
Ah, I see. Well, you can always read all those tweets by either subscribing to the RSS feed of the person you follow or just logging out, clearing cookies, and viewing their Profile page.
eri
May 22, 2012
I think you can also tell if you’ve been blocked if you can no longer find them in a search for their name? I recently checked out somebody’s twitter this way and when I wanted to do it again their name no longer existed…I imagine that means I have been blocked?
raincoaster
May 22, 2012
No, it doesn’t. You can find people who’ve blocked you, you just can’t follow them. Lots of people delete their accounts or get suspended.
eri
May 23, 2012
Cool, thanks for the info!
Anya
May 24, 2012
What I’ve discovered is when I use the mobile application for Twitter (echofon, ubertwitter etc.) to search for someone whom I have blocked or whom I believe may have blocked me, I’m able to view their profile, their followers and who they are following but when it comes to their actual timeline it says “no results found”. I’m trying to understand what that means…am I blocked or is that an error? However, when I log onto Twitter through the web logged in or not I’m able to see the person’s timeline. Maybe it’s an API thing I don’t know. If I was / am blocked I shouldn’t be able to see their timeline while logged in under my profile am I correct?
raincoaster
May 24, 2012
Not true. You can normally see their stream even if they’ve Blocked you, unless it’s a protected stream. If it is, you won’t be able to see it if they’ve Blocked you or if they don’t accept your Follow request. I think it’s a failing of your mobile apps. They can be very different, so try a few others.
OstendGudgeon
May 29, 2012
I’d say you’re blocked when an account’s tweeted are masked in short profile and long profile states
Loading Tweets seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
raincoaster
May 29, 2012
No, quite often Twitter is just having problems loading.
Fractal Land (@fractalland)
June 7, 2012
This happened to me. I was blocked by someone (much probably because I blocked her first, but oh well…) and until some weeks ago I could read her tweets from the profile page without any problem. Then this “loading tweets” message appeared, and I can’t read her timeline anymore if I’m logged in. This person’s profile isn’t protected either. Just deleting cookies doesn’t do the trick. It’s just silly, how this “blocking” thing works.
OstendGudgeon
June 5, 2012
It only ever happens with accounts where I suspect I’m blocked and of course, there’s the “invisibility” of the short profile. It’s not even on busy accounts
alex widjaja
June 7, 2012
Thanks for sharing. Did you happen to know what is the amount of people blocking us that can lead to our account suspension ? And supposed the account is suspended, is it permanent or temporary ?
raincoaster
June 7, 2012
I can speak from experience, because after I got a few hundred spambot accounts deleted, they got me suspended. It’s temporary AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW UP WITH TWITTER. You have to fill out a long form with what the issue is, etc, and then they email you and (this is key) you have to respond to the email or nothing else ever happens. Once you do that a real person looks at your account and will make the decision to suspend or un-suspend you.
As for the number it takes, I’m not sure, but probably over a dozen in one day.
nsputnik
June 10, 2012
It does tell you tweets are taking too long to load if you go to the users profile, and it is not a Twitter hiccup. If you log out and view the page of the user that has blocked you all of the user’s tweets load to the page just fine.
raincoaster
June 10, 2012
Interesting. It does now. It didn’t before. One more way in which Twitter has increased the opportunity for misunderstanding and pointless drama.
jc
June 27, 2012
I am blocked by someone’s account & I can’t figure out why–I am a very polite person on Twitter, I don’t heckle or say hurtful things in any way, especially someone I follow (why on earth would I follow them if I didn’t like them?).. Also, the person that I’m blocked from probably has never even seen a tweet from me as they have almost a million followers..
raincoaster
June 28, 2012
Well, I can’t help you except to say that sometimes celebs can be touchy, and that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Maybe they’ve got you mixed up with someone else, or you just tweet at them too much.
Hamza
August 13, 2012
I’m with Richard on that. Ha! Twitter. It’s only for the politicians (who don’t have anything else to do).
I have followed all the friends and familiar faces to keep in contact after the blockage of off topic forum.
raincoaster
August 13, 2012
Easy for you to say, but the last two good paying gigs I’ve gotten I got in part through Twitter, and MOST of the stories I’m covering lately are Twitter-based.
김 | Quimee Abenir (@MsElaineKim)
October 27, 2012
HILARIOUS! :)))))
raincoaster
October 27, 2012
That’s not what you said to me on Twitter. Repeatedly.
Hamza
August 14, 2012
I’m a Facebook expert. Does it mean if I should start teaching it? I mean as a part time job. I’m already helping people on Facebook. And your post seems saying,”If you know how to do something then don’t do it for free.” Does it?
raincoaster
August 14, 2012
Well, there are lots of people who know more than nothing. If you know analytics, ads, how to design and run a FB contest and track results, and can manage multiple accounts seamlessly then yes, you should be getting paid for it.
Hamza
August 14, 2012
BTW WordPress.com is not a place to earn money.
I can’t be like you. You are a genius teacher to guide how to do things on social media in your classes. I often quote you. Good job, Rain. Is this your image in the sidebar? Looks like a battleaxe :)
raincoaster
August 14, 2012
Yes, I’m terrifying in person.
But you’re actually quite a good, patient teacher. You should at least try for a job as Happiness Engineer. I bet they need people who speak multiple languages!
Hamza
August 14, 2012
Ha! Don’t joke please. Are you just flattering? :)
BTW it will not be less than an honor even if I do it voluntarily not as a job. How can I ask them to make me?
raincoaster
August 14, 2012
No, I’m not joking. The link to apply is http://automattic.com/work-with-us/
Hamza
August 14, 2012
Thanks! Had you ever applied? Shouldn’t you? BTW I had already went through that post. But you gave me inspiration to apply :)
Hamza
August 14, 2012
I just arrange a blog http://bloggersunion.wordpress.com as an alternative of Off topic and Showcase forum. Can this work?
Hamza
August 14, 2012
Most of my Facebook followers think so, as they express.
amnagillani
August 22, 2012
Wow! Can anyone apply there? What are limitations? How much they pay?
Battleaxe? lol.
raincoaster
August 22, 2012
Anyone can apply. People like Hamza, who’ve answered hundreds of questions in the technical support forum, are more likely to get the job.
anirtakms
September 12, 2012
I just wanted to stop by and thank you for good advice you dispense here, and timely content. For me anyway. New to blogging, new to commenting, and essentially becoming (and I don’t know how this happened) what feels like a media wh.. (hound?).
My site originated to perhaps show some art (painting variety) perhaps. Yet I think I actually want to go ahead and get my domain name first.So yes. Thanks..!
Gluey
September 12, 2012
Twitter accounts get hacked all the time because of weak passwords. The hacker then blocks the followers then deletes the account
raincoaster
September 12, 2012
Well, no. Why would anyone block the followers and then delete the account? … and…what does that have to do with anything?
anirtakms, thank you. I haven’t done any advice posts in awhile; no time. But I should.
Hamza
September 13, 2012
I helped many people getting their hacked Facebook accounts back. And I was paid for that. The reward was enough to have a lunch at 5 star hotel :).
Profiles are not being hacked because of weak passwords but because of poor security. I can get into hundreds of FB profiles with poor security. BEWARE!
anirtakms
September 18, 2012
Facebook-thankfully has a 404 profile picture of me, and has for awhile..
G+ Now that’s-well a lot of the same just more extended circle BS.
I can peruse archives for advice..I guess the “Act now, need it now-<<<>>>>isn’t really going to accomplish anything.
This is the part where Barbie jumps off the bridge. I’ll check back-get directed back-or png’d back soon. !
sales management training
September 28, 2012
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog
post or vice-versa? My blog goes over a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other.
If you’re interested feel free to shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! Great blog by the way!
raincoaster
September 28, 2012
No, sorry, I don’t get out of bed for less than $50 a post, and I don’t let other people write on my blogs.
Anne
December 19, 2012
Question — I was blocked and now am apparently unblocked but when I click on “View Conversation” when they replied to a question, I see “Not authorized to look up related results for that tweet”. Signed in with another account and can see the conversation … would love to know how to do this!
raincoaster
December 19, 2012
Sounds to me like you’re blocked still. Try Following: if you’re blocked, Twitter now says “You have been blocked from following at the request of that user.”
Ali nickshoar
January 2, 2013
Somebody blocked me i think ,and when im signing in , it says ur account has been suspended , what does it mean , plz help me , is it possible to have my account back ???
Plz help me
Winnifred Hoyles
February 5, 2013
I like the efforts you’ve got put in this, thanks for all of the fantastic blog posts.
warrior forum wso
March 8, 2013
Amazing issues here. I’m very satisfied to look your article. Thank you so much and I’m
looking ahead to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?
Ronni
March 18, 2013
All of a sudden out of the blue I can’t follow anyone! I even tried to follow dancing with the stars and they blocked me! I feel like i’ve been hacked into or the entire world hates me. Where should I start to fix this? Or forget twitter & run off to a remote island?
raincoaster
March 18, 2013
Can’t help you without more info, and probably a consulting fee.
glazura
July 20, 2013
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that
service? Many thanks!
raincoaster
July 20, 2013
No, but you can because at the bottom of each email is a link to your notification preferences. Click it and then you can unsubscribe. Something’s clearly gone wrong with WP though if you’re getting three at a time.
ConfusedJay
August 5, 2013
All of a sudden one day, I’m not able to see tweets from a person that i follow and who follows me, on my feed. A DM sent to me earlier is now missing too. I know that could be because the person could have deleted it. But why is it that i cannot see his/her tweets in my feed though i can see them when i open up the person’s profile? We still appear to be “following each other”. Why could this be?
Faith
October 30, 2013
Someone please answer this question for me. I follow someone that doesn’t follow me. It is an artist page. One of my favorite singers. I re tweet and favor their tweets all the time. When it comes to looking on their twitter timeline. When I go back to the same tweet I re-tweeted and or favored it does not show up. Of the list of people that re-tweeted and favorite.
I reached all over the net for this answer. Including twitters on website. I’m thinking maybe glitch? But when i check the artist timeline via computer I’m not on the re tweet favorite. And here and there on the twitter app on my phone. Did I get blocked? Is their an app out there to were you can take someone off the list. That an annoying person is no longer on the re tweet and favorite list? Please answer this question i’m not sure what is going on.
Thank You Very Much,
Faith
raincoaster
October 30, 2013
If your twitter account isn’t public you won’t show up on those lists, that’s all I can think of.
bra
December 9, 2013
if I was Following someone and now he blocked me, can I write him twitts now?
raincoaster
December 11, 2013
Yes but he won’t see them.
SHERELL BURGEST
August 7, 2014
I can no longer interact on my twitter page which means I can’t tweet,retweet,or choose any favorites. This just happened all of a sudden, however I can use my twitter on my phone so I don’t know what happened!
raincoaster
August 7, 2014
Are you using an app on the phone? Sometimes Hootsuite will get you out of Twitter jail if you’ve been suspended for some reason. I advise you to contact Twitter, unless this happened after a period of extremely heavy twitter use, in which case you’re just in Twitter jail and will have to wait about an hour.
Kaye
October 12, 2014
So i tried this twitter follower app and then people started following me. But after a few days I’ve been notified that I’ve been blocked and I can no longer tweet, retweet, follow or send direct message. But I can still favorite some tweets though. I tried to uninstall the twitter follower app but it still didn’t change anything and Twitter also seems unable to help me. Pls help me!
Samara slinging
January 31, 2015
I know this thread is old but maybe you have an answer?
If I was blocked by a user and then unblocked, after following them again will the user return to their previous location in my following list? In my case the user I mysteriously was unfollowed and then re-followed by me was previously number 1 on my list, meaning they were the first person I ever followed on Twitter. After re-following them they returned to the number 1 spot on my list rather than the last.
The reason I ask is I can’t tell if I accidently unfollowed them, or I was blocked and unblocked, or it was a Twitter glitch.
Thanks for any help! Regards…
raincoaster
January 31, 2015
I don’t know the answer for sure, but it would appear that they do return to their previous location. That seems unlikely, though. My advice is to ask a friend to block you and then unblock you and see what happens with them.
psychopostman
November 19, 2015
This is absolute crap. I blocked an account and of course one of the people I follow who is a rare quality follow on Twitter retweets it. Went months and months without looking at this account and suddenly bam my day is ruined. Doesn’t help when other idiots are jumping on the bandwagon yakking about the account too. What is it about Twitter where there so much sewage, I only really look at 4 accounts now and its during the autumn.
raincoaster
November 19, 2015
Then you shouldn’t take it so seriously.
Travis
February 18, 2016
So I’m not sure if I was blocked or muted, but I noticed I liked someones Tweet (heart button) and I went back to the tweet later and saw that my Like was not registered on the tweet, there was no number next to the heart to indicate if someone liked it or not. I even checked my own Liked Tweets folder, and the tweet wasn’t there…was I blocked or muted?
irreverentgal122
August 29, 2016
What about if someone is following me and I them but I am getting a message that says I’m “not authorized to view this account” then what? Was I blocked but not unfollowed? Because that would be strange.
raincoaster
August 31, 2016
Yes, you were blocked but not unfollowed, and it’s not unusual.