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Here's a long read that's worth reading.

First, some disclosure:
~ This account is run by several admins who independently observed these events and realized that this issue runs deeper than any of us could have imagined.
~ The admins are not affiliated with any of the individuals mentioned in this thread.

On Christmas, Twitter user Sveinncore, a creator with over 5000 followers, was reported fraudulently on 3 separate tweets, and suspended. (Twitter's automod system runs on a 3-strike, no forgiveness system.) Though his was likely not the first, it was the first publicly visible.

We were unable to contact Noa for confirmation, but as Noa makes money primarily through commissions, and the end of the month is when most artists open them, we estimate that he may have lost upwards of 2000 dollars. He's recently mentioned moving residences on his new account.

Though the motives of this attack were unclear to the general public, a short investigation revealed the presence of a small, but vocal community opposed to... well, just about anything. These people, though diverse in creed, had one thing in common: vitriol and hatred.

(Addition: we do not believe that they are acting with a coherent creed. Their only commonality is their readiness to attack others. In other words, these people are brought together by their hate, not their opinions. This is the cause of many a Twitter debate.)

In response to the attack on Noa and the fallout after, the FFXIV community began talking. Some came out to support Noa; some came out to decry the actions of his attackers. But many of them ended up having one thing in common. They were next to be fraudulently reported.

Users who spoke up about the issue were swiftly reported, sometimes within the day. Locked accounts were not immune; those on unlocked accounts who replied to them gave the game away, and everyone who spoke to them subsequently (even innocuously!) was also reported.

Someone was stalking the accounts of FFXIV community users, and reporting them on old Tweets, dating up to 2010, if they spoke out of line - or were even friends with people who spoke out of line. A Tweet as recent as yesterday was reported, showing that this is an ongoing issue.

Who could have done this?
Sadly, it is impossible to find out who sent a report on Twitter. Though this protects users who report in good faith, it also protects users who do not.

But in this case, it's a little more complex than that.

On December 27th, 2020, a Twitter user by the name of @dmonk31856866 posted a confession. The account is no longer located at this address. The Tweet in question can be viewed here on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20201227205151/https://twitter.com/dmonk31856866/status/1343298530149064707

Tweets on Twitter contain metadata. This metadata includes the unique, inimitable ID of a user. No two users can share the same ID. It's also not likely that IDs are reused. Else, 3rd-party applications querying a deleted user's ID could receive a completely different user!

The metadata of this Tweet, though it is deleted, can be readily viewed on the Wayback Machine. This user's id is 1343297598917140480. Though we were sure that someone who created a throwaway to confess on would have deleted the account, we looked it up anyway.

It was there.

We were skeptical. This user's first tweet was from December 31, and not December 27 as the throwaway's had been. Luckily, users contain metadata too, which includes the creation date of an account. This, too, is readily and publicly available. And here it is.

The chances of IDs being reused on Twitter's backend are already low. But if that weren't the case, the chances of this user receiving the same exact ID as the throwaway are astronomically low. And the chances of this user being an FFXIV player? Well, you get it.

(Though it is almost certain that the person in charge of this account is, if not the same person who reported Noa, related to the person who reported Noa, the subsequent reports could have been done by any number of other people. It must be stressed that anyone can do this.)

But why is this such a big deal? Can't you just not tweet bad words?

Twitter's moderation system is run not but humans, but by robots. The criteria for their operation is unknown. This is the reason why so many Tweets between friends are marked as TOS-violating harassment.

Not just Tweets with bad words can be reported. Literally anything can be reported. Literally anything can get you banned. You heard us right.

Literally. Anything.

(Thread below can be found here. One can readily find many similar stories on this sub.) https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter/comments/8m2w22/twitter_support_sucks_and_lets_its_user_abuse_the/

Banned accounts are rarely unbanned by Twitter. If so, it often takes months, if not years. But for the most part, a banned account is gone forever. Twitter, apparently, does not check appeals regularly, if at all. https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitter/comments/jzv1xh/tales_from_an_actually_unsuspended_twitter/

And so comes the conclusion. At any time, anyone on Twitter can get your account deleted for any reason. And individuals who would relish the opportunity to do so exist. So... what can we do?

We... don't know. This avenue for abuse has existed for years. It has always been here.

Optimistically, we believe that if a community bands together and refuses to step back from naming and shaming its abusers, we can make our corner of social media a little safer for ourselves. But that's being optimistic. There will always be someone out there who hates you.

Thank you for reading to the bottom of this thread. Maybe by sharing this and making this information accessible to everyone, we can mitigate the effects of abuse like this. Please screenshot this thread to prevent it from being reported and deleted.