How Not To Block People On Twitter
Personalized Censorship in Social Media Pt 2
Or, I Let Bots Tell Me Who I Can And Can’t Talk To On The Internet

The other day this brilliant feminist Demotivator Opinion (aka Tim Blake) had his Twitter account temporarily suspended and wound up making a new account. If you search for Demotivator Opinion on YouTube you will see in the Related Channels Kat Blaque. She had blocked his second account.
When we discussed it Tim said, “It was instant which means it was a block bot thing. Those bots run through your follower list and if you are following tagged account, blocks you instantly”
In my ongoing investigative reporting on why feminist YouTubers block “randos” not people, I had to dig deeper. I came across a couple of articles describing how these third party apps identify and block people
The first I read about was Block Together; ironically, it was created by someone working for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The way you get on their list is by being manually added by a list author. If you notice you’re blocking someone on the list that you’d like to follow, you have to unblock them yourself — and then, it’s only you that is unblocking them. The only way to get removed from a list like this is to be unblocked by the author of the list. How do you know if you’re on the list? You can’t.
Next was Block Bot; when someone adds you to the list you are classified in one of three categories, one being ‘abusive bigot.’ How do I get off the list? You have to contact one of the admins and find out if they deem you suitable. How do you know if you are on there? Looking over the FAQ you could go to Twitter on a new account and search for “@TheBlockBot #report” and then your account name with a + sign in front of it.
Good Game Auto Blocker looks like it works a bit differently, it ‘compares follower lists for Twitter accounts known to incite attacks on individual users.’ If you follow more than one of these “campaign leader accounts” you are added to the blocked list for subscribers. This tool was created by an engineer at a video game development company to combat harassment she received during GamerGate. How do you know if you’re on the list? It looks like you won’t.
I was talking this over with my wife and here’s a scenario with a couple of questions left unanswered:
- You follow two “campaign leader accounts”
- You follow someone running Good Game Auto Blocker (GGAB)
- Good Game Auto Blocker goes through the list of people that you follow and adds you to the block list
- The person you followed running GGAB — AND EVERYONE ELSE RUNNING GOOD GAME AUTO BLOCKER — now block you
What happens if the person stops running GGAB? You are still blocked by that person’s account. What happens if the admin of GGAB removes you from the list? I’m not sure if Twitter has an API that allows a script to tell individual accounts to ‘unblock’ other accounts.
“Harper admits that Gamergate Autoblocker is more akin to a sledgehammer than a fine tool: She is willing to block out more than 9,000 Twitter users just so she doesn’t have to hear from a vocal few hundred. People who have never tweeted a single harassing thing end up blocked by nearly a thousand people, including many influential decision makers in the gaming industry.”
- Randi Harper, creator of Good Game Auto Blocker; Newsweek — One Woman’s New Tool to Stop Gamergate Harassment on Twitter
Resources
Block Bots Automate Epistemic Closure on Twitter. Are You Blocked?
http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/10/areyoublocked
Twitter Won’t Stop Harassment on Its Platform, So Its Users Are Stepping In
Twitter now lets you auto-mute eggs and other sketchy accounts
https://thenextweb.com/twitter/2017/03/01/twitter-now-lets-auto-mute-eggs-sketchy-accounts/
TheBlockBot FAQ
http://www.theblockbot.com/?page_id=2#14
One Woman’s New Tool to Stop Gamergate Harassment on Twitter
http://www.newsweek.com/one-womans-new-tool-stop-gamergate-harassment-twitter-288008
