I need my twitter deleted

Question

I have seen one similar question but it is almost two years old, and there's a bit more to it.

I created a twitter account a long time ago because I was doing live streaming on adult websites. I need it to be taken down. I do not have the phone number, email, or anything else associated with the account. I did not use my real name when signing up because it was adult content and I had stalkers. Because of this, they won't delete the account.

I am wondering if there are any actions I can take. I can prove that it's me in the pictures because I literally have the same exact face and tattoos that I did years ago. My husband can prove that it's him in the pictures as well, but they will not take that as actual proof.

Do I have any options here? It's related to a phone number that many old family members still have in their phones, so when they go to create a twitter account it pops up in their suggested friends or follows or whatever.

Another thing potentially valuable to readers: The New York Times recently had advice on how to create a public front (burner credit card, email, phone number) that protects your "true" identity. — Peter - Reinstate Monica, Jul 19 '21 at 11:53
Consider approaching this from a different way - instead of proving that the account is yours, you can probably get the account shut down by telling Twitter that it's you in the photos and you don't consent to them being published. Seems to me that if Twitter think the account belongs to someone else, and has posted nude pictures of you without your permission, then that would compel them to delete it. Try using the "report" or "flag" feature to report the account. https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/report-a-tweet — kaya3, Jul 19 '21 at 12:04
@RockApe It’s one thing to know the number, it’s another thing to have access to the number. I know a lot of phone numbers; I can’t use them to verify my identity because they aren’t mine. — ColleenV, Jul 19 '21 at 14:11
@ColleenV I was trying to clarify if the OP has access or not, as "I do not have the phone number" can be read two ways. — , Jul 19 '21 at 14:13
@kaya3 - That's a good idea. It really should be another answer, rather than just a comment. — Bobson, Jul 19 '21 at 14:38
@Bobson I didn't write it as an answer since this is Law.SE and I'm not competent or qualified to write about law. Perhaps someone else would be able to turn my suggestion into an answer with appropriate reference to law (and I would upvote it), otherwise I would expect such an answer would not be on-topic. — kaya3, Jul 19 '21 at 14:44
@kaya3 References to T&Cs etc are, AFAIK, on topic and I can't see what's wrong with you posting the comment as an answer. — , Jul 19 '21 at 14:48
@Roland: Though rarely enforced, there are messy legal consequences to improper DMCA takedown notices. Possibly twitter has an irrevocable license to posting those pictures, so this approach strikes me as improper use of DMCA. — Brian, Jul 19 '21 at 16:52
@Roland Agreed, using DMCA to take down arbitrary content is always a crapshoot, because if the counterparty has a vested interest in DMCA's integrity, they can make a lot of trouble for you. — Harper - Reinstate Monica, Jul 19 '21 at 18:19
@Brian They can only have a valid license if this is indeed OP's account (or her photographer's). Twitter appears to have stated that there is no proof of that. — Roland, Jul 20 '21 at 05:49
Hi everyone. Sorry, I am trying to figure out how this website works as far as comments - I don't see a way to respond to individual comments or answers, so I'm going to do this instead. Also didn't realize Enter submitted the comment, goodness. Okay let me try another one lol — ameliabedelia, Jul 20 '21 at 18:08
Okay! Studoku, I've gotten MOST of everything taken down off of tube sites that uploaded them without my consent, and everything that I did upload content to has been taken down. To answer location q's - I am located in the U.S. - I'm not sure if this is just a UK site? It was recommended to me so I jumped on it asap. I could ask a family member for the phone number but I still would not have access to it. I was thinking about calling the number to see if someone DOES have it and if they'd be willing to help me out by telling me the code twitter sends to them, so I could get into the account — ameliabedelia, Jul 20 '21 at 18:11
@kaya3, that's a fantastic idea. My husband and I are both in the pictures, so I might have him say that. The problem is that there are not a ton of adult pictures on twitter, it's just my face and the declaration that I have done porn, which is almost as damaging as people seeing the porn itself. — ameliabedelia, Jul 20 '21 at 18:13

Dale M · Answer 1 · 2021-07-19T23:03:20.397

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I do not have the phone number, email, or anything else associated with the account.

Well, neither do I - so it must be my account.

Unfortunately, the fact that you appear in most or all of the pictures on that account does not prove that you own it. It could be the photographer's account.

Do I have ANY options here

Can you reactivate the email account associated with the Twitter account? Or the phone number? Either would allow you to reset the password and access the account.

You can go to court (in California) and seek an injunction ordering Twitter to delete the photos or give you access. Of course, you have the same issues proving ownership here as you did with Twitter but the court may have different priorities (justice) than Twitter does (corporate protection).

I had an idea. If you (or your husband) own the copyright in the photos (i.e. one of you was the photographer) you could issue a DCMA take-down notice because the poster (who, according to Twitter, isn’t you) does not have permission (even if they did at the time: permission can be revoked). Twitter would be unable to contact the account holder and would be required to remove the images when they got no response.of course, if the photographer was someone else, they could do it. Or you could break the law and say it was you, although I would never recommend this even with a near zero chance of being caught.

edited Jul 19 '21 at 23:03

answered Jul 19 '21 at 02:23

Dale M

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Pretty sure that there'd be other options in Europe, with regards to the GDPR and the Right To Be Forgotten. – nick012000 Jul 19 '21 at 09:28
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Even a first-step C&D on legal letterhead might well flip Twitter from "we can't be bothered to do something about this" to "we can't be bothered to let this go any further". They're not really concerned with the principles at stake, just with minimizing their workload and liability. – Sneftel Jul 19 '21 at 10:16
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It could be the photographer's account - Does the "photographer" have a release signed by the model? If no, then they have no right to upload OP's photos, especially if nude. – henning Jul 19 '21 at 11:24
@henning The "photographer" can fake a release statement in 5 seconds. How does the OP prove it is fake, while remaining anonymous? Laws have no effect unless they can be enforced. – alephzero Jul 19 '21 at 12:39
@alephzero it's not incumbent on the model to prove the document isn't genuine. – henning Jul 19 '21 at 12:41
@henning it sort of is. But, anyway, any dispute the model might have with the photographer is irrelevant to Twitter. – Dale M Jul 19 '21 at 12:50
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The "photographer" isn't going to fake a release statement, because the "photographer" is a legal fiction to justify leaving the account open. – Brian Jul 19 '21 at 12:58
@Brian indeed. But the point is it's an irrelevant fiction. – henning Jul 19 '21 at 13:11
@henning: No, it's relevant. If OP says, "the model didn't sign a release," Twitter has a few responses: 1) Ask the photographer for a possibly fake release (which will be ignored, giving Twitter justification for closing the account). 2) Fake a release themselves (Twitter isn't going to do that). 3) Ignore OP. Admittedly, option 3 is more likely than option 1; Twitter's support team may very well be instructed not to adjudicate legal legal disputes. However, I was specifically responding to alephzero's concern that the photographer could fake a release statement. – Brian Jul 19 '21 at 13:25
But if the email and phone number are no longer connected, how would Twitter contact the theoretical photographer? If they can't reach anyone through the account's contact info, what should their assumption be? – Barmar Jul 19 '21 at 13:53
@Barmar The assumption should be, that the person being portrayed naked has the right to the pictures. – Christian Jul 19 '21 at 14:41
@Barmar: If Twitter decides to contact the photographer to verify their photos are legal and the photographer is unreachable, Twitter would probably close their account. This is especially true of nude photographs. – Brian Jul 19 '21 at 16:48
@Brian Good point, so maybe getting them to try to find the person responsible for the account is the solution to the question. – Barmar Jul 19 '21 at 17:02
Hi there. I was the photographer! I was looking into DCMA takedown, but I've gotten a lot of advertisements for websites who want me to pay for them to reach out to twitter, so I want to figure out if I can do it myself or if I should pay for someone to do this for me. I should edit the original post, but it's less the pictures that bother me and more that my face is associated with this porn account. – ameliabedelia Jul 20 '21 at 18:15

Philipp · Answer 2 · 2021-07-19T16:12:51.557

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When they refuse to give you control over the account because you can not (or they don't let you) prove that it's your account, then another option would be to report it as involuntary pornography of yourself. The penalties faced by platform owners for not removing such content on request are severe. So that will leave Twitter no option but to remove the content.

It doesn't appear as if you can flag a whole account as that, but it is an option when flagging individual tweets. More information on Twitter's policy regarding removal of involuntary pornography and instructions for reporting can be found here (Thanks, ColleenV).

edited Jul 19 '21 at 16:12

answered Jul 19 '21 at 15:31

Philipp

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Twitter’s policy is helpful in figuring out how and what exactly to report. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/intimate-media “We will immediately and permanently suspend any account that we identify as the original poster of intimate media that was created or shared without consent” Since they can’t get hold of the account owner, they can’t verify consent, and should take down the account. – ColleenV Jul 19 '21 at 16:09
@ColleenV Thanks for the link. I added it to the answer. – Philipp Jul 19 '21 at 16:13
This requires the OP to lie and claim that a crime has been committed against her. Not a good idea. – Jul 19 '21 at 19:20
@BenCrowell How that? The option in the Twitter UI says "It includes unauthorized, intimate content of me or someone else". OP revoked authority for Twitter to display that content, so it's unauthorized content. – Philipp Jul 19 '21 at 20:16
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@BenCrowell It's not clear to me that this is a lie. It may have been uploaded voluntarily, but it remains up involuntarily. – Ryan_L Jul 19 '21 at 20:18
@BenCrowell You missed the “shared without consent”. This is a violation of the Twitter TOS, not a crime. As long as the images remain up and are being shared, the account is in violation of the TOS. What if a hacker had taken control of the account? Why can’t someone revoke consent to share their personal data once they’ve lost control of it? – ColleenV Jul 19 '21 at 20:31
Thank you. Do you think this would work even for non-nude photos? Because a huge issue is that my face and "We do porn!" is all together on one twitter, even if my body is covered. – ameliabedelia Jul 20 '21 at 18:18
@ameliabedelia The Twitter TOS violation for the nude photos should cause the entire account to be taken down. If you can prove you took the photos, you might also be able to argue from the perspective of the content creator that the account is publishing your stuff without permission, but if Twitter enforces their TOS you shouldn’t have to. – ColleenV Jul 21 '21 at 13:22

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 19 '21 at 13:26

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Somewhat analogous to Dale M's answer regarding California: if you live in the EU, the GDPR and its executing national data protection agencies are another, probably more fruitful, since this piece of legislation not only gives you a right to have that data of yours deleted, but also provides a third party ombudsman who should help you in case that the platform (here Twitter) fails to comply with your request. The part about identity verification is quite vague as well in there, but the fact that you - with the help of a dedicated agency - are going against Twitter now (instead of you vs twitter alone), may be of some help. Because now you don't need to convince some Twitter-AI-Bot that it's you or some poor 1st level support with a script, but an independent person whose sole job is to help you

answered Jul 19 '21 at 13:26

Hobbamok

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GDPR will not help here because only the Data Subject has a right to erasure. But how can OP prove that they are the Data Subject of the Twitter account? OP cannot provide any proof of identity, and fails to provide the common proofs (login credentials, email address, phone number). As long as Twitter's policies are reasonable, no data protection agency will force them to hand over the account based on less-direct evidence like tattoos. – amon Jul 19 '21 at 13:36
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@amon that doesn't seem logical: the data subject is the subject in the images, not necessarily their owner. That's the whole point of GDPR, it lets you protect your data even when they are in the hands of someone else. In fact, most specifically when they are in the hands of someone else. So if you can prove you are the subject in the photos (which you can only prove by showing up, really, the fact that you have or don't have the login credentials to the account is irrelevant, the point for GDPR is that you are in the photos, not that you uploaded them originally), it should be enough. – terdon Jul 19 '21 at 14:07
@terdon I don't necessarily disagree, but we are addressing different problems (deleting the account vs deleting images posted by the account). GDPR tries to ensure a high level of data protection, but also the free movement to data. Rights and responsibilities are balanced, a data controller doesn't have to do anything a data subject wants. – amon Jul 19 '21 at 16:39
@amon you missed my point no matter what. A) the data controller absolutely has to do anything the data subject wants if that want is within their rights. and B) my point was that the GDPR allows for a third party to act on behalf of the subject in problematic cases, which is exactly what OP is experiencing. Also the GDPR takes deleting those pics from something Twitter could do out of nicety to something they will be punished for failing to comply – Hobbamok Jul 20 '21 at 11:21

I need my twitter deleted

3 Answers3