Updated: July 3, 2020

Disclaimer: I am not associated with Twitter in any way, shape, or form. I do not work for Twitter and I do not know anyone that works for Twitter. I only speak from personal experience and what I gathered from other users, mainly on Reddit.

If you are reading this article, chances are, Twitter suspended your account (in 2020) and you are looking for answers. I have also been suspended on Twitter recently (April 9, 2020) and I have been talking to others who have also been suspended for the past four days in hopes of getting some answers. I will share what I have learned with you and what is recommended for you to do after your suspension.

TL;DR and FAQ

• How long does it take for Twitter Support to get back to me?
  • There isn’t a set time anymore but it’s anywhere between one week and one month. It also depends on how severe your violation is. If it’s just a misunderstanding on their part, such as mistaking the Dutch word “die” for an English word and then suspending you for threatening someone, then your account should be reinstated very quickly. If it’s a vague reasoning, then it might take longer than half a year.
• I want Twitter to get back to me ASAP. What can I do?
  • I recommend submitting an appeal through the BBB. They seem to respond quicker there.
  • A friend also mentioned that they got their account back after being locked out by reporting their old account for impersonation. The Support behind the impersonation cases seem to be more human.
  • You can try and email Twitter employees but they don’t seem to do anything.
• I submitted an appeal but I didn’t get a confirmation email from Twitter. (NEW JULY 2020)
  • I encountered this problem as well. I submitted a new ticket at around nine in the morning my time and I only got an email confirmation at almost four in the afternoon. You just need to wait.
• I want to get back on Twitter now. What should I do?
  • Consult this article I wrote for more details on how to evade suspension.
  • Use a VPN if you want to use Twitter. This is to make sure they don’t clock you for suspension evasion and suspend you on your new account, and reject any future appeals for your original account for “evasion of permanent suspension.”
• Twitter locked me out asking me for a phone number. I don’t have one/want to give it to them. What should I do?
  • If you have a US number, you can use Google Voice to generate a phone number that can receive calls.
  • If you don’t have a US number, you can buy a pay-as-you-go phone number for cheap at any convenience store and use that to confirm your account.
  • If you don’t want to do either of these things, you can search online for disposable phone numbers and confirm your account that way, but I do not recommend this as this doesn’t seem to work. None of the numbers seem to be “supported” by Twitter.
• I’m not very liquid right now. What VPNs are cheap or free?
  • Free VPNs are generally bad news. A lot of them are owned by China. In general, you should be wary of free VPNs. However, I do understand that not a lot of people are able to afford it, so I recommend TunnelBear or the free version of ProtonVPN. On mobile, I recommend Psiphon.
  • If you can afford it, you can try the paid plan of ProtonVPN, or you can use NordVPN (which I am currently using).
  • Note: Psiphon is listed in the investigation on free VPN services. They are based in Canada and they do collect data on how their service is used, but they claim that the data is anonymous as they do not know your IP address. Here is what the site concludes on the review: “Nevertheless we do give credit for transparency here as it allows users to decide whether they are happy with this aggregated data collection in return for a free product.”

What to do when Twitter suspends your account:

Twitter Suspended My Account For __ Hours/Days!

If you logged into your account and a white, pop-up window shows up saying that your account is suspended for whatever reason, and a countdown timer is displayed underneath the text, you don’t need to do anything. All you need to do is to wait out your suspension period and then you’ll be allowed to use your Twitter again.

I do not recommend submitting a ticket to appeal this kind of suspension, as the waiting time for Twitter to get back to you is potentially longer than your actual suspension time. At least with this kind of suspension, there’s a guarantee that your account will be restored after the timer runs out. You shouldn’t risk anything just to get your next Twitter fix.

An important thing to note: DO NOT make a new account after you find out an account of yours is suspended. Twitter can perma-suspend you for suspension evasion and/or “managing multiple accounts for abusive purposes.”

Twitter Has Permanently Suspended My Account!

If you logged into your account and you receive a pop-up notification that says, “Your account (@handle) is currently suspended,” that means your account has been permanently suspended. Once you see this, head over to Twitter on its web client and log into the account that has been suspended. Then, go to this page and file an appeal.

For the “description of problem” box, I suggest that you write that you have logged in and noticed your account has been permanently suspended with no warning and/or reason. You should also mention that you have not violated any Twitter Rules or their Terms of Service (if you really didn’t).

Of course, this is only if you didn’t actually violate any rules. Twitter should have sent you an email that addresses the reason behind your suspension but if you’re in the same lane as me, you haven’t received any email, not even in your spam folder.

Twitter should send you an automated email reply after you submit your ticket and all you need to do is reply to that email. After that, it’s just a waiting game.

For reasons that I am assuming is related to the COVID-19 outbreak and the current American protests, Twitter will take up to a month to get back to your appeal. If you file multiple tickets, they will just get added to your original, open ticket (should you have one).

There are many, varying reports of when Twitter will get back to you, spanning from fifteen minutes to one year, so my advice to you is to be patient. It sucks to be cut off so suddenly and randomly, I know, but there’s nothing you can do until Twitter gets back to you.

April 17 2020 Update: Reddit user GamingTheSystem2016 has provided a way to contact Twitter employees directly. They have supplied two emails of two employees, Leslie Berland (LBerland@twitter.com) and Shadi Rezvan (Srezvan@twitter.com). They have claimed that Ms. Rezvan has helped them recover one account before.

After their advice, I emailed Ms. Berland and got Twitter Support’s reply within two hours.

Reddit user MrSpecialist94 has gotten their account back on April 27th after emailing Twitter employees.

May 4 2020 Update: According to two Reddit users’ comments, someone has gotten their account back by aggressively sending appeals to Twitter.

According to two separate people, someone was repeatedly denied and was even told to stop sending appeals as they won’t be monitored, but they kept appealing which eventually led to Twitter reinstating their account, stating that their account was “suspended in error.”

Although there is a long wait between appeals now, I am willing to try this method out. I suppose this is the most surefire way to get your account back.

June 10 2020 Update: Numerous Reddit users have managed to get their account back after complaining through the BBB (Better Business Bureau). Notably, Reddit user amoya9 has claimed this.

Although it’s a long shot, it doesn’t hurt to submit a complaint to the BBB. The BBB does not restrict submission based on your location. I live outside of the United States and I still managed to submit a complaint through them.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT OPEN A NEW ACCOUNT BEFORE TWITTER GETS BACK TO YOU. Twitter will be on to you almost immediately if you do and your account will be locked. If you put in your phone number, and that phone number is associated with the account that is suspended, your account will immediately be suspended for suspension evasion. You might also trigger Twitter to deny your suspension appeal for “managing multiple accounts for abusive purposes” even if that is not the case.

If you have already done this, there is nothing I have gathered that can help you other than continuing to submit appeals to clarify the nature of your situation.

That is all that I have learned these past few days. I will keep updating this article as I learn more. If you know anything more, do let me know in the comments.

A little about my suspension, for your information:

My account was suspended while I was using it. Exactly a week before my suspension, my account was locked (while I was using it) and I needed my phone number to unlock it. This happened to all of the accounts that I owned. I only unlocked five of them as I only cared for those. Then, on April 9th, all of my accounts were suspended with no given reason.

I have received a reply from Twitter Support on April 17th and they have banned me for the following reason: “Artificially amplifying or disrupting conversations through the use of multiple accounts.” I have sent another appeal, which they have rejected. As of July 3rd, 2020, I am now on my sixth appeal.

I have complained to them through the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and I received a reply back on April 20, 2020. It read, “We’re writing to let you know that your account has been suspended due to multiple or repeat violations of our rules. Please do not reply to this email, or send us new appeals for this account as we won’t monitor them.” I rejected the response and April 28 Twitter responded with, “Following your appeal, we have double checked the account. Unfortunately, your account has been suspended due to multiple or repeat violations of our rules. Please do not reply to this email, or send us new appeals for this account as we won’t monitor them.” The BBB then closed my complaint and I have since submitted another complaint through them.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.