Twitter suspends users for tweeting ‘Memphis’

In one of the strangest bugs to hit the social media site, Twitter suspended accounts who tweet the word ‘Memphis’.

The bug was first reported on 14 March by users who had had their accounts suspended. The users were told their tweets violated the site’s rules.

Twitter has since reinstated the suspended accounts and apologised, but did not explain what the problem was.

Memphis is a bad word?

Memphis is a city in the US state of Tennessee. It is famous for being the birthplace of Elvis Presley.

Twitter users who posted the word were slapped with 12-hour bans for violating Twitter’s rules. Specifically, rules regarding the posting of private information.

The users could browse Twitter and send Direct Messages, but could not tweet, like, follow, and retweet other tweets.

The Independent reported users first noticed the problem when they tried to share pictures of Dutch footballer Memphis Depay.

This then got the attention of French football club Olympique Lyonnais, who tweeted:

Hey, @Twitter – can we talk about him yet? 😄 pic.twitter.com/nVn3nY9zBb

— Olympique Lyonnais 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@OL_English) March 14, 2021

And footballers weren’t the only athletes affected.

The Memphis Grizzlies, an NBA team based in the city in question, took a shot at Twitter bots trying to flood their replies with the word:

when bots flood our comments with "say the m word" pic.twitter.com/X1qgsIRmm9

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) March 14, 2021

On 15 March, Twitter issued a statement on its support account:

A number of accounts that Tweeted the word “Memphis” were temporarily limited due to a bug. It’s been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. We’re sorry this happened.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 14, 2021

Twitter didn’t explain further what caused the bug.

Feature image: Unsplash/Sara Kurfeß

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