Our Journey Into Social Exile. X, Threads, Reddit and LinkedIn Ban - Negative Star Innovators Blog

In the span of 8 days, we were banned from X, Reddit and Threads. 12 Days later we were banned from Linkedin. All of these accounts are around one year old or older. Each platform has employed different methods of deception, misdirection and outright lying. We do not know with certainty why this happened. In this article, we will walk through the specific methods each platform used, the implications for users like us, the broader systemic picture, and how social media is actively shaping and constraining the way we think and behave. This is a long article thus a contents menu is available below.

How Threads Banned Us

Our account was first locked and we were shown this notification [1]: "Confirm you're human to use your account. You won't be able to use your account until you complete this. This is a precaution based on our Community Standards on account integrity, and our aim to help keep you and our community safe."

The wording seemed routine. A standard identity check to confirm our humanity and access would be restored and they even guaranteed it by stating "Confirm you're human to use your account" Simple enough. Except it was not.

The process required SMS verification. Our first attempts produced nothing, the codes never arrived. After several attempts, we received this [2]: "Too Many SMS Codes. You have requested too many SMS codes. You must wait 24 hours to receive another." What Threads does not make clear is that the 24-hour timer resets from your last attempt, not your first. So when we tried again the following day, the timer had not expired. Thus we had to wait another 24 hours. So we waited 26 hours from our last attempt. Still the same message, even their 24 hour timer was not operating correctly. We eventually waited over 40 hours from our last attempt. This time we finally received a code.

We were then asked to submit a selfie. Since the stated purpose was simply to confirm we were human and it was only a "precaution", we provided one.

We then received this [3]: "You submitted an appeal on [date]. It usually takes us just over a day to review your information. Check back here. If we find your account doesn't follow our Community Standards, it will be permanently disabled and you won't be able to appeal again."

This was a significant shift in tone. The first notification stated they needed to verify we were human just as a precaution. This notification stated they were evaluating whether we had violated their Community Standards and informed us that the selfie we had just submitted was our formal appeal. No supporting evidence was requested from us. No statement, no context, no opportunity to explain anything. Our photo was the appeal. We were not told we were appealing anything when we submitted it.

The following day we received this [4]: "We disabled your account. We reviewed your account and found it still doesn't follow our Community Standards on account integrity. No one can see or find your account and you can't use it. All your information will be permanently deleted. You cannot request another review of this decision." We were additionally informed that this decision had been made automatically [5].

We then attempted to download our personal data. We used the exact same password we had used moments earlier to log in and view the ban notice. The system stated the password was incorrect [6]. That same password continued to work to log us in and display the notification but does not work to initiate a data download. We cannot determine with certainty whether this is a technical error or a deliberate obstruction of our right to access our own data.

Despite the explicit statement that no review was possible, we submitted a report via "Report a Problem" while signed out, and again through Instagram (Threads requires an Instagram account) while signed in, requesting both reinstatement and access to our personal data. We received no response to either. We note, however, that acknowledging our request to fix Thread's data download request would also require Threads acknowledging receipt of our appeals which Threads has chosen not to do.

The photo was not actually required to make the decision

If the decision to permanently ban our account was automated as Threads stated then why request a selfie at all? A selfie proves we are human. That is what they asked us to prove. If the selfie submission encountered a technical problem, they could have requested a second attempt, offered an alternative verification method, or asked for a government-issued ID. None of those things happened. This strongly suggests the issue was never about verifying our humanity.

The pattern instead resembles what is commonly described as a honeypot: offer the user a plausible path to reinstatement, obtain their biometric data under that framing, and then proceed with the permanent ban regardless. The logic is...