Astronomer Mary McIntyre, from Oxfordshire in southern England, posted video of a phenomenon in the night sky in mid-August. This shows the ionization track of a Perseid meteor. “Epic,” says the scientist.
But Twitter temporarily blocked her profile for twelve hours because of this video. Reason for blocking: The content of the video is too “intimate”. She will not be able to access her account again until she deletes the video, the BBC reports. McIntyre didn’t, because in her opinion she hadn’t done anything bad and certainly hadn’t uploaded anything intimate.
McIntyre is a member of the British Astronomical Association, the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Society for the History of Astronomy. She explains that she teaches astronomy to many school children and that is why her profile is always checked anyway. She can’t understand the blockage: “It was just a meteor.”
No apologies from Twitter
Any complaints to the company did not help her. Twitter never got her back. Only when the BBC reported on the matter did the astronomer regain access to her Twitter account after three months.
Twitter has yet to comment on this, even when the BBC and the Guardian reported to the company. However, it is unclear whether any employees are currently answering press questions since Elon Musk (51) took over Twitter. But one thing is clear: they were probably already in trouble before the takeover. (lrc)