Twitter announced that it's banning those users who have previously tried to evade account suspension.
The accounts in question are those Twitter users who have been suspended from the platform for their abusive behavior, or have tried to evade prior suspensions. These people have evaded Twitter's ban hammer by setting up other accounts to continue their deeds.
Twitter said that is has identified those who are “attempting to Tweet following an account suspension.” and started removing those users in a ban wave that continues for at least two weeks.
But still, like its previous moves, Twitter's announcement is not transparent.
The company has declined to give more information, like for example, regarding how it was able to identify the same persons had returned to Twitter, how many users are affected by this ban, or what impact this would give to Twitter's stagnant user numbers.
We will continue this work in the coming weeks as we identify others who are attempting to Tweet following an account suspension. If you believe your account has been suspended in error, please let us know.https://t.co/RUWvNoQt2G
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 14, 2018
As one of the most influential platform on the web, Twitter has been aggressive in suspending accounts, as part of its effort to stop the flow of misinformation, fake news and hoaxes, as well as people's abusive behaviors.
After admitting of its toxic environment, the social media has suspended as many as 70 million accounts between the May and June, and was continuing that effort in July at the same rapid pace.
Twitter said that the removal of these accounts didn’t affect the company's user metrics. But still, Twitter's user base is shrinking. In the second-quarter of 2018, the social media lost a million monthly active users (from an overall of about 335 million users).
Twitter concluded that its difficulties in getting more users are tied to its inability to stop abuses and hoaxes on its platform.
Twitter has also been criticized for the way it chooses who to suspend. Twitter has become one of the very few remaining major platforms that isn't furious about conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Read: Apple, Facebook, YouTube And Spotify Ban Alex Jones
The problem for Twitter is that banned users can simply create new accounts by using a different email addresses. Despite starting from zero followers, they can continue their malicious deeds fast and easy. In the past, Twitter used information like phone number, email address and IP address to identify users.
And for this ban strategy, Twitter doesn't change how it implements its rules. Instead, it's showing how it enforces the bans that it enacted.
Twitter is said to use an acquired technology from anti-abuse company Smyte. At the time of the deal, Twitter praised Smyte’s proactive anti-abuse systems, and said it would soon put its technology to work.
Because Twitter relies on technologies and algorithms to ban users, the system may pick up some false positive. This is why Twitter noted that some users could be banned in error in the process.
"This is a step we’re taking to further refine our work and close existing gaps we identified," a Twitter spokesperson said. "This is specifically targeting those previously suspended for abusive behavior. Nothing to share on amount of accounts impacted since this work will remain ongoing, not just today."