Twitter is quietly hiding accounts behind a warning page - users are baffled

'Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content'

The site was accused of “ghost-deleting” tweets last month, but Twitter denied the claim, saying it had instead mistakenly marked an update as spam (Twitter)

A number of Twitter users are reporting that the site has started hiding their accounts behind a warning message.

People visiting their pages are instead being shown a greyed-out version of their profile, with their pictures and tweets hidden from view.

A message in the middle of the screen reads, “Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content. You’re seeing this warning because they Tweet potentially sensitive images or language. Do you still want to view it?”

A “Yes, view profile” button sits below.

Many of the users affected by the barrier appear to be baffled as to why their profiles are being targeted by the site.

Furthermore, the warning doesn’t appear to be showing up consistently, with some users able to access the affected profiles without seeing the warning message.

Twitter has pointed us towards its latest update announcements, saying it does not “comment on individual accounts for privacy and safety”.

The micro-blogging site has introduced a number of new safety features over the past several weeks, including hiding potentially sensitive tweets and placing temporary usage limits on accounts.

“We’re working to identify accounts as they’re engaging in abusive behavior, even if this behavior hasn’t been reported to us,” Ed Ho, Twitter’s VP of engineering, wrote in a blog post earlier this month. “Then, we’re taking action by limiting certain account functionality for a set amount of time, such as allowing only their followers to see their Tweets.

“We aim to only act on accounts when we’re confident, based on our algorithms, that their behavior is abusive. Since these tools are new we will sometimes make mistakes, but know that we are actively working to improve and iterate on them everyday.”

The site was accused by a user of “ghost-deleting” tweets last month, but Twitter denied the claim, saying it had instead mistakenly marked the update as spam.