Twitter Unverifies Osinbajo’s Account, Deletes Over 2000 Tweets

Micro-blogging and social media platform, Twitter, has
unverified the official handle of Vice-President Prof Yemi
Osinbajo.

The Twitter handle of the Vice President was unverified amid
speculations that there was an attempt to hack the account on
Friday, August 9, 2019.

Over 2000 tweets, his profile picture and header image have also
been taken down.

The account, which the VP has been using since he was announced
as the running mate to Muhammadu Buhari in late 2014 now has no
history, tweets and photos.

The account is no longer showing up on Twitter query, but a
check on @profOsinbajo on Twitter still shows the VP’s 2.1 million
followers and the 51 people he followed on the platform.

Reacting to the issue, the Senior Special
Assistant-Media&Publicity to Vice President, Laolu Akande
Twitter was contacted following failed external attempts to gain
unauthorized access to the Vice President’s Twitter Account.

Yesterday, there were failed external
attempts to gain unauthorized access to the Vice President’s
Twitter Account. Since, we have been in contact with Twitter,
securing the account, and forestalling a reoccurrence. The VP will
continue to actively communicate with our citizens.

— Laolu Akande (@akandeoj) August
10, 2019^[1]

He said: “Yesterday, there were failed external attempts to gain
unauthorized access to the Vice President’s Twitter Account. Since,
we have been in contact with Twitter, securing the account, and
forestalling a reoccurrence. The VP will continue to actively
communicate with our citizens”.

However, Twitter is yet to speak on the matter.

WHY TWITTER SUSPENDS ACCOUNTS

According to Twitter, accounts can be suspended if they “violate
the Twitter
Rules^[2]“.

“Common reasons for suspension may include: Spam: Most of
the accounts we suspend are suspended because they are spammy, or
just plain fake, and they introduce security risks for Twitter and
all of our users. These types of accounts are against
our Twitter
Rules^[3].
Unfortunately, sometimes a real person’s account gets suspended by
mistake, and in those cases we’ll work with the person to make sure
the account is unsuspended.

“Account security at risk: If we suspect an account has been
hacked or compromised, we may suspend it until it can be secured
and restored to the account owner in order to reduce potentially
malicious activity caused by the compromise.

“Abusive Tweets or behavior: We may suspend an account if it has
been reported to us as violating our Rules surrounding abuse. When
an account engages in abusive behavior, like sending threats to
others or impersonating other accounts, we may suspend it
temporarily or, in some cases, permanently.”