Bizarre Twitter issue suspends users for saying ‘Memphis’

Due to a weird bug, the bird site temporarily bans people from tweeting the word “Memphis.” Sunday a number of Twitter users suddenly found their accounts locked for 12 hours, apparently just for saying the word – including me.

What Twitter has against Tennessee’s second largest city is speculation. Maybe they just aren’t tall Elvis fans? Who knows.

Several users shared screenshots of the suspension alerts they received it on Sunday, claiming the word causing the problem was “Memphis.” Many discovered the bug after sharing a photo of Dutch professional footballer Memphis Depay, The independent reports. With apparent reference to this, the official English account of French football club Olympique Lyonnais tweeted a photo from Depay with the message “can we still talk about him?” and tagged Twitter. Tennessee-based basketball team the Memphis Grizzlies also appeared to be screaming the virus in a tweet referring to “the m word” Sunday.

One user shared an alleged screenshot of a response from Twitter support calling the problem “a bug in our system” with no further explanation, but it looks like the original tweet has been deleted because it doesn’t appear in responses from Twitter support.

“This issue is now resolved and you can say ‘Memphis’ again. Sorry about that, ”the post read.

A Twitter spokesperson also provided Gizmodo with the following statement: “The mentioned issue was the result of a bug and has since been fixed.”

However, if this is true, it does not seem to be the case for everyone. Twitter wouldn’t let me come back to my account until I deleted my “Memphis” tweet and even then, several features are still limited. Trying to Tweet or retweet anything triggers an alert, pictured below, that my account will be mostly down for the next 12 hours. We reached out to Twitter for more details on this.

Not that I’m complaining, really. A 12 hour break from this hell feels like a vacation.

Whatever bug, it can only affect us proletarians without a blue tick, like Twitter does not seem to report my colleague’s verified tweets containing the word. Pictures or picture descriptions with the word “Memphis” also doesn’t seem to bring down Twitter’s ban hammer.

There is a certain irony in Twitter’s rapid crackdown on the word “Memphis” after years of struggling to moderate the widespread abuse and bigotry on its platform. But this is Twitter for you: an online haven for literally nazis but God forbid you tweet about the cradle of rock ‘n roll.