Twitter problems: my innocuous tweets flagged as “sensitive”

June 9, 2017 • 8:30 am

I don’t know how this happened, but for many readers my tweets, most (but not all) of which are simply links to the posts here, are being flagged by Twitter as “sensitive material”. Reader Paul reported that he saw this with 24 of my last 50 tweets; here are a few examples.

There doesn’t seem to be any pattern of what is “sensitive” and what is not, and I have no idea what’s behind this. I’ve called this to Twitter’s attention on both their own Twitter feed and on their Facebook page. We’ll see what happens.

Even my innocuous tweet on the Canadian treat poutine was flagged! Here’s the “sensitive” content trigger warning and then what you see if you click “view”:

Is that “sensitive”? I think not!

SOLUTION: If you’re having this problem, it’s easy to fix by adjusting your Twitter settings. Paul said to do this:

The option to turn off the feature is in the menu obtained by clicking on your user icon in the top right corner of the page: select “Settings and privacy”, then “Privacy and safety”. JAC: Then uncheck the “hide sensitive content” box:

 

Paul sent me an example of the kind of content allowed on Twitter and then his response to the censoring of my poutine post:

23 thoughts on “Twitter problems: my innocuous tweets flagged as “sensitive””

  4. Here’s the pattern:

    Any post that has a photograph attached to it (not a Tweet or a Link) is tagged as potentially sensitive.

    A post that is text only is not tagged as potentially sensitive.

    1. Yes, that’s what I was going to say.

      I got rid of the sensitive warning years ago because of this problem. If genuinely sensitive stuff appears, I block the user and, if it’s not just me being prudish, I also report them.

  5. I think I’ve got this one: the Twitter algorithm confused “poutine” with putain, and assumed you were sampling a whole nother kinda Canadian delicacy.

    Just like Twitter not to know a bean curd from a hooker.

  6. My theory: You have taken a public position criticizing Islam. This has got you marked somehow, and that is at the root of it.

    The solution IMO is obvious. Abandon Twitter. It’s a sink-hole.

  8. Oh, absolutely, the poutine post is sensitive: eating poutine is cultural appropriation, it’s triggering to vegetarians, dieters, and celiac disease sufferers, the photo features only white males and no minorities, and the dish name sounds too much like “Putin” to further upset those angry about this whole Trump/Russia thing.
    That poutine post is definitely problematic.

  9. This seems to have started at about the time of ‘conceptual penis’ posts. Perhaps it is the word “penis” that triggered this?

        1. Is that a conceptual penis in your post, or are you just happy to see me? 🙂

  10. I only see the warnings when there is embedded media, a picture of a video clip. Otherwise its fine :s

  12. Eating with your mouth open is triggering.

    I think the largest number of complaints received for an advert was because it featured people taking with their mouth full.

  13. Readers’ Wildlife phótos!
    We are wild and uncontrollable atheist and to prove it here are the phótos… lots of animal acts too, jeeze it’s a wonder, they haven’t banned WEIT.

  14. Twitter has gone nuts. Cryptome.org has been banned. So has the (flakey but not really​harmful) WND ( apparently because they were making s fuss about the suspicious Seth Rich murder)

    They are now under threat from EU for any postings critical of Islam ( criticism of Christians or Israel is ok, though)

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