I have tried everything, they lock out accounts within seconds. When they give the option to authenticate you are human after signing in, i pass it, but i get the “something is wrong screen”. all the time. I also want to know if it is possible to avoid completely giving them your phone number? and have the account not get locked. Their filters are some of the worst i have seen and their authentication screen takes forever. Musk is anti-privacy i feel.
My experience, Twitter has become increasingly hostile to VPNs to people who care about privacy, user VPNs, or frontends, or browse without an account, since selfless-freedom-fighter, and free-speech-absolutist Musk took over. And there Captcha’s have become absolutely draconian (the final straw for me was a 20 page captcha) It used to be easy to signup semi-anonymously, to browse without an account, or to use a frontend.
I don’t have twitter specific recommendations, as I just decided to add twitter to my DNS blocklist instead of trying to put up with a shittier and shittier experience. In terms of general recommendations, when trying to sign up for services that make it hard to sign up without divulging PII or jumping through hoops, some of the strategies that sometimes work for me are:
- Don’t use a VPN or Tor to signup (or for your first few logins) – go to a cafe, library, etc, to shield your true IP (if your threat model is extremely high, this strategy may not be safe)
- Use a browser without strong anti-fingerprinting protections or super locked down privacy settings to signup.
- Sometimes I get the impression, signups with a mobile device are treated with less skepticism, but this could be placebo effect.
- If you are able to signup, think about what an average user would typically do after signup, then try to do these things for at least a few minutes. On twitter that might involve, populating your profile with some basic info, follow a few accounts, Probably don’t post anything yourself as that could trigger some automated anti-spam stuff.
- Enable 2fa.
- Return to the same Cafe/Library/etc a couple times, and repeat the step of doing normal-ish things, in a mainstream non-hardened browser.
- Once your account has aged somewhat and become established (a week? a month?), you can slowly start, moving to your desired setup. And hope for the best. I’d probably use a VPN server geographically close to my actual location at first.
The above may or may not work, but I think it does at least decrease the likelihood of triggering automated anti-spam/anti-abuse systems, or requiring additional verification of PII/etc.
3 Likes
When signing up for Twitter, they are hostile towards desktop browsers and VPNs because they seem to want to use their proprietary mobile app to obtain their users’ MAC address, their real IP, and their phone number. If Musk is so concerned about privacy, then why would he want such data and call anyone who does not provide such data guilty of suspicious activity? TF? Why is being anonymous or close to it considered suspicious activity without even having posted or commented on anything?
I guess they run a signup IP against a blacklist of VPN IPs, and the spam filter locks out any account using a VPN to sign up. Which means it may still be possible to sign up depending on what IP address is not on their blacklists.
VPN providers need to change their IP addresses more frequently because many of them are getting blacklisted.
It also seems impossible to upload a profile picture if you wipe the metadata from the image and are using a hardened browser or even a relaxed one. Musk’s concerns about privacy are clearly a joke.
All these social media sites are becoming more and more hostile toward desktop users and want everyone to use phones so they can collect more information. Twitter and X will be requiring passport photos soon enough for a sign-up process the way they are heading.
It’s getting worse and worse, today they want phone numbers, tomorrow they want passport photos. In the future, they will require your DNA to log in. 
I am seriously suspicious of Musk and his concerns about privacy. I am convinced that he seeks to erode privacy on X (formerly known as Twitter) for AI purposes. Those authentication verifications feel like you are helping to train Musk’s AI models. That’s the feeling i got.
It would intrigue me greatly, though, if anyone could get past their spam filters with a hardened desktop Firefox and a VPN just for giggles. For me, it was impossible. It should be a persons right to use those methods to sign up for a website.
2 Likes
If Musk is so concerned about privacy, then…
Just to be crystal clear and avoid misunderstanding, when I wrote:
selfless-freedom-fighter, and free-speech-absolutist Musk
it was intended to be read as heavy sarcasm
I think its quite clear he has zero interest in either privacy or free expression as principles or ideals. He cares about his own right to free expression and privacy, and that’s as far as it goes.
If you look at his actions and track record, he is eager to violate the privacy of other people, and suppress the free expression of other people, including journalists.
3 Likes
I agree with you. Musk wants to violate the privacy of other people by making it extremely difficult to sign up for what he calls “X” with just a basic, hardened browser and a VPN. So the next time we hear him talk about how he respects privacy, we should just see him for what he is: a person who speaks falsely.
2 Likes
When did Twitter get a new name? Thanks for letting all of us know about this breaking news.
I don’t care what they are called, but since Musk took over twitter, their PRIVACY gets an X, haha. They hate VPN’s.
1 Like
I heard X rebranded as Mastodon, and they suddenly revamped the plaform 
2 Likes