It appears Twitter has some beef with the birthplace of rock 'n' roll – the US city of Memphis – as social media users have been banned by the social network for writing, liking, or retweeting the word “Memphis”. Twitter imposed restrictions for 12 hours.
"You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission", read a screenshot of a warning posted by affected users.
I got bagged ffs😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/igB7LV64zU
— Goat's Burner (@Allen_FCB_03) March 14, 2021
The news prompted some netizens to joke that the "cancel culture" had reached its apogee.
— i am kusti (@ClonkaTron) March 14, 2021
French football club Olympique Lyonnais posted a photo showing its forward Memphis Depay asking Twitter whether it would allow people to talk about the athlete.
Hey, @Twitter - can we talk about him yet? 😄 pic.twitter.com/nVn3nY9zBb
— Olympique Lyonnais 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@OL_English) March 14, 2021
NBA team the Memphis Grizzlies joked that they would get rid of bots using the "m word".
when bots flood our comments with "say the m word" pic.twitter.com/X1qgsIRmm9
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) March 14, 2021
Twitter later issued a statement saying the suspension was the result of a bug in the system and apologised to those who were affected.
A number of accounts that Tweeted the word “Memphis” were temporarily limited due to a bug. It’s been fixed and the accounts have now been restored. We’re sorry this happened.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 14, 2021
