Devin Nunes Locked Out Of Twitter Account After Failing To Solve Anti-Spam Puzzle

Photo via @DevinCow/Twitter, @MichaelFBX/Twitter

February 10, 2021, 12:29 pm

Representative Devin Nunes of “super mad about cow parody account” fame was locked out of Twitter the other day, but not because he had been banned or hacked.

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Rather, Nunes got himself locked out after he failed to complete an anti-spam puzzle meant to stop bots from overwhelming the social media platform.

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“Our automated systems took enforcement action on the account in error and it has since been reversed,” a Twitter spokesperson explained to Business Insider. “The enforcement action was taken as a result of the account’s failure to complete an anti-spam challenge that we regularly deploy across the service.”

Rep. Devin Nunes was briefly locked out of his Twitter account Tuesday night after he failed to solve a simple puzzle designed to prove that he is a human being https://t.co/IPFqpFnKUB

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 10, 2021

It sure is nice of Twitter to try and take the blame here, but these anti-spam puzzles, known as reCAPTCHAs, are designed to be simple enough for any human to solve. They’re only meant to weed out bots not complex enough to recognize things like stop signs and crosswalks in a series of photos. You also have to fail multiple times in order to get your account suspended for it.

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For a few sweet hours on Tuesday night, people believed that Nunes had been officially banned from Twitter just for being himself, but his account was soon fully restored.

Goodbye Devin Nunes. Sweet sweet angel was finally suspended from Twitter.

— Brandon Bradford (@BrandonLBradfor) February 10, 2021

Rep. Nunes gained widespread Twitter infamy in 2019 when he sued the company for $250 million because they hosted clear parody accounts, one acting as his mom and another, his cow.

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The suit was thrown out due in large part to that Section 230 law that shields social media sites from liability over what individuals post on their platforms. And also because parody is protected under the whole “freedom of speech” thing.

After being resoundingly mocked for that whole debacle, Nunes would be wise to avoid mishaps related to his use of Twitter. Although Insider noted that it was unclear whether it was Nunes himself or a staffer who so badly failed the reCAPTCHA puzzle, and his office has not responded to a request for comments, for humor’s sake, people are widely assuming it was the congressman’s fault.

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What is:
Love thy master
Freedom of sneaking around

— Office of the Former Eli Szus (@eliszus) February 10, 2021

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*First Published: February 10, 2021, 12:29 pm