Bird charity banned from Twitter for repeatedly posting woodcock photos

01 February 2023 , 09:14

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The woodcock got the British Trust for Ornithology into trouble on Twitter (Image: Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

You wouldn't think that a bird charity would get banned from Twitter for tweeting about birds but in a bizarre algorithm fail, the social media platform removed access for The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

The charity lost the ability to tweet, like tweets, or log in at all during the Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual birdwatching event in connection with the BBC's Winterwatch.

Baffled, the BTO believe it was their innocent tweets about the woodcock species of bird that flagged the account but Twitter have not confirmed or denied this blunder, although Elon Musk has tweeted his thoughts on the matter.

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BTO tweeted asking people to look out for the woodcock (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The problems began when the BTO was asked to complete an age verification test on January 20, the day after sending a tweet which read: "Join the search for UK breeding Woodcock! We need volunteers to count displaying male Woodcock in set woodland sites to improve our understanding of their declines & inform future conservation work."

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Tom Stewart, Media Manager at BTO, said: "Twitter is our most important social media channel for engaging with our supporters We don’t know exactly what happened but we did do a lot of Tweets about a bird called a woodcock.

"After the age verification prompt, we were locked out for eight days and it was impossible to get hold of anyone from Twitter."

They quickly ran into problems trying to get a response from the social media platform, as Tom claimed: "Even from their press office. Half the people on LinkedIn who state they're employees for Twitter don't work there anymore.

"Maybe the Twitter algorithm interprets the word 'woodcock' differently. But we're a big charity and rely on Twitter to raise awareness and speak with people."

While the charity did not manage to get any answers from Twitter, they suspect the age verification mismatched with Twitter's policy on age. The ban has now been lifted as of January 29 and the account triumphantly tweeted to say they were back and "very happy".

Their ban was extra frustrating as it happened right at peak time for the charity as Winterwatch tends to boost activity among their 116.1K followers.

Twitter has not responded to The Mirror's request for comment but owner Elon Musk caught wind of the blunder and tweeted: "Most ironic thing I've read in a while. How much wood could a woodcock …"

Tom added: "Obviously we're relieved to be able to tweet again. But we're conscious of the irony of a bird charity being locked out of Twitter."

Danni Scott