NewsFact or Fiction

Actions

Fact or Fiction: Did a bird conservation charity get blocked out of Twitter?

Posted at 7:37 PM, Jan 31, 2023
and last updated 2023-02-01 01:34:18-05

A story that caught our eye claims a bird conservation charity was recently locked out of its Twitter account for eight days after posting several tweets about a bird called the woodcock.

It's true.

The British Trust for Ornithology had its account frozen on Jan. 20 after posting tweets asking for volunteers to help find a male woodcock in the wild.

Woodcocks are a group of about a half dozen species of wading birds, but Twitter's algorithms likely misidentified the word as something pornographic.

The BTO appealed to Twitter and had its account restored on Jan. 28.