October was a stressful month for me, social media-wise at least.
It started much the same as any month, sharing my photos on Twitter, promoting my bird products, running an art competition to win a signed copy of my '100 Birds' book etc etc, when all of a sudden, late one night whilst I relaxed in the bath, I was restricted on my Twitter account!
No big problem I thought, I could either put up with the restriction for a few days, or take the option to prove the account was mine via a phone call from Twitter to my mobile phone, which would immediately lift the restriction. I obviously took the latter option, but was soon to regret it!
I kept requesting the phone call when prompted by Twitter, but the call never came. Eventually I had a message saying I'd requested a call too many times and I was now locked out of my account completely! Clicking on my nature account via my football one, I could see that it was flagged with a big warning sign saying 'Restricted due to suspicious activity'! I was distraught, and sent an email to 'Twitter Support'. I just got an automated reply that didn't offer any help in getting my account back.
The next day, I tried requesting a call back from Twitter again, but still no luck. Then I had the idea of starting a new account with my name, just so I could get the message out to my followers that I hadn't done anything wrong and that I was still here! I was really worried that all this was damaging my reputation.
Thanks to help from my mate Geoff Head and popular Twitter people like Brigit Strawbridge and Helen Dale, who all shared my message, many of my followers started finding my new account. Ultimately, I wanted my main account back, but days turned into weeks, and I still heard nothing back from Twitter!
After about 3 weeks, my nature account was suspended! I now didn't even have the option to request a call anymore. The account was showing no tweets, and that I was following nobody, and my followers were shrinking by 100+ a day. It had taken me 5 years to build a following 54,000, and
I had so many special interactions and tweets, and now they were all gone!
I tried to put on a brave face, and carried on tweeting my bird pictures on my new account, but one night I felt particularly depressed about what had happened and what I'd lost, and I lay in bed and composed a series of tweets in a thread, about how gutted I was, how my Twitter had helped me
with my mental health, how frustrating I'd found it that I couldn't even contact a real human being at Twitter to explain what had happened. At this stage I really thought I'd lost the account for good. I also felt guilty that I was feeling this way, when so many people were suffering worse in the current
times, with the Covid-19 pandemic causing misery all around the globe.
The next morning I saw that my thread had my followers flocking to help me, by tweeting Twitter Support about my plight in their hundreds! It was so wonderful and touching, I realised how lucky I was to have the most loyal and caring followers on Twitter. I doubted that their help would
make any difference though, Twitter is huge, and thousands of people have lost their accounts and never found out why.
However, that night I had an email from someone from Twitter HQ in Los Angeles! Finally a real person!! They explained that my account had been suspended by mistake and apologised. They reinstated my account, and to my relief, all my tweets were still there, and all the accounts I was
following had returned. What's more, they told me my bird photography was stunning, and that they had ordered my '100 Birds' book!
After a very upsetting October, I was so relieved to get my account back, and I put it all down to the incredible support of my amazing Twitter followers. It was their continuous tweets about reinstating my nature account that finally caught the attention of Twitter Support. Some had even
started the hashtag #FreeCarlBovis :D
2 nights later, things got even better. I was followed on Twitter by their official 'Verified' account, which I thought was strange. I was then messaged by a few people saying there was a 'blue tick' against my account name! I hadn't noticed, but my nature account had been made a 'Verified' account, which
basically means an account in the public eye is authentic, usually reserved for celebrities, politicians etc. I was over the moon! Such a quick turnaround, from being distraught about being suspended, to joy from being Verified!
If you'd like to order my book or 2021 calendars for Christmas please visit my shop HERE
Amidst all the stress, I did manage to take some bird pictures during October....here they are;
