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Twitter Restores Philadelphia Nonprofit Mighty Writers' Account After Suspending It For Violating Age Policy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It turns out, social media protests sometimes do work. The Mighty Writers have been freed from Twitter jail.

The Philadelphia nonprofit organization had its Twitter account @MightyWriters restored Friday afternoon after the social media platform had suspended its for violating its age policy.

Simply put, Twitter believed the nonprofit was a 10-year-old child.

 

Mighty Writers executive director Tim Whitaker told CBS3 on Thursday the Twitter account was suspended three weeks ago after he attempted to update its profile to celebrate the nonprofit's 10th birthday.

When Whitaker updated the account, he received a message saying it had been suspended.

"I went to our profile and I said our birthday was coming up," Whitaker said, "and we were going to be 10. The second I saved it, they sent me an email with a form attached to it that said you have to be over 13 to run a Twitter program so we're shutting you down."

"Sometimes we act like 10 years olds," he added. "We started a little campaign saying 'Free Mighty Writers' and 'unlock us from your chains.' All that kind of stuff so we're trying to have fun with it. But at the same time, please open the damn thing."

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According to Whitaker, he filled out the form for the account to be reinstated and included a photograph of his ID to prove his age.

Three weeks went by without any response.

On Thursday, CBS3 reported on the suspension. Apparently that – and the hashtag #FreeMightyWriters – was enough to get the Mighty Writers' ban lifted.

Twitter told CBS3 on Friday the process to reinstate a suspended account takes approximately 24 hours.

The Mighty Writers is a local nonprofit that's focused on teaching children to write.

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