Explainer: Why an account may disappear from X

The official handle (@officialEFFC) of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently disappeared from X formerly known as Twitter.

The message “This account doesn’t exist” popped up when searching on the microblogging app. The reason for this primarily was yet to be ascertained by the agency.

However, Dele Oyewale, the EFCC spokesperson, had earlier disclosed that “It is just a network issue. Our IT people are attending to it and it will be back up soon.”

Recall that the handle of SB Nation, a sports blog faded from X last year.

However, X disclosed to the sports platform that “there was a bug” and “that the team is working through to reinstate the account.” The handle, however, returned a week later.

While the reason for the account disappearance of the EFCC is not yet known, there are various reasons the account might cease to exist on the X platform besides being hacked.

One of the reasons for this could be a violation of X rules many times or continuously.

“We take action at the account level if we determine that a person has violated the rules in a particularly egregious way, or has repeatedly violated them even after receiving notifications from us,” the social media platform disclosed.

Another reason for the disappearance of an account could be a failure and X handle to verify their ownership.

According to X, to ensure that violators do not abuse the anonymity it offers and harass others on the platform, the account owner may be required to verify ownership with a phone number or email address.

“This also helps us identify violators who are operating multiple accounts for abusive purposes and take action on such accounts. Note that when an account has been locked pending completion of a challenge (such as being required to provide a phone number), it is removed from follower counts, Reposts, and likes until a phone number is provided,” it added.
Also, a permanent suspension by X on account results in the non-existence of such a handle on the platform.

Permanent suspension is X’s most severe enforcement action as this would lead to permanently suspending an account and it will remove it from view.

Violators will not be allowed to create new accounts.

“When we permanently suspend an account, we notify people that they have been suspended for abuse violations, and explain which policy or policies they have violated and which content was in violation.”

However, violators can appeal permanent suspensions if they believe we made an error, X added.

“They can do this through the platform interface or by filing a report. Upon appeal, if we find that a suspension is valid, we respond to the appeal with information on the policy that the account has violated,” it said.

Owners of an account may also delete/deactivate their handle at any time.

“When an account owner deactivates their account, the page will be rendered as unavailable,” X added.