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Comment by gogopuppygogo | Hacker News Reader

I tried to create a throwaway account and comment on a Reddit thread yesterday. It was denied due to lack of karma.

A few weeks ago I tried to create a throwaway on Reddit to create a new post but the post was immediately removed due to lack of karma.

Twitter now requires I provide a cell phone number to create an account. It throws up on me by suspending my account if a new account is unused for a few days. Requires I prove I’m not a bot to unsuspend it.

Facebook basically requires that I provide a birth certificate to sign up.

If you want to spread misinformation you basically need to be on an alternative platform but it’s also helpful for people like me who don’t want to give up my privacy to a social media company.

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The Reddit and Twitter controls, at least, are attempts to stem the tide of bots and spam. They’re trying to keep the quality of discussion higher on their platform, and I appreciate that as a user. I think the controls are reasonable.

Facebook is creepy as fuck though. Recently I was logging on from a new location, and haven’t given them my phone number for 2FA. The only option they provided was for me to send in photos of my DRIVER’S LICENSE - are you kidding me?

I think you can trigger that on any account that hasn't bit the bullet and send in copies of their identification papers by telling Facebook the user is using a fake name. I am surprised no national government has stepped to tell Facebook to desist.

Yikes, that seems like a massive privacy issue.

I've deleted my Facebook account early last year. Then some service I wanted to experiment released with only Facebook login support. Facebook won't let me re-enable my account regardless of what I do or information I send. Creating a new account is also impossible since the number was assigned to that account. I've basically gave up because this is worse than a bank KYC and Facebook itself isn't worth it.

My 11 year old, never posted, seldom used twitter account was suspended last month unless and until I provide my telephone number

I suspect they do this to stem the use of abandoned accounts by bad actors. Emphasis on "suspect" because I don't have a Twitter account or look at tweets unless someone else links to them, and then invariably I still can't see them because I get an error message.

If you are using FF it's a known issue. You just have to clear your cache with `Shift+Ctrl+R`

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