We’ve all been there before: you notice that something is a little…different…about your Twitter timeline. You shrug it off as you keep scrolling, but that nagging feeling still won’t leave you behind. You try to put your finger on it, but it’s just at the tip of your brain, just slightly out of reach. But then it hits you:
Someone blocked you on Twitter! (Insert ominous music here)
Who Blocked Me on Twitter?!
Unfortunately, it happens to the best of us, no matter how hilarious our tweets are. And unfortunate still, Twitter won’t actually let you know who blocked you from their profile.
Sure, it’s their loss, but at the same time, it is pretty bad Twitter etiquette, and by gosh you want to tell that rude blocker off if you ever find a way to reach them again over social media. Because when you get blocked on Twitter, you won’t be able to see your blockers tweets, replies, retweets, likes, heck, even their profile will become a mystery to you. What are they saying behind your back? You’ll never know.
So how do you know who blocked you on Twitter? Well, fire up Twitter and go to the search bar. Look for the person you suspect of blocking you. If they didn’t block you and they just simply deleted their profile, your search will yield no results.
But if they did block you, clicking on their profile is going to show the “You have been blocked” message. So not cool.
But What About Mutes? Who Muted Me On Twitter?
Muting is a way to silence people you dislike on Twitter without going through all the drama of blocking. It’s basically the coward’s way out, but whatever.
Basically, muting stops Twitter from showing a specific person’s tweets, likes, retweets, and replies from your timeline but without actually cutting them off from your own. They’ll still see your tweets and other activities, they can reply and interact with you, but you just won’t see theirs. And just like blocking, you don’t get notified if someone muted you, and vice-versa.
So is there a way to figure out who muted you on Twitter? Short answer, no, there’s no way to tell, other than a gross change in how specific people interact with you online.
But there’s always a way.
Using a third-party app like TweetDeck, you actually can see who muted you on Twitter. That’s right, now you can find and root out all your fake friends and see which of those backstabbing hellions had the sheer audacity to mute you and your pun tweets!
To find out:
- Open your TweetDeck app.
- Create a “Home” column on the main page
- Add your suspects in that column
- Add another column as well and a couple of trusted profiles so you have a ‘control’ to compare with
- Post a tweet and check the column again
- If you’ve been muted, your tweets aren’t going to appear in the Home column, and you’ll have your rogues gallery of fakers
This TweetDeck function allows you to see where your tweets show up. This wasn’t the intended purpose of this function (it’s supposed to tell brands exactly how far their tweets have reached), but hey, when there’s a will, there’s a way, and I found a way to find out that you muted me, Karen, how dare you.
But What if I’m Looking for a Tweet and it says “Tweet Is Unavailable”?
Ok so, for this one, you don’t actually have to worry too much. Seeing the “Tweet is Unavailable” message can mean a variety of things, none of which point to being muted or blocked by the person in question.
In general, seeing the “Tweet is Unavailable” message can mean the tweet has been deleted, or the tweet is protected. Protected tweets usually come from private profiles, so if you weren’t following this person before and they switch to a protected profile, you won’t be able to see their tweets until you request to follow them and they accept.
Another reason you see the “Tweet is Unavailable” message is that you might have muted keywords or phrases that the tweet has. This can happen if you’re fond of banning certain words from your Twitter feed, and if someone inadvertently adds those words to their tweet, the error message will show up.
Or, alternatively, maybe they just deleted the tweet. Either way, if you see this message, relax: no one’s blocked you.
Not yet, anyway.
But What if it Says that “Tweets aren’t Loading”?
This literally means the tweets aren’t loading. Don’t worry, it has nothing to do about you (surprising, I know!), and it has everything to do with either your internet connection or Twitter’s own servers.
Check your internet connection to see if you’re connected and not lagging. If you are and your signal is good, then that means something is wrong with Twitter. Conversely, if you check your internet and it is laggy/has a bad signal, then Twitter is fine, your internet just needs tuning up.
So calm your chest; no one’s blocked you here either.
So What Do I Do If Someone Blocks Me On Twitter?
Honestly? Just live your life. Why is this person’s approval so important to you? If someone blocks you, don’t worry too much: that just means that what you’re saying is probably so profoundly true that they’re just bothered somebody has the guts to say it out loud. Good for you!
Of course, if a whole bunch of people started blocking you, then yeah maybe you need to adjust your behavior and your tweets. Maybe, just maybe, you’re really annoying and people are getting fed up. Hey, it happens, and everyone’s allowed to adjust their behavior and change for the better.
Or, your followers who blocked you are cowards who can’t handle how awesome you are online. I don’t know, choose the reason that helps you sleep at night.
