Ukraine war: Twitter shares a list of to-dos to control tweets in conflict zones

In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine and Ukraine’s government websites being hit by cyberattacks and destructive malware, Twitter has shared a whole list of things one can do to protect their accounts and tweets while using the platform from a conflict zone.

Shared from the Twitter Safety handle, the whole thread of tweets includes guides to help people take immediate action if necessary, particularly in situations if they have been hacked or locked out of their accounts.

Twitter also shared all the same tweets in Ukrainian as well as in English, starting by saying - “When using Twitter in conflict zones or other high-risk areas, it’s important to be aware of how to control your account and digital information. Every situation is different, so here are some things to consider…”.

The first two tweets urge users to create a strong password and set up two-factor authentication by adding email and phone number as requirements while setting up password requests, and also to find out if your account has been compromised.

Twitter also added that if anyone feels that they must delete their account, deactivating it would be step one. This will hide one’s username, profile, and tweets from everyone else unless reactivated within 30 days.

The platform also asked users to check if their tweets are public or protected and then adjust profile settings accordingly. Public tweets can be viewed, and responded to, by all Twitter users even if they do not follow you, protected tweets can be viewed and responded to by only your followers. Also, protecting your tweets will not remove old followers, and you might have to cull that list manually.

By any chance, if your Twitter account has been compromised but you can still log in, Twitter shared a guide on how to secure your account. It also shared a guide on how to get your account back in case it has been hacked and you no longer have access to it.

In a situation where a user finds themselves locked out of their account, or if they find certain account features have been limited, Twitter has added a guide to understand what that means and how to restore things to normal.

Twitter also added some recommendations regarding locations and tags and pointed out that just as one would not want to tweet their home address, in this current situation one might also not want their tweeting location to be seen by others.

The platform shared a guide on how to disable location tags from older tweets and also at the device level. Additionally, it added that deleting location tags from tweets on the platform may not necessarily remove these geotags from other third-party apps and external search results.