What's the best way to run an "anonymous" twitter account?

October 30, 2020 5:53 AM

I might want a new twitter account which is wholly separate from "main". Ideally I would like to use this to talk about things which I would not talk about on my main account. I want to find ways to ensure as limited crossover as possible (for obvious reasons).

This account doesn't need to be fully anonymous. I recognise that a committed actor could compromise my opsec should they be inclined to do so. I just want to have some measure of separation to avoid actively going on a wild rant under my own name, or to avoid my public facing (very broadly) professional self from liking tweets about dildoes or whatever.

posted by Just this guy, y'know to Technology (9 answers total)

I can't think of any way someone could conclusively link the two of the accounts, particularly if you turn off the "let people find my with my email address/phone number" (under Privacy and Safety > Discoverability and Contacts).
Other things to do:
- Try not to follow a lot of the same users with the two accounts so Twitter doesn't notice you have a lot of the same "friends" and then start suggesting followers of account 1 also follow account 2.
- Don't follow account 1 with account 2 and visa versa.

to avoid my public facing (very broadly) professional self from liking tweets about dildoes

For this, maybe use separate apps for each account instead of using the native Twitter account switching?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:05 AM on October 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

I used to run two separate twitter accounts, and while neither of them was embarrassing or required anonymity, for purely convenience reasons, I ran them in two separate web browsers. I was logged into one in Chrome and the other in Safari. It was a clear difference that made it easier not to mix them up.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:07 AM on October 30, 2020 [8 favorites]

This is actually extremely easy!

Set up an email account to use for this twitter (which won’t be publicly visible anyway.) Set a birthday that is not your actual birthday and a location that is not your actual location.

If you want to make it harder for yourself to accidentally tweet from the wrong account, keep the two accounts separated between browsers or devices. (ie, your alt account is only on your phone or tablet, or only in Chrome, etc.)

If you end up following/being followed by the same folks who are connected to your main account, twitter’s algorithm may eventually suggest one account to the followers of the other, but that’s the only real way that they will ever be connected.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 6:08 AM on October 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

In Chrome, you can use the Sessionbox extension to open tabs with different accounts. You can login to a website as different users in separate tabs.
posted by cowlick at 6:33 AM on October 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Twitter two-factor authentication allows for the use of a phone number, an app or a physical key. To keep things as separate as possible, use different methods for the two different accounts.

I don't think you need to be concerned about being followed by the same people on the two accounts, so long as you keep all identifying details out of the anonymous account and don't tell anyone else about it.
posted by ruddlehead at 6:37 AM on October 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

When setting up a separate email address for the account (which you should do) you can use Protonmail to avoid feeding your info into the Google behemoth. Very easy, very secure.
posted by mekily at 7:50 AM on October 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

In the past I’ve seen anonymous accounts linked to real people using a phone number - IIRC the Twitter password reset page can show you the last 2 digits of a user’s phone number.

Use different phone numbers, or don’t give Twitter a phone number at all.
posted by ripley_ at 7:58 AM on October 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

I have 2 twitter accounts with the intent of limiting crossover on my main account and you'll be less likely to make mistakes if you don't try to use the multi-account feature of the various twitter clients; use one device/browser/client for account A, and a different one for account B. If I'm able to, I also set the theme (e.g. light mode/dark mode) to be different for each account so it's glaringly obvious which one I'm logged-into.

If you use Firefox, the Multi-account Containers extension will likely help if you want to use the same browser for both accounts.
posted by Aleyn at 9:59 PM on October 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

I use tweetdeck to run multiple accounts, both personal, organisational, and tangential accounts I'd rather not have associated with any of these. I can use columns to keep things in separate tracks, and tweetdeck has the advantage that it actually shows tweets you request in chronological order, particularly if you make use of lists.

One thing I find helpful is to put a "require checking a box to tweet" option on my non-primary accounts. For the ones I want to keep separate, I often quickly click 'schedule tweet' and accept the defaults, which means there's a delay of half an hour before it goes out. That gives me time to reconsider or to just let it feel like an account run by someone on a different schedule to mine.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 5:37 AM on November 2, 2020