The Guy Who Shut Down Trump's Twitter Account Says it Was a Mistake Bahtiyar Duysak tells TechCrunch that he didn't mean to briefly shut down Trump's Twitter account on Nov. 2. 'I didn't do anything on purpose,' he says.
By Michael Kan
This story originally appeared on PCMag
The contractor who briefly shut down U.S. President Donald Trump's Twitter account is apparently a 20-something German man named Bahtiyar Duysak.
Duysak, who has Turkish roots, actually doesn't want your praise. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said the whole incident was a "mistake."
"If I was involved in this, I really apologize if I hurt anyone," he said. "I didn't do anything on purpose."
According to TechCrunch, Duysak worked in Twitter's Trust and Safety division, which receives alerts from users who report offensive or illegal tweets.
During his last day at Twitter, he encountered one such alert for a tweet from Trump's account. Duysak was under the impression that Trump's account would never get shut down; Twitter has policy that offensive tweets deemed "newsworthy" can remain on the site.
So in a "throwaway gesture, he put the wheels in motion to deactivate [Trump's account]," TechCrunch said. It wasn't until hours later he realized what he had done.
In the video interview, Duysak explained he was "tired sometimes" on the job, and that "everyone can do mistakes."
Duysak, who was working in the U.S. on a visa, is now back in Germany, and trying to avoid media attention. However, he decided to speak with TechCrunch to clear the air around the controversy and to dissuade journalists from hounding him.
Twitter declined to comment about Duysak and his media interview, but said: "We have taken a number of steps to keep an incident like this from happening again. In order to protect our internal security measures we don't have further details to share at this time."
Trump's Twitter account disappeared on Nov. 2 for a mere 11 minutes. On the internet, though, that's a lifetime. Many half-joked that the then-unknown employee was a hero. But Duysak doesn't see himself that way. "I just want to continue an ordinary life," he said. "I don't deserve to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize."
