This is a major corporation bullying ordinary people out of their usernames with Twitter as an accomplice, forcing them all to fight to recover what was theirs.

It’s the exact opposite of what is the right way to do this. If Twitter cannot afford the time to review user account complaints on a case-by-case basis, then they shouldn’t accept such complaints at all. Just taking companies like MTV at their word and doing a blanket list-based ban is hostile to their user base, essentially opening it up to capricious raping by third parties.

Twitter has handled this terribly, and considering the way they shot themselves in the foot with the whole Ariel Waldman fiasco, it’s obvious that the people at Twitter have no clue how to protect their users and shouldn’t be in the business they’re in. Other online entities get this right — it isn’t rocket science.

That doesn’t sound like the previously described situation (being informed that your username was changed). The email from Twitter makes it sound like people were ASKED to change usernames.