Once or twice a week, I receive an email (usually from a man) inquiring as to why I have blocked him on Twitter. The answer is usually pretty simple: I don’t know.

I received a surge of incredibly creepy abuse on Twitter last year, led by people I had already blocked literally years ago. What I found was that those people were still egging on their followers to go after me, and this would have a ripple effect. So I picked a handful of those people—namely, the ones with the lowest Twitter followings—and used a script to block all of their followers.

I’ve repeated this a couple more times with other abusive Twitter accounts, including alt-right figures, Neo-Nazis, and so on. I’ve never done it for an account with upwards of 10,000 followers, because that seems like a bit much. But still, the numbers rack up.

I know this is an overbroad block and I am constantly unblocking accounts as I realize I’ve unwittingly blocked accounts that I am actually okay with. But I am unlikely to undo the mass-block in its entirety because it will take too much time and if anything, my present experience of Twitter is marred by the fact that I have not yet blocked multitudes more.

So, back to your question. Why have I blocked you on Twitter? It’s possible I blocked you personally for being unpleasant to me. It’s also possible I blocked you in a flight of caprice.

But it’s more likely that I blocked you through an automatic script because you follow a serial harasser, a Nazi, or worse. This seems to be your problem, and not mine.

If you would like to appeal your block, please approach me via an intermediary that I already know in real life. Otherwise, mail me a check for $100. I reserve the right to reblock you at any time.