USA TODAY International Edition
Don’t make 2007 your Twitter year
You were promised new timeline color options.
You ended up getting blocked from the social networking site.
If you, like many people, were lured into changing your birth year on Twitter to 2007 to unlock new color schemes, you fell victim to one of social media’s latest hoaxes.
Earlier this week, rumors were circulating that changing your birth year would give you access to Twitter’s nostalgic old appearance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. “Please don’t do this,” the company said via a tweet.
What ends up happening is your profile gets shut down because you’re suddenly signaling to Twitter that you’re underage.
The required age for making a Twitter account is 13, according to the platform’s terms of service.
It seems that the viral lie stems from a tweet sent Monday evening that received more than 20,000 retweets and more than 37,000 likes. The tweet said that changing your birth year makes your “twitter feed all colourful.“
Though it’s unclear how many people fell victim to the trick, the social networking site tweeted a response to the call-to-action on Wednesday saying that there are no new color schemes.