Astronomer Returns To Twitter After Being Blocked For Posting Meteor Image Deemed ‘Intimate’
Trail from a meteor of the Perseid meteor shower
The astronomer from Oxfordshire was welcomed back to the platform as Twitter users joked about how she can now post “more smut”, mocking the way the micro-blogging site closed her down after it decided that a picture of a meteor was “intimate content”.In August, British astronomer Mary McIntyre, tweeted a video of the trail from a meteor belonging to the Perseid meteor shower. According to her, after the video was published, she received notification that her clip contained “intimate content”.She could only regain access to the account by deleting the tweet which would have implied that she agreed that she had violated the rules – something she refused to do as it would have barred her from teaching schoolchildren about astronomy.
"It's just crazy… I don't really want it on my record that I've been sharing pornographic material when I haven't," McIntyre said.
The initial 12-hour lockdown was extended to three months. However, after her story made waves in the media, the access to her account was finally restored.“I’m back!!!!!!!!!!” she tweeted on Thursday.According to McIntyre, other astronomers posted the same video on her behalf on their accounts without any consequence from the social network.
