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Man Behind Trump's Twitter Account Closure did it by Mistake

Bahtiyar Duysak, who is from Germany, says he didn't mean to briefly shut down Trump's Twitter account on Nov. 2.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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The contractor who briefly shut down US 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 Trump's account would never get shut down; Twitter has policy that offensive tweets deemed "newsworthy" can be allowed to remain.

So in "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 went on to explain he was "tired sometimes" on the job, and that "everyone can do mistakes."

Duysak, who was working in the US 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 only briefly disappeared on Nov. 2 for a mere 11 minutes. But that was enough to send the whole internet in a tizzy over why the account was gone.

Once Twitter explained a company staffer was behind the deactivation, many internet users half-joked the then-unknown employee was a hero.

However, Duysak doesn't see himself that way.

"I just want continue an ordinary life," he said. "I don't deserve to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize."

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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