Without even looking at their names

In a previous update of EmailTweetor, I added the ability block/unblock, follow/unfollow and mute/unmute other Twitter accounts from the command-line (in Linux/Mac/Windows, not Android).

I do not follow anyone on Twitter and I do not want anyone following me. (I use Tweets for their temporary presence online, as a historical record. I delete all my tweets afterwords after I take a backup with TwitterToRSS.) When TwitterToRSS shows me that somebody is following me, I need to manually type their names to block them. Today, I created a Linux BASH script to automate the process of blocking them – en masse.

DDIR="/home/$USERNAME/sbin/EmailTweetor"
ETR="java -jar ./EmailTweetor.jar "
LISTFIL="followers.lst"


cd $DDIR
if [ -f "$LISTFIL" ]; then
  sTimeStamp=`date +%G-%m-%g-%I-%M-%S`
  mv $LISTFIL $LISTFIL.$sTimeStamp.bak
fi

$ETR trolls > $LISTFIL
#LISTFIL="test.txt" #Comment this

iLines=`wc -l $LISTFIL | awk '{ print $1 }'`

#echo $iLines

if [ $iLines -gt 4 ]; then
  let iCatch=iLines-4
  tail -$iCatch $LISTFIL > follower-accounts.lst
  cat follower-accounts.lst | while read sLine
  do
    #echo $sLine | awk '{ print $1 }'
    sAccount=`echo $sLine | awk '{ print $1 }'`
    $ETR block $sAccount >> $DDIR/blocked-twitter-followers.lst
  done
  echo "Finished blocking all followers"
else
  echo "No followers"
fi

The command java -jar EmailTweetor.jar trolls displays the owner account name, two blank lines, column headings, and two columns of follower accounts and account names. This script ignores the first four lines and the second column (containing the account names) and then proceeds to block the accounts in the first column.

How to block Twitter accounts suggestions

The simplest way to do this is to disable the HTML block containing these suggestions. (Right-click near the block, select Inspect element fro the context menu, find the ID or class names of the DIV elements, and mark them as “display: none!important” in the /home/$USERNAME/.mozilla/firefox/[your-profile-name]/chrome/user-Content.css.)

Another way is to manually block accounts that are repeatedly suggested. Twitter cannot suggest an account if you have blocked it. The coronavirus has given obscure bureaucrats some exposure.