Early Twitter gatekeepers framed private accounts as a misunderstanding of the medium.

Evidence

Now for the most controversial option—locking your Tweets. Unless you’re a minor (in which case I’m not sure you should be on Twitter at all), don’t. It’s the Twitter equivalent of walking into a room and asking everyone else who’s already there to put on earplugs while you talk to the 3 people you like the most. Mostly it just makes you look like you don’t understand Twitter. If someone’s a bore, or a spammer, or a creep, block them. Assume everyone else is just another nice person like yourself looking for a new outlet to reach whatever goal they selected. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 235

Categorization

• SHARE: The earplugs metaphor for private Twitter accounts is worth sending to anyone nostalgic for or studying early social media norms.
• CANDY: The earplugs-in-a-room metaphor is a fun, self-contained bit of early-internet flavor.
• XREF: connects to: Early Twitter norms pressured public accounts because privacy defeated self-promotion. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 234