Banished from Twitter in early December, menswear-themed @Four_Pins made its unlikely return to the platform on Friday (January 3, 2018). The reappearance was announced with a one-word tweet simply stating, “hey.”
The handle was saved by San Francisco-based denim shop Self Edge Kiya Babzani, who liked the feed and also happened to have a relationship with Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. On Twitter, he responded to a story on the take down with a hopeful tweet: “I may be able to help, have Lawrence [Schlossman, who manages the feed] contact me via email.”
As much as the having a relationship with the CEO was game changing, it mattered that Dorsey himself is a fan of menswear and is know for his love of Rick Owens (check out a recent ‘fit below). According to GQ, it it took six phone calls with Dorsey and three emails to convince Dorsey to save Four Pins.
As to why it was suspended in the first place, Four Pins was an unrepentant poster of unpaid-for, copyrighted images of popular subjects including Johah Hill, John Mayer and Shia LaBeouf, among others. Following multiple DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) strikes, the feed was taken down by Twitter. Multiple celebrity feeds posting copyrighted music and paparazzi images have suffered similar fates. Pushing the envelope on DMCA is also a good way to lose verification status.
Even with Dorsey’s blessing, one has to assume the feed now will be on a very short leash when it comes to posting copyrighted material.
Four Pins began as a Complex sub-blog in 2012, but was removed as part of a money-saving effort to consolidate sites in January 2016. While the website was taken down and the staff was let go, the Twitter feed remained and now boasts 656,000 boisterous followers.
3 days into 2019 and all I can think about is Jack Dorsey’s vacation look pic.twitter.com/vyVMXW5xsG
— Lara Marie Schoenhals (@LarzMarie) January 3, 2019
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and model Raven Lyn Corneil