Cannot follow anyone on Twitter (limit not achieved)

Question

I created an account on Twitter, activated it using my phone, confirmed the E-mail address, and then in the settings I removed the phone number (I don't want it to be there). The account looks fine, but when I try to follow anybody I get the message:

You are unable to follow more people at this time.

It contains the link describing two possible reasons: 1) that I hit the limit (which I didn't, I'm following no one yet), and 2) that my account might be locked (it does not look locked, though, maybe, I don't know where to look).

I suppose, it might be caused by removing the phone number, but when I tried to re-add it, the activation code did not come (despite several more requests and 1 hour waiting), so I cannot check the hypothesis (and even if it's true, I don't want to keep my phone in the account).

I tried writing at Twitter support, but no reply came (and none was promised). Maybe someone could clarify the situation here?

UPD: I was finally able to re-add my phone number and activate it (this time the code arrived; don't know why it didn't earlier), but the problem remains nonetheless. Any time I click "Follow", the same message appears.

Answer 1

Finally, the problem has been resolved: the account was mistakenly locked by an automated system that watches for Twitter Rules violations, and Support unlocked it; the "Follow" button now works for me. I didn't try to remove the phone number again, however. Probably, will wait for some time before attempting it.

To solve the problem, I opened the Deactivate Account form (I meant to delete and recreate it, but there was a better solution). There is a link saying something like "Why do you leave? Tell us", click it and fill in the suggested appeal form. In my case a robot replied and told to reset the password and, if it won't help, reply to the letter. It didn't, so I replied, and went through a bit of ping-ponging with the Twitter Support who asked me to reset the password two more times before finally finding out the source of the problem and unlocking my account.