The issue is, as OP demonstrated, that this has nothing to do with your interaction with social media.

Social media was the connective tissue that gave rise to the internet mob, but neither the OPs behavior on social media, nor his response on social media, had any impact on the outcomes. Nor were the outcomes limited to affecting his social media presence. As per the original article, OP got nailed for comments from a twitter account he didn't run, and whose true owner publicly confessed to owning it.

That is, just because you walk away from social media doesn't mean that social media has walked away from you.