diff --git a/ditto/twitter/fetch/savers.py b/ditto/twitter/fetch/savers.py
index d18a19c..51783a4 100644
--- a/ditto/twitter/fetch/savers.py
+++ b/ditto/twitter/fetch/savers.py
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@ def save_user(self, user, fetch_time, download_avatar=True):
             "raw": raw_json,
             "screen_name": user["screen_name"],
             "name": user["name"],
-            "is_private": user["protected"],
             "is_verified": user["verified"],
             "profile_image_url_https": user["profile_image_url_https"],
         }
@@ -67,6 +66,9 @@ def save_user(self, user, fetch_time, download_avatar=True):
         # When ingesting tweets there are lots of fields the 'user' element
         # doesn't have, compared to the API:
 
+        if "protected" in user:
+            defaults["is_private"] = user["protected"]
+
         if "created_at" in user:
             defaults["created_at"] = self._api_time_to_datetime(user["created_at"])
 
diff --git a/ditto/twitter/models.py b/ditto/twitter/models.py
index 6a8c96a..8662c32 100644
--- a/ditto/twitter/models.py
+++ b/ditto/twitter/models.py
@@ -70,7 +70,11 @@ def save(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
             # It would be nice to make this more visible, but not sure how to
             # given we don't have access to a request at this point.
-            if "success" in result and result["success"] is False:
+            if (
+                type(result) is dict
+                and "success" in result
+                and result["success"] is False
+            ):
                 if "messages" in result:
                     messages = ", ".join(result["messages"])
                 else: