Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#81

Post by robbiemitchell » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:39 PM UTC

striking wrote: post #38

corey_moncure wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very interested in this topic. Do you have concrete evidence of contrary voices being silenced by administration in /r/The_Donald? It may bear some consideration that this particular sub-reddit is itself silenced by having its stories removed from the front page by algorithm, which to me represents as great a sin or greater.

/r/The_Donald has in its sidebar, literally, that people that do not wholly support Trump are not welcome. That being said, I'm okay with that. It's not a place for reasonable discussion, it's just shitpostland. However. Twitter prides itself on being a serious social network with considerations for free speech and the "new media"... being banned from something like that just because of what you believe is silly.

They're not being banned for their opinions, they're being banned for their actions on Twitter.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#82

Post by legodt » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:40 PM UTC

ve55 wrote: post #28

Although Twitter obviously has the right to do this, legally, I don't think it is good. Twitter is esentially a public infrastructure for real-time communication. We have public officials from countries all over the world that use Twitter to communicate to their citizens. For that (and similar) reasons, I would strongly prefer if Twitter didn't go around policing what types of political opions are okay and aren't. Ev…

The very liberal users aren't inciting hate speech, racist, misogynistic, and often times anti semitic attacks on other users en masse

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#83

Post by captainmuon » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

nameless912 wrote: post #16

module0000 wrote: post #3

People love having their speech limited, I'm sure this will work out great for twitter.

This isn't the limitation of free speech, this is a private company telling one of its users that they aren't welcome due to their behavior. It's like if you were at a store and started soapboxing about loudly right in front of the register, the manager of the store is 100% allowed to ask you to leave. Freedom of speech means your speech isn't illegal , not that you will suffer no consequences for it. ETA: some peopl…

That only works in practice if there are public spaces where you can excercise your free speech. If everything is a private space, then it's fine that the government won't limit your speech - but that promise becomes pretty vacuous.

I firmly believe that if something becomes as big as twitter (facebook, google, amazon, ...), it becomes infrastructure and should be subject to similar rules as the government. It should no longer be treated like that mom and pop groceries store.

It took people centuries to wrangle civil rights (including free speech and parliamentary representation) from their states - in that process changing them into democracies. Before, all of that was completely unheard of. I wonder if in future, people will fight the same way for free speech on Twitter, universal access to Amazon's shipping infrastructure, the right to be indexed (or forgotten) on Google, and so on.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#84

Post by adam12 » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

arkitaip wrote: post #30

mwill wrote: post #14

I can only see this as furthering the echo chamber that caused many to be so blindsided by Trumps victory. I would like to see specifically why these people were suspended. If they're engaged in harassment obviously the suspension should hold up. If it really is just mass reporting for political speech (I've had friends msging 'targets' for reporting purely for them admitting to voting for Trump), I can only see it a…

But these alt-right figureheads aren't your average trump voters. They actually are racist and nasty people and we shouldn't group them together with other conservative/right/trump voters.

> They actually are racist and nasty people and we shouldn't group them together with other conservative/right/trump voters.

This sounds like stereotyping to me.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#85

Post by kelukelugames » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

thro32 wrote: post #19

How about suspending people who openly advocate genocide? #killallmen

As an able bodied straight male working in tech, I don't understand how any man can be offended by the killallmen hashtag. I don't feel threatened. They can't even hurt my feelings. Offended men must be very soft and have small dongles.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#86

Post by dictum » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

In other words, Twitter gives the Information They Don't Want You To Know badge to a group that already thrives on such framing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12961185

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#87

Post by vijayr » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

jinfiesto wrote: post #45

arkitaip wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But these alt-right figureheads aren't your average trump voters. They actually are racist and nasty people and we shouldn't group them together with other conservative/right/trump voters.

I'm not sure why the above is down-voted. There's a litany of evidence to suggest that this is actually true.

The article says

"The social network has not given an explanation for its actions."

Banning is fine, but it would be nice if they can actually say in writing, citing reasons and evidence, why they banned them (even if lots of evidence exists elsewhere).

Banning without any explanation isn't of any use to anyone

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#88

Post by kelukelugames » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

imaginenore wrote: post #80

dmschulman wrote: post #39

Painting insults and threats and bullying as legitimate criticism is the main rhetorical fallacy of the alt-right movement. They have a guarantee of free speech in this country but they do not have a guarantee of Twitter access.

Twitter allows threats and bullying when it comes from the left. They refused to ban the freaking jihadists. They have SJWs posting #killallmen, #KillAllWhiteMen #maletears in droves. Nothing ever happens to them. This move is simply political censorship.

Speaking of male tears...

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#89

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

the-dude wrote: post #69

jinfiesto wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why the above is down-voted. There's a litany of evidence to suggest that this is actually true.

Such heavy claims require evidence. Also, it is painting one group as a whole, which reminds me of ...

[deleted]

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#90

Post by chillingeffect » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

laumars wrote: post #8

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think I'd rather have people with extreme opinions talking in the public where they are subject to counter arguments than somewhere less public where their message goes unchallenged.

I agree 100%. We need exchange, dilution, exposure therapy, to become familiar with each others' ways and ultimately realize we're not a danger to one another if we're all working, well-fed, raising our children in peace.

The counterargument I see people making is that "hating $group is not an opinion." They see opinions as matters of taste, like twitter should just be about discussing flavors of ice cream, while racism is purely a crime and has to be punished. My response to that is words from the tip of the iceberg. We must discuss what's under the ocean's surface. NIMBY'ing assholes spoils that conversation space.