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Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

bbc.com

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Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#131

Post by MichaelBurge »

legodt wrote: post #82
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

Just to give an example of how this would sound if it were reversed:

Liberals are inciting violence using paid operatives(probably including the recent riots), have shot Trump supporters, use powerful institutions(Twitter, universities, etc.) to shut down speech they disagree with, and their most recent presidential candidate has historically been opposed to gay marriage and took foreign money from a country that executes gays. Liberals are also very racist, using zoning laws to exclude minorities from their gated communities in California.

Rattling off a bunch of hate every time you think of the other side is how you get angry people.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#132

Post by monkmartinez »

pyvpx wrote: post #99
adam12 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

alt-right by definition is racist and sexist. that is the definition of the alt-right platform.

Watch this and let us know who should be getting the ban hammer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXpi3F0E5ro

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#133

Post by nnain »

13years wrote: post #79
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…

Agree, very disturbing trend and it only increases the animosity between groups. The trending method of improving diversity and inclusivity is through exclusivity. This will not work. People and groups who don't talk to each other grow further apart and trust each other less.

True. People flocked to Twitter to hear general opinion, which the press didn't provide. That is changing.

They have also been controlling the trending #hashtags; trying to channel only certain type of discussion.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#134

Post by striking »

robbiemitchell wrote: post #81
striking wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/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.

Can you point to some of those actions? I'm having trouble finding any evidence that shows they should be banned.

Now, I think their viewpoints are disgusting too. But their views don't affect people, their actions do.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#135

Post by Pungsnigel »

mhurron wrote: post #118
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…

People were blindsided because the majority didn't vote for Trump, but the US's backwards system meant that didn't matter. In a democratic system where everyone's vote was equal, we would not have President-Elect Trump.

How do you know the result of a completely different kind of election? The candidates would obviously campaign differently in the case you are describing.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#136

Post by legodt »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #112
legodt wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You really just aren't looking: https://www.reddit.com/r/UofT/comments/4rr3ga/blm_toronto_wh... That's Facebook but you can find blatantly racist, sexist, etc stuff from people on the left of the political spectrum on every major social network these days.

This is clearly a satirical response to the type of logic used by white supremacists to bolster a concept of genetic superiority over other ethnicities. Imagine just for a moment being black and hearing the inverse of this statement every day online

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#137

Post by chippy »

kelukelugames wrote: post #85
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.

>I don't understand how any man can be offended by the killallmen hashtag

You say don't understand. Do you want to?

They clue to your lack of understanding is in the first part of the sentence

> As an able bodied straight male working in tech

Perhaps if you imagine yourself to be someone else in another background, place, circumstances you can begin to see why a hashtag which appears (if one was unfamiliar with the history of it) to advocate the killing of millions might be offensive to some people.

You might even come to the conclusion that while you don't find it personally offensive you can understand that some might find it troublesome.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#138

Post by ta_donk_gt »

mulletbum wrote: post #5

Why does the alt-right have issues with them being banned from systems, but don't see issues with themselves banning others from systems. For example, Twitter bans them from using Twitter, but the /r/The_Donald echo chamber bans anyone with a counter view to their own. If you want freedom to speak on certain platforms, you need to provide the same rights to everyone.

Those things don't match up like you think they do. The equivalent of /r/The_Donald banning users is equivalent to /r/politics banning anyone who posted critically of Clinton between July and the election (even though The_Donald only claims to support Trump whereas Politics is intended to be more unbiased).

These are subreddits with their own admins managing them. Twitter as a company is banning users from their entire platform. The equivalent would be Reddit as a company banning very liberal users.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#139

Post by cwisecarver »

hermiti wrote: post #33
croon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People love having their speech limited, I'm sure this will work out great for twitter. I love having hate speech limited, if that's what you mean.

The problem with banning hate speech is that it is relative. Next up, books will be banned because they incite alternate opinions.

The even bigger problem is we're assuming they were banned for "hate" speech because Twitter hasn't even said why yet. If they took down tweets that they felt were hate speech and communicated to the speaker and the community I would be more okay with it. A silent ban of dozens of accounts is their right as a business but I'll still say it's a stupid decision.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#140

Post by wavefunction »

adam12 wrote: post #84
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.

> 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.

Are you kidding me? Those who identify as "alt-right" aka Far Right are definitely racist and nasty folks and you can easily see it by reading through their screeds and "jokes."

In the US, they have a right to express themselves, but they do not have a right to be accepted as decent and normal people.

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