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Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

bbc.com

141–150 of 389 posts

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#141

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 ...

"reminds me of" != "is".

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#144
post #56

Out of place but I want to hear American HN regulars opinon; Is this provacation or utter lack of self awareness as it i will only play into Trumps hand?

Part of Trump's argument has been "the system is rigged" so this support it, especially once you consider that Twitter did not ban people calling for protests during the Arab Spring. In fact, the State Department - run by Hillary Clinton at the time - specifically asked for Twitter to keep accounts open and information flowing.

This is ideal for Trump and crew.

In the US, the Net Neutrality position describes internet access as a utility, not a luxury. Further the UN declares it a Human Right. If either/both of those positions hold, then the gatekeepers - Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc - suppressing any view or blocking access to any group could be a violation of human rights.

I think that will have to be settled in court, but it will get messy for those companies.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#145

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 ...

I don't think it's painting one group as a whole at all. No one is suggesting that all or most Trump supporters are racist. Only that many alt-right figure heads are.

It's not a heavy claim. With Steve Bannon being appointed to the upcoming White House staff, there's been a parade of examples illustrating the blatant racism of alt-right figureheads.

While I appreciate the sentiment that Democrats lost the election by painting much of the population (uncritically) in very broad unflattering strokes, I don't really think the trend of people saying "Well you just can't talk about a group of people as a whole" is going to last. If you're unwilling to discuss groups of people as a single entity, the entire field of social science makes little sense.

I think maybe that we've lost sight of the fact that any time we talk about a group of people, we're really implicitly having a statistical discussion.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#146
post #67
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.

The next leader of the most powerful nation on earth already elected on a campaign that openly advocated torture and war crimes and made all sorts of racially charged insinuations. The USA seems set to embark on a terrifying policy of mass deportations in a few months. A white supremacist is set to be installed as White House Chief of Staff, and his previous incarnation was as owner of news outlet talking in the publ…

You mean versus Hillary's "can't we just drone him" statement?

What about the people saying assassinate Trump or kill white people... When will their accounts be banned?

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#147
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Have you not heard of the Nation of Islam?

You know that the 7/7 Dallas shooter (Micah Johnson) was inspired by black supremacist hate speech, right?

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#148
post #75
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences, and Twitter is free to do as they like with their platform.

Honestly, if there wasn't censorship of alt-right views to begin with on Facebook and elsewhere, then perhaps more people would have been motivated to get out and vote for what they believe in, rather than thinking that they had already won.

Or maybe everyone on Facebook unfriends people with differing opinions anyway so it would only benefit those within the white supremacist echo chamber.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#149
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

No, they are posting anti-white bigotry and threats to kill the President. Twitters "cultural background training" for its new mods surely contains the progressive stance that you can't be racist against white people.

How can you be racist against the ruling, privileged class? Sure, white people can have it bad too, but we still have all the privilige and automatic perks. It isn't bigotry as much as self defense against how many white people are still deeply entrenched in racism. As a whole, white people are still oppressors.

Re: Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads

#150
post #115

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.

"A cartoon of Pepe the Frog is a commonly used symbol of the alt-right" is the subtitle of the image in the BBC article. Look at it, the drawing innocence is really staggering: I'm wondering what is the link, whether the link is warranted, and whether Twitter used posts of Pepe the Frog to recognize alt-right people. Sounds like a badly AI-generated inference to me.

The particular situation with pepe the frog is a bit more nuanced than news sources let on.

He went from "Feels Bad, Man" comics to being very frequently photoshopped with 3rd reich / swastikas / other neo-nazi logos.

Pepe is an interesting case because it brings up the discrepancy between trolling (messing with others in "bad fun") and actual people who vehemently support and push aggressively hateful messages.

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