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Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

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Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#11

Post by fiblye »

I think, in a way, the media is kind of empowering the "alt-right" by constantly referring to them as the "alt-right". It presents it as the little guy vs The Man, and I think that makes it much more palatable than "far right."

Influential people who think the government is intentionally making gay frogs, that media needs to be under strict control, that climate change is a Chinese hoax, and that everything is us vs (((Them))) just got a candidate that represents their views into the White House. There's nothing alt about it. It's just straight up mainstream now. Referring to it as such takes away from the rebel factor and reveals that this is, in fact, just the new system, as bad as the old one.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#12

Post by grzm »

wallace_f wrote: post #4
leereeves wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But buried quickly. That first link with 343 comments and over 100 points in an hour was on the third page before it was two hours old.

That doesn't seem right. Maybe it would be better for mods to allow a democratic process of discussion

There's been plenty of discussion over the past month or so on why this might happen. IIRC, check some of the Peter Thiel-related submissions from around the time he donated to the Trump campaign.

Sometimes it's a function of user flags (which affect the ranking even if [flagged] isn't visible) which is a more democratic process, and sometimes it's a function of what whether the mods determine that the discussion is constructive and valuable to the overall health and purpose of the HN community. I don't know if the mods always comment when this is the case, but they have in the past done so.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#13

Post by antidaily »

leereeves wrote: post #10
bougiefever wrote: post #5

This is probably a good move. They should also suppress fake news sites that are obviously not satire, but are meant to mislead. I can't believe I actually support preventing people from sharing things, but somehow this propaganda has to be exposed. This is a sad state we are in now.

This is a corporation enforcing its world view. Would you say the same if Twitter were owned by the right-wing and was banning left wing users?

No its really not.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#14

Post by benmarks »

bougiefever wrote: post #5

This is probably a good move. They should also suppress fake news sites that are obviously not satire, but are meant to mislead. I can't believe I actually support preventing people from sharing things, but somehow this propaganda has to be exposed. This is a sad state we are in now.

Thank god I'm not the only one blanching at the thought of supporting this censorship. I'm truly in a quandary over it.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#15

Post by grzm »

antidaily wrote: post #13
leereeves wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a corporation enforcing its world view. Would you say the same if Twitter were owned by the right-wing and was banning left wing users?

No its really not.

Do you mean it's really not a corporation enforcing its worldview? Or it's really not the same if the wings were reversed?

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#16

Post by Karunamon »

micaksica wrote: post #8

I'm not a fan of the "alt-right" or a lot of its subculture. I also don't find it particularly "alt", as much as it is "far" right. It is a lot of the ideas that powered the NSDAP enveloped in the language of the Internet and memes, with the targets broadened from Jewry to non-whites in general. However, I'm also not a fan of suspending these accounts for controversial views if they are not harassing people on the Tw…

It feels like political censorship because it is political censorship. Those with the "correct" political views can basically tell people to kill themselves, or worse, while Twitter turns a blind eye to literal terrorists (of the blowing themselves up with bombs variety) using their platform to spread their message.

You can say whatever you want about how terrible the people being banned supposedly were, but Twitter's priorities here are crystal clear. This was an ideological purge first and a (terribly subjective) ToS enforcement action second.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#19

Post by TillE »

fiblye wrote: post #11

I think, in a way, the media is kind of empowering the "alt-right" by constantly referring to them as the "alt-right". It presents it as the little guy vs The Man, and I think that makes it much more palatable than "far right." Influential people who think the government is intentionally making gay frogs, that media needs to be under strict control, that climate change is a Chinese hoax, and that everything is us vs…

It's a little odd, since 99% of the time it's really just a euphemism for a particular kind of neo-nazi.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#20

Post by panic »

micaksica wrote: post #8

I'm not a fan of the "alt-right" or a lot of its subculture. I also don't find it particularly "alt", as much as it is "far" right. It is a lot of the ideas that powered the NSDAP enveloped in the language of the Internet and memes, with the targets broadened from Jewry to non-whites in general. However, I'm also not a fan of suspending these accounts for controversial views if they are not harassing people on the Tw…

Unfortunately, the nature of Twitter makes debate unlikely to end in agreement. Twitter is just trying to improve the environment for its users so more people will join and stick around. Most people find the "ideas that powered the NSDAP" quite disgusting.
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