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Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#51
post #14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are literally nazis promoting themselves on twitter without censorship, so I disagree with your claim.

There are literally nazis promoting themselves on twitter without censorship There's all kinds of genocide being promoted on Twitter, and the so-called Nazis are literally the only ones being censored. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander says I. Either Twitter - a for profit entity - is a common carrier or they impose editorial standards, they can't be allowed to get away with playing both sides as it…

“So-called nazis”, huh?

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give a very personal account. I was in the past harassed on Twitter. I received death threats and users were giving out my phone number and address to other Twitter users via DM. I filed an official complaint, and Twitter's response was this is not harassment, we won't do anything. I am pretty sure because of my political views the Twitter support representative decided they didn't like me. The hypocrisy, bias,…

There was a series of articles a few years ago about closet GOP supporters in the tech industry fearing being "outed" for the damage it would cause to their careers. In your experience do you feel that this concern is justified? (I think there was at least one startup CEO who declared that if he found out that anyone at his company had voted for Trump, that he would fire him/her)

Absolutely. I've been lucky enough to be self-employed for a bit, but if you walk into any bay area startup nearly everybody will be a vitriol against Trump and conservatives very publicly. It is not even subtle. I'm the kind of person who actually enjoys a debate, and my lack of PC offends some. If I were an employee, probably would be problematic.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a series of articles a few years ago about closet GOP supporters in the tech industry fearing being "outed" for the damage it would cause to their careers. In your experience do you feel that this concern is justified? (I think there was at least one startup CEO who declared that if he found out that anyone at his company had voted for Trump, that he would fire him/her)

There was an article about that a few days ago that got a lot of attention here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15595586

[deleted]

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#55
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please re-consider your use of the term "SJW" as a derogatory term. I had hoped that garbage would stay on reddit. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln were 'social justice warriors'. The more accepted definition is of an extreme leftist which in truth is statistically irrelevant % of the population. SJW is a strawman term that's great for dividing us and categorizing those with opposing views as the boogeyman.

Viewing US political culture from outside makes this even more entertaining. It appears to many people in Europe to be mostly two center-right/right groups calling each other nasty names. Of course the standard left/right dichotomy is a historical accident and contingent on many local factors. And yet we continue to reify it as if it were some Platonic truth.

America's extreme leftists (AKA SJWs) aren't center-right. They want socialism, they want to silence everyone who disagrees with them, they are willing to use any tactic (including censorship and even violence) to get what they want, and yet, in a startling lack of self-awareness, they consider the center-right half of the country "Nazis".

This attempted act of censorship by an ex-Twitter employee is a fairly tame example of their tactics, though notable for affecting the President.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#56
post #53

Fucking hero. Screw the google memo douche, this person deserves beatification for showing us the pathway to a better world.

So your solution is to shutdown the person who disagrees with you?

No, it’s to stop the flow of sewerage into the water supply. Stop pretending Trump is some sort of rational participant in a Gentleman’s debate.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#57
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are literally nazis promoting themselves on twitter without censorship, so I disagree with your claim.

So "promoting themselves" is an action that should only allowed to a subset of people? If so to whom and how to you identify those people?

It's not "who", it's "what". Instigating violence is forbidden for one example. Defamation too.

Nazism is based on belief that some ethnicities are to be blamed for all evil in the world (defamation), and proposes to deal with that by one ethnicity exterminating or enslaving the others (instigation of violence).

Does it really surprise you it's forbidden in many countries, and many websites doesn't want to have it promoted on their property?

And additionally - twitter is a private website. It's not censorship, when a newspaper chooses who can write articles for them. Make your own newspaper if you disagree.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#58
post #45

This article shines light on the power bestowed upon Twitter employees. They can randomly deactivate one's account, and unless you're the president, you might not have any recourse. Particularly worrisome is the general left leaning political and social affiliation of such employees. We are an era of systemic censorship of right leaning speech by popular internet platforms. I'm personally center left, but in no way d…

"I'm personally center left" ... Hopefully I don't get dang'd by observing how common a meme this is. Companies, public and private, have the legal right to take on whatever political position they have, and beyond having the power to control dialogue, there is no way they can abdicate exercising that power; it's unavoidably emergent from their technology that someone's tweet has to show up top when you log in. This…

Well one solution is to take the reddit approach, where you allow different communities to mostly choose who they want to interact with on their own free will.

In twitter's case, one way to do this would be to give users more power over what shows up in their feed, and who they interact with.

Perhaps they could allow users to compile their own community block lists. IE, a group of volunteer moderators would compile their own block lists together, and then if you want to subscribe to the "Trump Trolls block list" then you can feel free to do so.

And the people who DON'T like your block list, can feel free to NOT subscribe to it, or subscribe to their own "liberal trolls block list".

That way everyone wins. The trolls can troll, but you don't have to listen to see them if you don't want to.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give a very personal account. I was in the past harassed on Twitter. I received death threats and users were giving out my phone number and address to other Twitter users via DM. I filed an official complaint, and Twitter's response was this is not harassment, we won't do anything. I am pretty sure because of my political views the Twitter support representative decided they didn't like me. The hypocrisy, bias,…

There was a series of articles a few years ago about closet GOP supporters in the tech industry fearing being "outed" for the damage it would cause to their careers. In your experience do you feel that this concern is justified? (I think there was at least one startup CEO who declared that if he found out that anyone at his company had voted for Trump, that he would fire him/her)

Without sources for any of your claims (GOP supporters fearing an outing, CEO that would fire Trump voters) your comment comes over as a way to incite a heated discussion here, AKA trolling.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#60

This article shines light on the power bestowed upon Twitter employees. They can randomly deactivate one's account, and unless you're the president, you might not have any recourse. Particularly worrisome is the general left leaning political and social affiliation of such employees. We are an era of systemic censorship of right leaning speech by popular internet platforms. I'm personally center left, but in no way d…

I'll give a very personal account. I was in the past harassed on Twitter. I received death threats and users were giving out my phone number and address to other Twitter users via DM. I filed an official complaint, and Twitter's response was this is not harassment, we won't do anything. I am pretty sure because of my political views the Twitter support representative decided they didn't like me. The hypocrisy, bias,…

> I am pretty sure because of my political views the Twitter support representative decided they didn't like me.

That's conveniently completely unprovable. That said, there should be (some) recourse when you feel like you've been treated unfairly. A second opinion or escalation.

On the flip side: Twitter is a company. It might be comprised of people that share a certain opinion and this will show in how they behave. That's how it works with any product or service. There's a gap between what is "morally good" and what you're actually entitled to in terms of treatment by someone else.

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