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Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#61

Post by rb666 »

nodesocket wrote: post #52
hkmurakami wrote: post #41

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)

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.

Reason is that the political debate is no longer right vs left in the US. Trump and his posse have proven to be compulsive liars.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trump...

This means there is little left to debate.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#62

Post by koonsolo »

pls2halp wrote: post #23
echlebek wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What about the literal communists? There’s just as many of those.

I don't understand why you are getting downvoted. Stalin killed millions of soviets.

All central and eastern european countries can testify how terrible it was when communists invanded their countries and took everything from them, including all posessions and freedom.

When my mother in law (who always lived in Slovakia) was in Belgium, we saw a guy with a soviet hammer and sickle t-shirt. She was shocked why anyone would freely wear something like that. I'm pretty sure the guy just thought it was cool.

So my question to the downvoters: why are nazi's bad and communists not?

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#63

Post by StavrosK »

mosselman wrote: post #59
hkmurakami wrote: post #41

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)

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.

I didn't read it that way, it's a valid question even without the references, and it's a problem that warrants discussion.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#64

Post by mosselman »

te_chris wrote: post #56
sumedh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't the real problem that people believe what he says and see him as a legitimate source of information and leadership? An individual being rotten is one thing, a whole society giving this person power and respect shows that there are big problems in that society.

Censorship is not the solution, education and social support systems are. Take away ignorance and economic insecurity and people will start to make time for thinking rather than feeding their underbellies.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#65

Post by joyoustech »

te_chris wrote: post #56
sumedh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This. SJW.

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#66

Post by noncoml »

rebuilder wrote: post #19
irulebush wrote: post #15

I frequently come across tweets by neo-nazis promoting their hateful ideas. We can't let this go on in the name of free speech.

We might have to. Fringe groups like neo-nazis thrive on suppression. Censoring them may serve to validate their narrative of fighting for a cause despite oppression. It also shows them people are taking them seriously.

Censorship, and especially from a private company, doesn’t sound like the solution. If they are breaking some law bring them to justice. It’s not Twitter’s job to decide who gets to say what, is it?

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#67

Post by stale2002 »

localhost3000 wrote: post #51
gaius wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The group of people who literally self identify as Nazis is a very very small group.

The group of people that get accused of being Nazis can span all the way up into the hundreds of millions (Ex: Many people call Trump a fascist, and therefore his X million supports would be fascist under these accusations)

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#68

Post by oblio »

leereeves wrote: post #55
andybak wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ex…

All of America's extreme leftists would probably fit in a 200sqm hall, with room to spare. Why worry about a statistical anomaly? Just because they have Tumblr accounts? :)

(For the downvoters, prove me wrong, how many votes did a far left party get in US elections in the past 20 years? Does the US even have a far left party? :) )

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#69

Post by hkmurakami »

mosselman wrote: post #59
hkmurakami wrote: post #41

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)

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.

For the former, a sibling commenter has provided a HN discussion regarding a CNN article with a 10+ minute interview with people who are being interviewed with a voice changer for fear of being outed.

Regarding the latter, here's Grubhub's CEO calling for Trump voters to resign: The CEO of Grubhub, an online food delivery service, sent a company wide email Wednesday suggesting employees who agree with President-elect Donald Trump’s behaviors and his campaign rhetoric should resign.[1].

I remember reading articles from reputable media outlets for both issues, but I personally do not know peers who feel this way (which makes sense because well, if the news were true, many of them are in hiding). Hence the genuine inquiry towards an actual person -- a HNer -- who would have first hand experience with such attitudes. It's honestly a very rare chance to be able to ask someone this; I frankly only know one GOP voter within the several hundred tech people I am acquainted with.

I sincerely must ask in return whether you are trolling me, since you seem to be unaware of the fact that these issues have been widely reported on in the past.

[1] regrettably the link is fox news: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...

Re: Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

#70

Post by dogruck »

nodesocket wrote: post #36
mankash666 wrote: post #2

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,…

A similar thing happened to me.
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