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Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

fightthefuture.org

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Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#91

Post by zaroth »

matwood wrote: post #82
andy_ppp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that unfettered access to incorrect information is also a massive problem for democracy.

Which in part stems back to anonymity. Information becomes easier to filter and fact check when the purveyors and the sources are not anonymous. People also tend to act more civil when not anonymous. But, a lack of anonymity brings a whole host of other problems.

Anonymity is the keystone of free speech. There is no freedom of speech without the freedom to speak anonymously.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#92

Post by mattnumbers »

IANAL.

One of the reasons that this feels so novel is that this is an example of ex post facto enforcement. In this case, Twitter is punishing the user for an action performed at a point in time before such an action was punishable. (In fact, I haven't checked - it may have been punishable, but the punishment was not usually enforced, which is a separate issue of selective enforcement.) The US Constitution prevents both Congress and the individual States from passing ex post facto laws that punish individuals for actions committed before such action was illegal. Obviously, private corporations are not bound by the same laws as the government. So, as platforms like Twitter continue to update their policies and enforcement mechanisms in response to issues such as hate, and as these definitions are broadened, cases such as this are likely to become more common.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#93

Post by taneq »

indigochill wrote: post #65
romaaeterna wrote: post #15

Unaccountable censorship of expression by our main communication providers is incompatible with Democracy. Communication is often a natural monopoly, and you can't just "start a competitor" to Twitter and have the market fix the problem (see gab.ai). If we're going to have censorship on the big platforms (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) and backbone providers (ISPs, Cloudfront), us normal human beings need…

If we look at some differences between Twitter (or insert your favorite social media platform here) and email: * Email providers have zero responsibility for filtering information * Email users form their own networks dynamically through actual relationships rather than some artificial structure of "followers"/"friends" * Email users never get banned from sending email (although maybe in some cases an individual serv…

From your last paragraph the term you are looking for is "common carrier".

Email goes over common carrier networks between private hosts and so is pretty close to a common carrier network. Twitter isn't and doesn't. Maybe there should be a way for web services to provide a similar service with similar protections.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#94

Post by onion90 »

whafro wrote: post #44
onion90 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter could, of course, have just given a warning. But I also don't see any problem treating the tweet as if it were current. The age of the tweet does not change whether it is acceptable or not, does it?

Well, he was banned for violating the Twitter rules, and those rules didn't exist at the time. Getting a message saying something like "this message violates the rules today, so we're going to delete it" or "delete this message within a week or we'll have to ban your account" would seem more reasonable to me than immediate ex post facto enforcement.

I assumed that the comment had already violated rules at that time and simply was not recognized or discovered as such a violation earlier.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#95

Post by chuckgreenman »

ohithereyou wrote: post #42
andy_ppp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that unfettered access to incorrect information is also a massive problem for democracy.

I don't want a Ministry of Truth filtering what I'm allowed to hear. In a functional democracy, education and robust debate are supposed to be the defenses against misinformation. Most western democracies long since scrapped proper education because it's easier to win the support of the population with propaganda^H public relations than it is to make a reasoned argument.

That point of view works in a perfect world, but there are some ideas that don't deserve a seat at the table.

Drinking bleach will not cure autism, but their are desperate parents out there ready to walk into that bear trap and opportunistic people are ready to spring it.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#96

Post by luckylion »

katbyte wrote: post #73
pluma wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think what's keeping "ordinary men and women" from becoming politicians is the toxicity public figures are exposed to, considering a lot of "ordinary men and women" (but particularly women, gender-non-conforming men and PoC, especially if they're trans) get the same or worse on a daily basis on social media. If you look at the careers and upbringing of most high-ranking politicians, I doubt the most obvious d…

It’s wealth and maybe being from a race and sex that generally isn’t raked over the coals for simply being black or a women? White male politicians don’t get much flak for being white or male. Black women politician would get so much for both her race and gender. As a women I’d never want to be in the public eye for this reason.

> White male politicians don’t get much flak for being white or male.

"Stupid white men" was a huge success a few years back.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#97

Post by zaroth »

leereeves wrote: post #52
andy_ppp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that unfettered access to incorrect information is also a massive problem for democracy.

Unfettered access to information requires unfettered access to incorrect information. The power to decide what's "correct" will be abused to block correct information that damages someone powerful.

Exactly this. Therefore it logically follows that democracy depends on access to incorrect information.

Clearly the mods should remove andy_ppp’s comment immediately, if not be held liable for hosting it in the first place.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#98

Post by chippy »

motohagiography wrote: post #47

I have a problem with this whole concept that you don't get to have ideas and test them, but that the ideation and words themselves make you something or means you are or have become something. It's dishonest, lacks any legitimacy, and it is the root of the culture war. Words only have the consequences the reader or listener gives them, they do not have intrinsic consequences in themselves. The fantasy that mere beli…

Interesting idea it reminds me of a religious debate about belief and faith versus good works.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#99

Post by jacksnipe »

leereeves wrote: post #52
andy_ppp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that unfettered access to incorrect information is also a massive problem for democracy.

Unfettered access to information requires unfettered access to incorrect information. The power to decide what's "correct" will be abused to block correct information that damages someone powerful.

Right, so the hypothesis is that we can’t have unfettered access to information.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#100

Post by nradov »

matwood wrote: post #82
andy_ppp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that unfettered access to incorrect information is also a massive problem for democracy.

Which in part stems back to anonymity. Information becomes easier to filter and fact check when the purveyors and the sources are not anonymous. People also tend to act more civil when not anonymous. But, a lack of anonymity brings a whole host of other problems.

Removing anonymity doesn't solve anything. People post and share all sorts of lies and fake news under their real names. They just don't care.

Preserving anonymity is essential for whistle blowers and other vulnerable people.

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