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Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

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

#261
post #245
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter uses third-party contractors for human moderation. If the tweet was reported/flagged and made its way into manual review for a human, whoever looked at it probably didn't take more than 30 seconds to decide. Even if Twitter's moderator workforce is U.S. based (and thus, attune to cultural norms), they probably are optimized to issue suspensions for low-hanging fruit. Vulgarity is going to be more of an obviou…

> than obfuscated hateful messages I'm not talking about obfuscated messages. If one were to post "I love you no matter where you fucking come from", they're not being hateful, but they are being vulgar. Is that allows? On the other hand, if one were to post "I truly believe that all people who are not white are inferior beings that should leave my country", then there's zero vulgarity here but clearly a hateful horr…

Yes, vulgarity is completely allowed. Here's a tweet that was popular enough for the WaPo to write about, but not actually print:

> Fuck my fucking face I’m about to get skinny as fuck

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/09/dont-worr...

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

#262
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The answer is much simpler than you are making this appear. Sending an email is a private communication. Sending a tweet is a public communication. Your email provider is not a publishing platform any more than the paper store or the USPS is a publishing platform. Twitter is a publisher, although as an Internet publisher disseminating user generated content, they are protected by law from the typical liability that p…

Email, ActivityPub, and Wordpress are decentralized publishing communication standards. Email one-to-many distribution / spam being the thing youre ignoring. Facebook and Twitter are proprietary, centralized, and closed systems.

Shifting the conversation from publishing to the audience, completely glosses over the actual minutia at hand.

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

#263
post #234

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…

Twitter is not a democracy. They are a public for profit company first and foremost. They can censor, modify, change anything they want at any point in time. Expect that. Cash is king.

The comment was made specifically with that in mind. The parent was saying that therefore, given their influence and ability to manipulate participation and discussion, that's a problem for democracy.

I don't know what your comment added to the discussion. Does anyone know?

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

#264
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the US, at least, this isn't true. ISPs aren't considered common carriers--you can thank Ajit Pai for that. If it were true, it would be true for both Twitter and email. Messages from both systems hop between neutral providers in the exact same manner.

Let's avoid the contorted legal definition here, and instead use the real-world definition where "common carrier network" means using an established protocol for routing and delivery, in which many separate entities work together to establish network reach.

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a company operating in a vacuum but a public company in a democracy and is subject to the laws (and in general, political will) of the society. If companies were free to "censor, modify, change anything they want at any point in time", then we would not have anti-trust laws or close scrutiny of dominant companies. Ultimately, companies don't exist in a vacuum. If they don't adhere to the political will of t…

>It is not a company operating in a vacuum but a public company in a democracy The US is not a democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic. The Constitution limits the Governmental Powers to make laws restricting speech, the Constitution does not give individuals the right to use corporate places of business or platforms to disseminate their speech.

> The US is not a democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic.

This is facile: it is both, and there is no contradiction.

> the Constitution does not give individuals the right to use corporate places

Certainly it does: the right of free association. But that's not what you meant; you meant that the Constitution does not compel the corporate place to allow individual speech. Which is true but incomplete, since we have other laws currently about a related concept, "common carriers". The debate is much higher level than the Constitution: it's about how far to extend the idea that a private conveyance has become so essential to public use that it is subject to regulation. (Meaning, yes, that some of the private entity's rights are curtailed.)

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

#266
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Is Mastercard required to do business with the Bernie Sanders campaign, even though his stated policy goals might harm their business?

They probably are. If someone uses a Mastercard to donate to the Bernie Sanders campaign, they are not allowed to refuse the transaction.

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

#267
Pro-tip: Use Twitter search for "from:yourusername word" where you replace yourusername with your Twitter name and 'word' with things like the f word, c word, r'tarded, and so forth. Delete any tweets that do not stand up to modern standards.

I did this a while back and am thankful I did. I seemed to say a lot of things that were passable on Twitter 10 years ago but I would not dare to say now :-D (Nothing extreme, but things like "$some_technology f'in sucks" and such.)

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

#268
post #90
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, based on the second paragraph of article: It’s honestly a very immature tweet. It’s something I wouldn’t say today. I have personally grown past the hate of the two party system. I feel like I have a clearer and more mature view on American elections, as well as seeing past the endless media designed to keep most people angry. This tweet was from a different era in my life. I’m not proud of it, yet it is a part o…

You know, when I read that paragraph I was actually on board with the author. We’ve probably all said stupid things on the internet at one point. Then I read the actual tweet and lost all sympathy. It’s just so horrible, and, I think the author actually shows a lack of growth by dismissing it as this 9 year old “immature” mistake.

Is calling some one stupid or telling them to fuck themselves all that horrible to you? There wasn't even a threat of violence or attacking based upon "protected characteristics."

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

#269
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

No idea why you're getting down voted. This is a cogent, valid point.

I haven't voted on it either way, but while the point is reasonable, I'm not sure it's expressed in a way that furthers the discussion.

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

#270
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, at least, this isn't true. ISPs aren't considered common carriers--you can thank Ajit Pai for that. If it were true, it would be true for both Twitter and email. Messages from both systems hop between neutral providers in the exact same manner.

Let's avoid the contorted legal definition here, and instead use the real-world definition where "common carrier network" means using an established protocol for routing and delivery, in which many separate entities work together to establish network reach.

In that case, it's true for both Twitter and email. The exact same network is used.
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