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Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

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Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#821

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you say "there was no violence"; how do you explain the deaths?

Natural causes, obesity, police violence and, maybe, one instance of death that could have been caused by the scuffles which was originally blamed on a fire extinguisher (the story of which was retracted by the NYT just after the vote on impeachment). This is common knowledge at this point. Also I said "significant violence", as in enough to overthrow the government.

They tried to stop the certification of an election winner using violence and intimidation. That's an insurrection.

Your claims here are like saying that the civil war wasn't an insurrection because the confederacy didn't want to overthrow the US government, they just wanted to form a different government.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#822
post #253

I had to type in this box more times than I'm willing to admit to produce something that didn't violate the guidelines. Let's examine why this is problematic: - This will absolutely be leveraged on anyone in a precarious position. It's their ultimate out. Minority groups, majority groups, it doesn't matter - you're in trouble and need a platform to tell your story? Not happening on Twitch. Expect more to sign on to t…

>Private companies now own most of the highways we use for speech, much less widespread speech.

The highway is the one thing they do not own. They own exits on the highway. But no one is stopping anyone from sending emails. Or setting up their own website and messaging service. It is easier and cheaper today to to connect with others and express yourself without the need for private companies than it has ever been in the history of mankind.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#823
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First link: DMCA problems, this is super common but Twitch is reacting to a very poorly written law. Second link: Someone got in trouble for saying "America Deserved 9/11" which is a bit beyond a controversial political opinion. Third link: Person advocated that people start shooting protestors, a literal call for violence once again beyond a controversial political opinion. Fourth Link: Played a game (not a movie) t…

I never said this is a free speech issue; Twitch is a private platform so they can do whatever they please. My concern is that the quality of the platform is going downhill because Twitch's response to everything is the ban button. For repeat offenders, I understand banning, but as far as I know, they don't even have a warning system in place. (Their ban policies are also wildly inconsistent when it comes to ban leng…

I dunno, if someone is calling for their political enemies to be shot, I don’t think they deserve a warning. That is so clearly beyond the acceptable pale that one shouldn’t need a warning that such behavior is unacceptable. To pretend otherwise is to infantilise streamers and pretend that they’re utterly incapable of telling right from wrong.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#824

After reddit started banning people for upvoting the wrong things, this is a logical next step. Contrary to the popular belief, slippery slope isn't a logical fallacy. Anonymity is the only way to combat this. Make sure your online identity isn't connected to your real name. Ideally, you should have separate identities for each website. Using Tor or a VPN is also a good idea.

My perception of Reddit change radically after I had some comments removed from a popular video game subreddit (from which the larger post was removed).

I expressed a critical opinion on a video game that I, overall, greatly enjoy, but have been feeling increasing frustration over how the developers have been supporting it. The comment certainly wasn't racist, sexist, political, etc. It was simply critical of an aspect of the game that I felt was holding me back from fully enjoying the game.

What made it even worse was my comment was shadow banned. It shows up on my profile. It shows up when I'm logged in. But, it doesn't show up in an incognito tab, it's [removed].

I started noticing this happening in a lot more places. I add a comment that I'd expect would get some sort of reaction (either positive or negative), but it gets nothing. Turns out, these comments were being removed without me be aware.

In the past, content removal would almost always come with an explanation - and that reason was likely clearly justified.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#825
post #746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except if you went to chaz, it was actually fine and the news blatantly exaggerated reality for advertising $$

I'm sure it was mostly fine, in the same way if you stuck to certain places in the capital riots the majority of the people congregated were peaceful. The Chaz also usurped local businesses, there were plenty of firearms and at least five shootings. This is indisputable. Now you will say those are just bad apples, but you wouldn't give the same leniency to the capital riots would you. Also the leaders of the Chaz bar…

There were more deaths and more crime than what is just officially attributed to CHAZ. CHAZ also left behind a massive tent encampment that took over Cal Anderson park (adjacent to CHAZ), which at one point was used for riot staging. Police found a weapons cache hidden inside a tent that appeared to be for the homeless but wasn’t (https://thepostmillennial.com/revealed-antifa-stored-weapons...). The sprawling homeless camp became its own controversy, with black bloc/antifa affiliated activists trying to set up a new autonomous zone following something similar in Portland (https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/12/18/296959-n296959). All this chaos and the park being taken over as an illegal homeless encampment provided cover for a homicide-suicide (https://thepostmillennial.com/homicide-suspect-in-seattle-sl...). The person committing the homicide was Travis Berge, a repeat offender who was featured in the documentary “Seattle is Dying” as a prime example of permissive restorative justice policies don’t work (https://komonews.com/news/local/travis-berge-repeat-offender...). He killed a woman that was allegedly his “girlfriend” before killing himself.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#826

Regardless if you think this is good or bad one things I think bears pointing out. Twitch banning process has no accountability. They can ban you for however slight or even perceived and for a lot of people it means a loss of their livelihood and they don't have to justify to anyone. And it not very hard to frame it on breaking some deliberately vague rule. Now I don't think that is much of leap to understand the chi…

> I don't really want such a entity presiding over the morality of my life, would you?

You typing in twitch.com is a choice, you're not forced to watch it or acknowledge its presence. People want Twitch accountability for their bans, and they might succeed, but the reality is that Twitch is currently the biggest gaming livestream platform simply because they already have everything that streamers and viewers want - live chat, monetization, moderation tools, etc. Live streaming is pretty easy to bootstrap with nginx-rtmp (maybe not as easy to turn a profit on[0]), so it's not like there's no way for competition to enter the market. Floatplane.com also does live streaming so they're going to end up as a sizable competitor within then next few years hopefully.

0: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/22/21299032/microsoft-mixer-...

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Natural causes, obesity, police violence and, maybe, one instance of death that could have been caused by the scuffles which was originally blamed on a fire extinguisher (the story of which was retracted by the NYT just after the vote on impeachment). This is common knowledge at this point. Also I said "significant violence", as in enough to overthrow the government.

They tried to stop the certification of an election winner using violence and intimidation. That's an insurrection. Your claims here are like saying that the civil war wasn't an insurrection because the confederacy didn't want to overthrow the US government, they just wanted to form a different government.

The word is often taken to denote a violent uprising. The Capital protests weren't particularly violent - the protesters didn't kill anyone (not to mention they were hardly an uprising).

>Your claims here are like saying that the civil war wasn't an insurrection because the confederacy didn't want to overthrow the US government, they just wanted to form a different government.

There's not that much of a parallel. The Capital protesters wanted to show resistance to the election being stolen from what they saw as the legitimate winner. The Civil War was, like, a war, and way different in every way.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#828
post #253

I had to type in this box more times than I'm willing to admit to produce something that didn't violate the guidelines. Let's examine why this is problematic: - This will absolutely be leveraged on anyone in a precarious position. It's their ultimate out. Minority groups, majority groups, it doesn't matter - you're in trouble and need a platform to tell your story? Not happening on Twitch. Expect more to sign on to t…

>Private companies now own most of the highways we use for speech, much less widespread speech. The highway is the one thing they do not own. They own exits on the highway. But no one is stopping anyone from sending emails. Or setting up their own website and messaging service. It is easier and cheaper today to to connect with others and express yourself without the need for private companies than it has ever been in…

> It is easier and cheaper today to to connect with others and express yourself without the need for private companies than it has ever been in the history of mankind.

I'm glad you feel secure enough to say that out loud, and maybe from some perspective you are technically correct. But the comparison you gave about email is easily refutable. Most email traffic is controlled by large providers, large providers which can denylist your mail servers for a myriad of vague reasoning which take forever to scrub yourself from. Given that major mail providers now regularly sniff your emails as a feature, your privacy now comes at a premium. In other words, privacy is a feature and a premium one at that.

So, while the future is not certain to be what I imagine it can be from this point, it's certainly not open and free as you've asserted.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#829
Imagine 50 years from today, how will we look back on the 2020s?

How culture, free speech, and big tech are intertwined may be the most significant. Covid and Trump will just be quaint "when I was your age" stories by comparison.

The decisions we make today about how we communicate with each other, how the channels of communication are controlled, and standards of behavior (for enforcers as well as transgressors) will have the real lasting impact.

Re: Twitch will ban users for 'severe misconduct' that occurs away from its site

#830
post #739
post #253

I had to type in this box more times than I'm willing to admit to produce something that didn't violate the guidelines. Let's examine why this is problematic: - This will absolutely be leveraged on anyone in a precarious position. It's their ultimate out. Minority groups, majority groups, it doesn't matter - you're in trouble and need a platform to tell your story? Not happening on Twitch. Expect more to sign on to t…

It's plain and simple: nobody is willing to give you a tribune for a risky public speech on their large, multi-tenant, money-generating property. They don't want the bad PR fallout. Not because they are moralistic; they care about their profits. It's the public who is moralistic, and even a small but vocal group can do a lot of damage to a company image, with a silent / tepid support from the bulk of the public. Don'…

I believe you have just succinctly described what is known as a "chilling effect" on speech.

Historically in this country, we've tried hard to prevent that.

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