A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#51

Post by heystefan » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #26

I'm in Thailand and just get this message: We've discontinued servicing users from your location and are thereby preventing access to any of the websites owned and operated by ZAM Network, LLC DBA Fanbyte (the owner of Fanbyte.com): This decision is ultimately one we were forced to make due to the number of visitors from your region when compared to the operational costs necessary to continue providing access there.…

I'm getting the same message from the OP's website, and I'm in eastern europe. Weird.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#52

Post by vintermann » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

TrianguloY wrote: post #23

Companies play by the rule "better sorry than safe" but force their users to play by "better safe than sorry". As others have mentioned, they main issue is not the autobanning (it sure is a false positive, those things inevitable happens on mass-scale products) but the appeal rejection that fails to detect it.

But they aren't sorry either. This guy appealed, and if a human at Twitter ever saw it, it was probably some overworked contractor who gets a strike for every appeal he lets through.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#53

Post by lin83 » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

iasay wrote: post #20

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #12

This is how big tech does damage to humans. Love it or hate it, the online world is our current public square. A public square, in the united states, has typically been an area where people can shout out their concerns or whatever they want to anyone who can listen and the government cannot stop it. Currently, our public squares are owned by private megacorporations that not only ban people for reasons many people ag…

Worth pointing out that more life exists outside the corporate run stages. Part of their trick is to make you think that the only way of life is via their platforms. I’m not and never have been a Twitter or or TikTok or Facebook member.

I also avoid those platforms but that also means self-exclusion from entire communities. I've seen large groups (DnD groups, gaming/sports clubs, obscure tech forums etc) being swallowed wholesale by Facebook, then Reddit and now Discord. That may not matter for a random game group but unfortunately Twitter is where most of the worlds journalists post and network.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#54

Post by Forgeties79 » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #12

This is how big tech does damage to humans. Love it or hate it, the online world is our current public square. A public square, in the united states, has typically been an area where people can shout out their concerns or whatever they want to anyone who can listen and the government cannot stop it. Currently, our public squares are owned by private megacorporations that not only ban people for reasons many people ag…

I am so tired of the public square analogy. You don’t need Twitter. You don’t need Facebook. You don’t need Reddit. And what’s more, you can still read them if you’re banned.

If you think it’s ok for a restaurant to turn you away because of a dress code, then this is a non-issue. The are several major platforms you can use as a megaphone, just like you have plenty of restaurants to choose from for your meal. If you are systematically getting banned from each social media platform and being “cut off from the public square,” that says more about you than it does the current state of speech.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#55

Post by nullc » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

TrianguloY wrote: post #23

Companies play by the rule "better sorry than safe" but force their users to play by "better safe than sorry". As others have mentioned, they main issue is not the autobanning (it sure is a false positive, those things inevitable happens on mass-scale products) but the appeal rejection that fails to detect it.

Yep-- if the appeal hit a human and got a quick "oops" sorry! that would be another matter entirely.

I wonder if they're using their obviously invalid "appeals" results to train the AI? ... so as time goes on it just gets dumber and dumber.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#56

Post by whichdan » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

iasay wrote: post #20

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #12

This is how big tech does damage to humans. Love it or hate it, the online world is our current public square. A public square, in the united states, has typically been an area where people can shout out their concerns or whatever they want to anyone who can listen and the government cannot stop it. Currently, our public squares are owned by private megacorporations that not only ban people for reasons many people ag…

Worth pointing out that more life exists outside the corporate run stages. Part of their trick is to make you think that the only way of life is via their platforms. I’m not and never have been a Twitter or or TikTok or Facebook member.

Sure, but getting hundreds or thousands of people to join your Mastodon instance or whatever is a huge barrier when Twitter works fine /most/ of the time.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#57

Post by sp332 » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

@a2_4am got banned from Twitter for linking to a video on the Internet Archive. The video is of an Apple 2 computer booting up an old program. https://mobile.twitter.com/textfiles/status/1536378776094908... He ended up fighting for days and the appeal was never granted, even after someone on that thread said they escalated internally. He ended up moving to Mastodon, @a2_4am@mastodon.social

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#58

Post by juanani » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #12

This is how big tech does damage to humans. Love it or hate it, the online world is our current public square. A public square, in the united states, has typically been an area where people can shout out their concerns or whatever they want to anyone who can listen and the government cannot stop it. Currently, our public squares are owned by private megacorporations that not only ban people for reasons many people ag…

No post body was provided.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#59

Post by thr0wawayf00 » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

lebed2045 wrote: post #50

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #12

This is how big tech does damage to humans. Love it or hate it, the online world is our current public square. A public square, in the united states, has typically been an area where people can shout out their concerns or whatever they want to anyone who can listen and the government cannot stop it. Currently, our public squares are owned by private megacorporations that not only ban people for reasons many people ag…

I’m ex Facebook software engineer (even had selfie with Zuckerberg as the avatar picture) who got banned on Facebook. Up to this day I have no clue what for. But it’s extremely annoying because I lost lots of photos that I didn’t back up and close to thousand contracts of people. Users should definitely own this data, not a corporation.

The irony here is that I deleted my FB years ago and back then at least, FB only permitted deleting one photo at a time. Took me well over an hour to delete all of my photos.

In hindsight, I should've just done something obviously ban-able instead.

Re: A clip from Stray got me banned from Twitter

#60

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Jul 23, 2022, 1:19 PM UTC

Forgeties79 wrote: post #54

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #12

This is how big tech does damage to humans. Love it or hate it, the online world is our current public square. A public square, in the united states, has typically been an area where people can shout out their concerns or whatever they want to anyone who can listen and the government cannot stop it. Currently, our public squares are owned by private megacorporations that not only ban people for reasons many people ag…

I am so tired of the public square analogy. You don’t need Twitter. You don’t need Facebook. You don’t need Reddit. And what’s more, you can still read them if you’re banned. If you think it’s ok for a restaurant to turn you away because of a dress code, then this is a non-issue. The are several major platforms you can use as a megaphone, just like you have plenty of restaurants to choose from for your meal. If you a…

> And what’s more, you can still read them if you’re banned.

That is changing and in many places already no longer true.