Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 505 posts

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#111

Post by ncallaway »

nemo44x wrote: post #71
labrador wrote: post #65

Babylon Bee seems pretty harmless. I find right wing humor to be fairly low-IQ, but they should be able to joke about trans women without getting banned. I'm a recovering alcoholic and bipolar, so I have to put up with jokes about drunks and manic street preachers. Why should trans get a pass? Heck, I even tell jokes about drunks and manic street preachers myself.

They should be able to joke about anything. There are no sacred cows. If someone doesn’t like their humor then don’t read it. Don’t follow them.

They are allowed to joke about anything. They just aren't allowed to joke about anything anywhere.

If Twitter doesn't want them to make those kinds of jokes on their platform, Twitter is free to tell them they can't make those jokes there. That doesn't stop the Babylon Bee from making those jokes.

And, if Twitter has changed their mind, Twitter is free to tell them that they can now make those jokes on the platform.

This is how the marketplace of ideas works. Twitter is a participant in that marketplace. If you want to say things on their platform, you have to follow their rules.

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#112

Post by fallingknife »

bediger4000 wrote: post #85
Nursie wrote: post #35

I imagine this will do a speed run of unbanning -> turning into a cesspit of toxicity because ‘free speech’ -> lots of people leave because it’s so unpleasant. It’ll be fun to watch though, as someone that’s never valued the site.

I think you're correct. The example of the Heat Death of Usenet seems relevant. If you don't trim spam and annoyances, people leave. I think Musk's Twitter will be an interesting test, if Musk allows enough unfettered speech.

Both Reddit and Twitter were basically free for alls until 2015 or so. Their user numbers were growing strongly. So I don't buy the whole offensive speech is going to drive off users angle. Spam is a different story, but Elon Musk has never said he is going to allow that.

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#113

Post by xadhominemx »

mrkstu wrote: post #80
socialismisok wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They gave a trans woman their man of the year award and tweeted about it. Twitter said misgendering is against their rules and blocked the account until they deleted the tweet. Babylon Bee felt attacked and refused to delete the tweet, so they just left their own account locked.

I'm not sure if they felt 'attacked'- more that they were standing up for their right to do what they do (satire) without being censored and giving into the censorship by deleting the tweet. The 'mis-gendering' in this case was absolutely truthful in a scientific sense, thereby making their point that truth being somehow harmful in today's society. Whether you agree that's a 'good' point or not it seems to fall squar…

They don’t have the right to say hateful things about someone on someone else’s platform. They had a privilege, which was conditionally revoked.

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#114

Post by nonethewiser »

somenameforme wrote: post #14
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #2

Why was it suspended in the first place?

Here's the article: https://babylonbee.com/news/the-babylon-bees-man-of-the-year... There's also a lot more history as well. Elon has done a [serious] interview with the Babylon Bee before [1] and also propped them on Twitter [2]. When they were banned he contacted the head of the site to confirm they had been suspended, and even mentioned to him that he might have to buy the site to fix their behaviors. [3] That was…

No post body was provided.

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#115

Post by readthenotes1 »

socialismisok wrote: post #92
ohCh6zos wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Galileo wasn't really under house arrest. All he had to do was recant. The comparison seems apt because while the magnitude of the punishment is out of proportion the refusal to yield to orthodoxy by taking the simple way out is similar.

Babylon Bee isn't under house arrest. This analogy is absurd. They weren't allowed to target hate towards a specific, named individual on their Twitter account. Everything else they were saying was more or less ok. And they still had plenty of other outlets, including their very successful website. This is like a single book publisher telling Galileo, "we won't print this one page, but the rest of the book is ok".

If I recall correctly, they were suspended for saying that that specific named individual one man of the Year award.

That doesn't seem very hateful, although it may seem derisive. There is a difference.

Did it go beyond that?

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#116

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

bakugo wrote: post #51
Nursie wrote: post #35

I imagine this will do a speed run of unbanning -> turning into a cesspit of toxicity because ‘free speech’ -> lots of people leave because it’s so unpleasant. It’ll be fun to watch though, as someone that’s never valued the site.

> turning into a cesspit of toxicity because ‘free speech’ Twitter is already a cesspit of toxicity because of the lack of free speech. This won't make it any worse.

I guess it depends on which side you believe is more toxic.

It's strange you would take the side that limiting bigotry, racism, homophobia, and transphobia is what creates toxicity.

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#117

Post by Shared404 »

mrkstu wrote: post #80
socialismisok wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They gave a trans woman their man of the year award and tweeted about it. Twitter said misgendering is against their rules and blocked the account until they deleted the tweet. Babylon Bee felt attacked and refused to delete the tweet, so they just left their own account locked.

I'm not sure if they felt 'attacked'- more that they were standing up for their right to do what they do (satire) without being censored and giving into the censorship by deleting the tweet. The 'mis-gendering' in this case was absolutely truthful in a scientific sense, thereby making their point that truth being somehow harmful in today's society. Whether you agree that's a 'good' point or not it seems to fall squar…

> The 'mis-gendering' in this case was absolutely truthful in a scientific sense,

Except:

A) Gender != biological sex.

B) Even biological sex has a lot more shades of grey

C) Even if the Bee were referring to biological sex, it would be Male/Female of the year, not Man/Woman.

D) It's the Bee. Everyone knows the intent.

Re: The Babylon Bee's Twitter account is no longer suspended

#118

Post by _aavaa_ »

socialismisok wrote: post #78
_aavaa_ wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it "his personal ideology" when he's one in charge, but simply "twitter's rules" when the previous CEOs were in charge?

Because there are differences in how the rules were created. Presumably previous rules involved policy teams and moderation teams and legal teams. Elon rolling in and being like, "Unban these people even though they've broken the rules" is clearly a different mode.

> Presumably previous rules involved policy teams and moderation teams and legal teams.

Presumably is doing some heavily lifting here. But either way, my point stands why isn't it "group ideology". Simply because it was made by committee doesn't change the connotation used.

If someone opposed to Musk's views later takes control of twitter and restores everything to the current status quo, will that also be done using "personaly ideology"?

Post reply on HN