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Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

nytimes.com

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Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#111

Post by phillipcarter »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #82
tjr225 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is entitled to create her own Twitter. Not to use someone else’s Twitter.

I don’t disagree with you, I am just ruminating about making a personal decision to stop using Twitter. I did that years ago for Facebook (now, less than ten minutes a month in FB). I am having some difficulty deciding whether I think the major Platforms should be public regulated services or the property of companies that can do anything they want to with their property. My opinion changes on this…

> My opinion changes on this…

It's a fine orthogonal discussion. There are several things worth considering in my mind:

* Perhaps these social media platforms are defectively designed

* Section 230 may need to be amended so that billion-dollar companies have more to hold them to account when things spread on their platforms

* CEOs could be criminally prosecuted when their companies lie (e.g., Facebook's ad revenue fraud in promoting FB video)

I think there are far better reasons to consider leaving social media than them suspending the personal account of a known provocateur who breaks rules all the time (her official government account is intact).

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#112

Post by krapp »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #50
Veen wrote: post #27

Elected officials shouldn't have to rely on Twitter or other social media platforms to communicate with their constituencies. This woman seems like a loon to me, but she's a loon with a democratic mandate. If social media is going to be the default communication medium, then perhaps it needs regulation to clarify its relationship with elected officials.

This is close to my reasoning. If Twitter or others are so important then they should be regulated as public utilities. I don't think they are. It's funny when politicians with entire staff committed to disseminating information complain about censorship.

If social media is that important - and that isn't a decision anyone has actually voted on, it's just something people say now - then the government can build its own social media platform and regulate it as a utility. Having the government take over a private business because it decides the free speech rights of politicians should be more important than the free speech and association rights of everyone else is a bad idea.

This isn't like the FCC regulating the airwaves, the internet isn't a limited spectrum, and there's no reason to act as if the capacity to disseminate information over it is actually a scarce resource.

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#113

Post by afavour »

What an absolute boon for Marjorie Taylor Greene. Twitter is not a place where useful, meaningful conversation happens in the political space (especially by people like MTG) but she’ll be able to dine out on this ban for a long time. I expect it’ll be featured in every fundraising email she sends until something changes.

She’s not meaningfully censored, just like Trump wasn’t: every press release he sends gets coverage, he still sends out emails to his millions of followers just fine.

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#114

Post by dragontamer »

anigbrowl wrote: post #107
dragontamer wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Streisand Effect She is a Congressional Representative. This isn't about shutting her up. Its about Twitter coming out and saying that they agree that she's a loon. No one actually expects a member of Congress to be permanently shut up over something like this. -------- When '@dang' comes around here and deletes posts, its about pushing the discussion in the direction they want for this website. The _ONLY_ moderati…

I disagree. Any communication system can be gamed, but the incentives can be distributed many different ways. If Twitter had shared blocklists for example, it would be easier for people to coordinate that kind of signaling. I think the originally intent was to have it as a platform for positive conversation (so you can favorite or share a tweet but not downvote it); however the structure of the platform meant that di…

> If Twitter had shared blocklists for example, it would be easier for people to coordinate that kind of signaling.

But Twitter doesn't. Hacker News doesn't. Reddit doesn't.

All three of these large Social Media sites require moderators to police the actions of their users. This isn't new or exotic, this is just how the web typically works. Forums, Usenet, Mailing lists, IRC, BBS, its always been like this.

If you want to try to make a new social network with different moderation systems (ex: user-based blocking), feel free to do so. But I've hung out enough on 8-chan to know that you'll have to deal with Swatters and Doxxers almost immediately, who are looking for an unmoderated coordination medium, and they'll take advantage of your features. You'll also have to deal with lesser forms of spam and advertisements: Cryptocoin spam these days, but it used to be Viagra, or Nigerian Prince scams.

-------

The question isn't "Twitter shouldn't be allowed to moderate its users". The question is if Twitter made the right move here or not.

So now lets actually discuss the crux of the issue: is spreading COVID19 misinformation a big enough reason to warrant a banning? I of course agree with the move. Our hospitals are filling up with the Omicron variant and the vast majority of these patients are not-vaccinated. Twitter leveraging their reputation to say that Marjorie Taylor Green is a net benefit to society.

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#115

Post by gregd »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #2

I don’t care what she said, it is not the job of private businesses to censor elected officials. And yes, I know they can but that does not mean they should .

What obligation does Twitter have to provide anyone with a platform?

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#116

Post by solarkraft »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #54

No matter what their politics are, I would hope that all reasonable people can condemn cancel culture, regardless of the political alignment of the person being cancelled. I get a lot of value from Twitter because I follow a few awesomely interesting people, but I could probably get the same effect by bookmarking their blogs. People should have access to all information, and filter for themselves what is trash. I don…

Is it a manifestation of cancel culture to enforce platform rules (a "code of conduct", if you will)? You can argument that the rules are politically charged. Whether that's okay is determined by whether you think Twitter is a private or a public space.

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#117

Post by short12 »

psyc wrote: post #99
hairofadog wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your conversation with your mom is private communication, while your tweets are broadcast communications.

You've stated a fact. Why does this fact make Twitter the speaker whose free speech rights take precedence?

It's apples and oranges and therefore are not and should not be regulated in the same way

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#118

Post by tjr225 »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #82
tjr225 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is entitled to create her own Twitter. Not to use someone else’s Twitter.

I don’t disagree with you, I am just ruminating about making a personal decision to stop using Twitter. I did that years ago for Facebook (now, less than ten minutes a month in FB). I am having some difficulty deciding whether I think the major Platforms should be public regulated services or the property of companies that can do anything they want to with their property. My opinion changes on this…

Yes I agree with you too. The issue shouldn’t be whether someone can post whatever they want on someone else’s platform- how did so few platforms(of dubious quality) become the main channels for communication? How did our internet become theirs? How can we fix it?

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#119

Post by alwayseasy »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #10
no-dr-onboard wrote: post #3

I’m not sure what she said, but given the amount of reversals and “facts-later-questioned” concerning this virus, I’d be interested to see if she ever would have it reinstated if she were right about the key points concerning her ban.

I distinctly remember when discussing whether it was a lab leak would get you censored. Now, scientists consider it unlikely, but now you are allowed to discuss it.

No, the "censorship" tended to target those that discussed the lab leak and then retweeted hateful and anti-Asian content aside.

Re: Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Account

#120

Post by anigbrowl »

dragontamer wrote: post #114
anigbrowl wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Any communication system can be gamed, but the incentives can be distributed many different ways. If Twitter had shared blocklists for example, it would be easier for people to coordinate that kind of signaling. I think the originally intent was to have it as a platform for positive conversation (so you can favorite or share a tweet but not downvote it); however the structure of the platform meant that di…

> If Twitter had shared blocklists for example, it would be easier for people to coordinate that kind of signaling. But Twitter doesn't. Hacker News doesn't. Reddit doesn't. All three of these large Social Media sites require moderators to police the actions of their users. This isn't new or exotic, this is just how the web typically works. Forums, Usenet, Mailing lists, IRC, BBS, its always been like this. If you wa…

Well nothing is preventing them from implementing such features if they want to.
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