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Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

nytimes.com

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Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#131

Post by anjc »

jobigoud wrote: post #99
anjc wrote: post #3

The speed at which the media have rounded against this meme is breathtaking. Are some memes inherently powerful and just need to be controlled? Why are they powerful? How much longer can 30 year old boomers be let sip Monsters outdoors? It's not right.

Yes some memes are more powerful than others. Like biological replicators, they score on longevity, fecundity and fidelity. For example many religions have a clause where if you stop believing you go to hell. Or if you don't teach it to your children you are a bad person. Very powerful mechanism.

Ok but what makes a certain meme have enough power that it then has fecundity/fidelity? There must be a resonance between powerful memes and 'human nature' or else they surely wouldn't propagate (e.g. fear of death, in the case of the 'hell' meme).

I suppose what I'm wondering is: is this meme making people fret that they might actually be NPCs? It must be resonating with people or else there wouldn't be uproar.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#132

Post by ericdykstra »

pcbro141 wrote: post #128
ericdykstra wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you draw the line? Do you think an account with... username: NPC #15253823 id: npc_15253823 avatar: generic gray NPC avatar with sunglasses posting #LetHerDecide memes is "clearly for the purpose of influencing an election," or is it satire? If that level of satire won't be tolerated, what will?

Twitter decided trying to get people to not vote by spreading the wrong election date crosses the line. There's not much satire in spreading the wrong election date. I don't think it's ridiculous at all.

You avoided my direct question. Most of the accounts in question did not spread the wrong election date.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#133

Post by WillPostForFood »

wpietri wrote: post #44
DanAndersen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really that hard to understand? At its simplest level, the NPC meme is an extension of "I'm a member of [insert outgroup here], look how dumb I sound" trolling.

I guess? It's so self-invalidating that I'm having trouble seeing the point. Do they understand that they're engaging in the exact behavior they're criticizing? If they do and see it as clever irony, it hasn't come across in the bits I've seen. If they don't then it seems a vigorous self-own.

Satire definitionally takes on elements of what is is criticizing. So your question is good, do they understand they're engaging in the same behavior they are criticizing. I think the answer is obviously they do. Just like when SNL does an obnoxious loud rendition of Donald Trump, they know they are being loud and obnoxious. I don't think most people would say SNL self-owns because they are being loud and obnoxious just like Trump - they are clearly mocking him.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#134

Post by pcbro141 »

nailer wrote: post #114
pcbro141 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spreading the wrong voting day is. The mockery is fine, but I don't see anything ridiculous about Twitter not tolerating voter suppression campaigns on their platform.

Do you think: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/10/17/business/17NPC/17... looks like a source of trustworthy information?

I guess Twitter took a zero-tolerance stance against voter suppression campaigns, whether the accounts involved are clearly satirical or not. They just flat out don't want people using their platform to spread the wrong election date, even if spreading the wrong election date is just 'trolling' or 'satire' or 'expressing my opinion on the liberals' to some. Again, I don't find that stance ridiculous.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#135

Post by username3 »

jf- wrote: post #80

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’d prefer if this culture war crap were kept off HN. There are plenty of other places to discuss this, just because Twitter is involved doesn’t mean it’s related to tech.

This article was on Techmeme.

https://www.techmeme.com/181016/p42#a181016p42

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#137

Post by heavenlyhash »

jessaustin wrote: post #102
heavenlyhash wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the 1,000,000th time: you can't shout "fire" in a crowded theater and call it "satire" either.

Repeating it all those times hasn't made it true.

... What?

Edit: Oh, your profile says " "obvious troll" ". Okay then. Checks out.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#138

Post by castlecrasher2 »

sp332 wrote: post #62
adamnemecek wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it?

Harmful? "a few of the accounts started posting misleading information about the midterm elections, including encouraging liberals to vote on Nov. 7". Yes.

Golly, this is so "show me the man and I'll find you the crime" going on here. Are liberals actually too stupid to know when the vote is?

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#139

Post by [deleted] »

pcbro141 wrote: post #117
abnry wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh. So people who would normally vote liberal are now going to vote on the wrong day because they got the election day date from a troll account mocking their liberal position--and they didn't bother to remember that elections are always on Tuesdays or to use google?

I guess Twitter found the potential negatives of allowing voter suppression campaigns on their platform (no matter how ineffectual you think they are) are greater than the benefits of allowing people to carry them out 'because free speech.'

[deleted]

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#140

Post by castlecrasher2 »

Retric wrote: post #33
malvosenior wrote: post #13

> Last week, a trolling campaign organized by right-wing internet users spilled over onto Twitter. So Twitter bans a bunch of satire accounts for political reasons and the New York Times applauds the decision. This makes me incredibly sad but I guess it's to be expected. If your political position is so weak that some jokes can damage it, maybe it's time to take a deep inward look. I don't see anyone calling on SNL t…

For spreading incorrect election information. Plenty of far right twitter accounts, these where designed to get banned for publicity.

>far right twitter accounts

Nazis are everywhere, after all.

And wow is it just embarrassing to see this "incorrect election information" thing being touted here. If someone was actually convinced that the election was a day later because they believed an NPC Twitter account they have only themselves to blame.

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