I am selling this story to Boulder Weekly. I used to work with @dotMudge.
They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
191–200 of 258 posts
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, you're morally bankrupt. It's nice to see a well written article like that on the frontpage of this site, but unfortunately the venture capital fueled business model proposed by ycombinator is at the heart of the problem. Liability my ass. This is some disgusting dystopian bullshit. Also if you talk about liability, heard about the Streisand effect? Public opinion about these corporations is low and i think twit…
There is a long history of liability in the USA when you take on editorializing roles. This was broken by the Communication Decency Act (CDA section 230) but case law has is slowly moving back. It is a valid concern. If CDA 230 were taken away, I wouldn’t be surprised if common carrier laws fell as well. The telephone companies can listen to all phone calls, so they may need to editorialize (mute, disconnect, report…
Twitter's response was so soulless, it's unclear if it's a bot. This is what i find most unacceptable. Others have expanded on the censorship problem in this thread.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#193Web3 fixes this but people think it's all about monkey pictures and scams.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Twitter is being used by both sides to fight over a narrative. Nothing new in that respect. It's a narrative that could get one side kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned for years and potentially killed. I've seen previous incidents where Facebook and other platforms were nightmare fuel for locals and the platform didn't even have moderators who spoke the local language for purposes of reviewing the issue. These platforms…
But isn't it more complicated than that? A Western journalist falsely accused of being an agent for a foreign power wouldn't get much help from Twitter either - I'm familiar with a couple who are routinely accused of being Russian agents. I get why this guy wants more, and I can understand the perspective that Twitter has to take into account the context of local countries and which kinds of speech might be dangerous…
> Pakistan isn't allowed to have as much free speech as the rest of the world because it's too violent?
Not all speech is free speech. In the US, there are limitations, such as harmful or offensive content, and this includes speech that is both false and dangerous.
This is not a free speech issue. The OP is being stalked. Fundamentally, stalking is a threat of injury or death, as well as unwanted surveillance by an individual or group, and stalking behavior includes precisely this type of harassment. The OP's life is in obvious danger. This is a criminal issue.
If the OP is in the US, I'd recommend researching how to request political asylum.
Unsolicited advice to all: stay off of any social media unless it includes anonymity. Protect your identity. In the US, only two things can happen to you by participating in non-anonymous social media:
#1) nothing
#2) you get fired
Pakistan has raised the stakes and turned #2 into "you get abducted and killed."
Fuck Twitter. What a shitty platform. If I wanted to effect political change in a third world country, I would found a secret society, secretly install a printing press somewhere, and run it 24/7. That is how you kill fascists.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#195If OP simple claim that these people had misgendered him instead of threatening his life they would be forever banned from Twitter.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
People with cushy lives, working for some mid-level corp writing CRUD apps used by 20 people, also have never faced the challenges of moderation at million people scale. So, it kind of cuts both ways
I would understand if the rhetoric was centered around "it's very hard for Twitter to do that" but the detraction in the comments reads more "Twitter shouldn't do that".
For me it’s more of a: “this is what happens when you are ideologically inconsistent”. I don't feel like people are saying “Twitter shouldn’t”. I think the correct interpretation is “Twitter can’t”.
I thoroughly despise Twitter because they bless some issues and not others. Even though I support the end game of what they are trying to do (e.g. in the case of LGBTQ agenda topics), I vehemently disagree with the idea that the means to the end should involve policed speech and controlled narratives. Because that’s what fascists do.
So my problem is actually with Twitter. I pity the author. But I blame Twitter for creating the perception that they support the western rights of all individuals across the globe. Because they don’t, and can’t.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#197its interesting to see supporter of the previous govt who silenced most of the journalists and activists from twitter with heavy handed law enforcement tactics, now claiming to be a freedom of speech proponent For those who do not know, PTI owned and operated largest bots and trolls network who habitually abused people who ever would disagree with them. Consider them TRUMP supporters like mentality people in Pakistan
That's the first thought that occurred to me as well, especially after reading the line "...some of the top journalists and activists...". Well, they've been under more sophisticated harrassment and abuse for close to 4 years now, but all this time... Crickets.
It is clearly wrong that people should be subjected to any abuse/torture/coordinated campaigns regardless of party associations. But forgive me for not being completely empathetic when anyone claims to have become a victim of these campaigns starting around the time of "the coup a few months ago".
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is who determines if it’s a smear campaign? The author claims it was, and I tend to believe him but I haven’t investigated. Have you? And then, how determines if it’s extreme enough to warrant some action? In the ideal world sure there would be an army of people investigating every case in detail. But then 1) Twitter becomes the arbiter of truth and 2) definitely can’t scale.
Oh come the fuck on. People on HN need to get over this: At a certain point people and organizations need to stop pretending that “both sides could in theory have a point” and actually take a stand. “But what if the stand they take is opposite the one you think they should take? How would you like that?” I wouldn’t, I’d badger them to take my position. Hopefully I’d succeed, and if I didn’t, I’d join a long line of p…
I don’t want communication platform organizations taking any stands anywhere ever. That sounds dystopian and horrible. Deleting these Tweets won’t change a damn thing and might even be more harmful (what if the author didn't know they were being targeted because Twitter deleted everything, then they hopped back home because Twitter made them feel safe and fuzzy, and the got detained and tortured, for instance). What will change things is people getting off their keyboards and taking stands. You cannot pwn the responsibility off on Twitter moderators. Only the truth can hide the lies.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
Twitter is being used by both sides to fight over a narrative. Nothing new in that respect. It's a narrative that could get one side kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned for years and potentially killed. I've seen previous incidents where Facebook and other platforms were nightmare fuel for locals and the platform didn't even have moderators who spoke the local language for purposes of reviewing the issue. These platforms…
But isn't it more complicated than that? A Western journalist falsely accused of being an agent for a foreign power wouldn't get much help from Twitter either - I'm familiar with a couple who are routinely accused of being Russian agents. I get why this guy wants more, and I can understand the perspective that Twitter has to take into account the context of local countries and which kinds of speech might be dangerous…
Get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.
If social medias don't want to sweat the small stuff -- accountability for being the disease vector for genocide, pogroms, and personal vendettas -- then they shouldn't operate in that capacity.
Re: They're trying to get me kidnapped and tortured, but Twitter doesn't care
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
But isn't it more complicated than that? A Western journalist falsely accused of being an agent for a foreign power wouldn't get much help from Twitter either - I'm familiar with a couple who are routinely accused of being Russian agents. I get why this guy wants more, and I can understand the perspective that Twitter has to take into account the context of local countries and which kinds of speech might be dangerous…
> Pakistan isn't allowed to have as much free speech as the rest of the world because it's too violent? Not all speech is free speech. In the US, there are limitations, such as harmful or offensive content, and this includes speech that is both false and dangerous. This is not a free speech issue. The OP is being stalked. Fundamentally, stalking is a threat of injury or death, as well as unwanted surveillance by an i…
I just don't understand what we're talking about here. The source article doesn't say that anyone has stalked him, surveilled him, or threatened him. His complaints are that someone said he's "inciting violence" when that's not an accurate characterization of his perspective, and that someone said he works for an organization he doesn't work for. In the US neither of these things are a big deal and could not be a criminal issue.
Again, I do understand that the stakes are higher in the kind of country where people are routinely lynched for blasphemy. But I don't think it's a lack of cultural sensitivity or some blindness to consequences that stops Twitter from applying different standards here! Most Pakistanis would not, I think, appreciate being told that because they live in the wrong country Twitter won't let them speak so freely.