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Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

nytimes.com

21–30 of 174 posts

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

#21
post #10

Cmon the meme is kinda funny.

It's also kind of stupid. As in, very tiny amounts the things that the "joke" tries to attack are based in reality. Its as if they cannot accept that large numbers of progressive or liberal minded people exist.

I think it's actually the reverse. Your critique is that the NPC meme ignores that lots of liberals/progressives exist.

The rightist promoters of the NPC meme would agree with that statement -- but they would say that it's because most are just acting as ideologically/memetically programmed automatons. Crucial to understanding this meme is that its promoters see "libs" not as literal bots, but as humans-with-bot-thinking, who have grown up on a diet of platitudes and mantras without deep analysis.

On the contrary, the left/libs/progressives (whatever you want to call them) on Twitter have had a habit of actually doing what you're saying, when they pull out the "oh look another Russian bot" troll. That meme actually asserts that the number of actual conservatives/right-wingers is literally small and being amplified by actual programmed chatbots.

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

#22
post #14

A long time ago, I was told "don't feed the trolls". It's hard to see how this publicity (e.g. the NYT) is not feeding the trolls. There is no doubt that this campaign, whatever motivations, was successful. At the same time, social media platforms are more at the ready to ban pranksters, bots, etc. That might be the only approach that works when the majority of society participates. (1) don't feed the troll, but it g…

That approach only works for people who are "acting out" and trying to get attention online. The meaning of "troll" has changed. It doesn't work for people who are conducting harassment campaigns or spreading misinformation. It kinda doesn't work for anyone you're interacting with on a personal, non-anonymous basis anyway. If someone is behaving badly in a company or even in a casual group, you don't just ignore them.

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

#23
I love the last question ‘Aren’t you giving these trolls the attention they’re seeking by writing about them in The New York Times?’

I thought the same thing. Interesting to see right-wing business coming out of *chan-land. I’d always seen it as more of a left-wing place.

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

#25
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.

"30 year old boomers"?

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

#26
post #7

...as someone who is oblivious to these things (only knew it was a "thing" last night)...can someone explain why this is harmful and not just people wasting time?

> These accounts posed as liberal activists and were used to spread — among other things — false information about November’s midterm elections

Which violates the Twitter policy against intentionally misleading election content. Pretty straight forward.

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

#28

I love the last question ‘Aren’t you giving these trolls the attention they’re seeking by writing about them in The New York Times?’ I thought the same thing. Interesting to see right-wing business coming out of *chan-land. I’d always seen it as more of a left-wing place.

*chan-land is pro freedom of speech. Historically that meant being against things like religious crusades against explicit lyrics and anti-evolution arguments. With the shift of the left against free speech, they've become the new enemy.

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

#29
post #15
post #7

...as someone who is oblivious to these things (only knew it was a "thing" last night)...can someone explain why this is harmful and not just people wasting time?

It's basically propaganda. Propaganda is generally agreed to be a bad thing for a true democracy.

How in the world is criticizing the capacity of a persons ability to critically think by using memes Propaganda.

I'm right wing and I find the boxed responses from leftest to line up with some of the NPC stuff I saw.

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

#30
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.

"30 year old boomers"?

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/30-year-old-boomer
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