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Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

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Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#211

Post by nradov »

koheripbal wrote: post #192
mabbo wrote: post #21

Honest question: is the source of the problem the hateful intent of the message, or the use of "bad words"? My reading on culture these days is that one can usually get away with spouting horrendous, hateful ideas so long as they do so without using a short list of offensive words. If the truly are trying to scrub hate from their platform, I applaud their effort, but they'll never succeed. Hate is too hard to define…

My issue with it is entirely different - the user isn't American. He lives in New Zealand. Throwing HATE at a US politician during a US election in public is foreign interference and should be removed on that basis.

Should Twitter also prohibit US residents from posting disparaging tweets about Vladimir Putin during the next Russian election season?

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#212

Post by nailer »

luckylion wrote: post #96
katbyte wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s wealth and maybe being from a race and sex that generally isn’t raked over the coals for simply being black or a women? White male politicians don’t get much flak for being white or male. Black women politician would get so much for both her race and gender. As a women I’d never want to be in the public eye for this reason.

> White male politicians don’t get much flak for being white or male. "Stupid white men" was a huge success a few years back.

Not disputing the sentiment, but if you're referring to Michael Moore's book, the full title is "Stupid White Men ...And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!" - ie, he's not being racist or sexist but rather saying that's a very simplistic excuse.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#213

Post by vorpalhex »

prepend wrote: post #141
vorpalhex wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So who do you propose gets to spoonfeed the masses with their okayed content? That is a terrifying argument.

Obviously the natural answer is the companies who started first and developed these products that are now super widely used. I’ve only heard two arguments- let Twitter do what they want (viva Capitalism!) or have government regulate (viva Socialism!). I wish there was more thought given by Twitter, and others, to just self apply free speech rights and stick to using the current legal system to restricting speech. The…

It's not a binary switch. The government frequently regulates entities and restricts them, especially large monopolistic ones - "Hey Spectrum, you can't impose bandwidth caps because you swallowed all the competition". There's no reason the Government can't allow Twitter to still operate as a private, for profit platform (Capitalism) and restrict their limiting or banning of accounts (recognizing that they're used widely for disseminating official policy positions and governmental information among other things and there's no competition).

What the Government can't do is tell Twitter what statements it is or is not allowed to publish (authoritarianism).

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#214

Post by root_axis »

mrrrgn wrote: post #195
hacknat wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but why isn't Twitter allowed to curate political content? They have a 1st amendment right to do so. Just like every newspaper before them got the right to curate who got published in their editorial section.

There is a difference between a platform and a publisher. Publishers can curate, platforms aren't supposed to. As I understand it, whether social media companies are platforms or publishers forms the actual core and substance of this debate about "free speech." edit Apparently there is no legal distinction between a platform and a publisher? It looks like this article may explain the confusion that I myself had. => h…

> As I understand it, whether social media companies are platforms or publishers forms the actual core and substance of this debate about "free speech."

This is wrong. There is no such distinction between platforms and publishers and the opposite is actually true. The law explicitly states that website owners are not responsible for content provided by other parties and are also explicitly permitted to curate their platforms for what they deem to be objectionable content.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#215

Post by lr4444lr »

zaroth wrote: post #105
indigochill wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we look at some differences between Twitter (or insert your favorite social media platform here) and email: * Email providers have zero responsibility for filtering information * Email users form their own networks dynamically through actual relationships rather than some artificial structure of "followers"/"friends" * Email users never get banned from sending email (although maybe in some cases an individual serv…

The answer is much simpler than you are making this appear. Sending an email is a private communication. Sending a tweet is a public communication. Your email provider is not a publishing platform any more than the paper store or the USPS is a publishing platform. Twitter is a publisher, although as an Internet publisher disseminating user generated content, they are protected by law from the typical liability that p…

I believe that's an artificial distinction. Companies like Mailchimp have already started implementing protections like mandatory opt-out mechanisms to protect themselves from liability. If networks of mailing lists around political rather than business interests were more common, I'd expect no less this kind of self-policing.

The OP hits at a fundamental problem. I'm not sure there's a clear path forward.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#216

Post by stronglikedan »

tablethnuser wrote: post #172

The rule of thumb I use is to ask: if someone had shouted this in a supermarket or bank line, what would happen? Internet communities should aspire to be more like local communities. If you're a jerk in real life, people will show you the door. Making this about grand abstract concepts like free speech or censorship is internet fun for people who like to debate. But it's overcomplicating the situation. Twitter is jus…

> what would happen?

Nothing. It's not a bad tweet. It's not threatening violence. It's not racist. It's not hateful towards a particular group. It's just a criticism wrapped in an insult, and frankly, not even a comparatively harsh insult. It's sad that some people think it should be removed.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#217

Post by root_axis »

hacknat wrote: post #166
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Mastercard required to do business with the Bernie Sanders campaign, even though his stated policy goals might harm their business?

Funny. Yeah, they're not. Political ideology is not a protected class in US law.

edit: What I wrote here is wrong. It was not confirmed it was only a narrow ruling.

And as the courts have recently confirmed, even protected classes cannot compel a business into speech that contradicts their own sincerely held moral and ethical beliefs.

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#218

Post by brokensegue »

iamthirsty wrote: post #34
brokensegue wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that justify toxic behavior?

Toxic behavior happens on every level of society and to every occupation. Being a politician doesn’t automatically make toxic behavior towards you—it was always okay towards you! That’s how the world works. However, when you become a public figure and especially a political one people may feel more entitled to lash out against you, as you literally hold power over their lives, even if they themselves may disagree wit…

Is that a yes or a no?

Re: Twitter locked my account for a nine year old tweet

#220

Post by brokensegue »

johnisgood wrote: post #152
katbyte wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that makes it ok? What about threats? Are they also ok?

I don't think he is justifying it, it's just that you need to be able to deal with insults in a healthy way. Stoicism comes to mind.

But not being able to deal with it isn't what we're discussing.
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