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Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

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Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#251

Post by satysin »

This is very interesting to watch unfold in real-time.

I find it fascinating the President of the United States is ranting about 1st Amendment violations with regards to a private business. Pretty sure there is nothing in the 1st Amendment that says he is guaranteed the right to tweet.

I hope Twitter takes this a step further the next time he violates their ToS and gives his account a 48 hour suspension.

I understand why Trump is picking this fight but I can't help but feel Twitter hold the power. Sure Trump has been a big driving factor in Twitter really hitting mainstream but I would be surprised if he was still adding huge value to the platform. If anything banning Trump would be the biggest thing to ever happen to Twitter as he wouldn't let it go.

However I can't see a way for Trump to win such a fight. It could go all the way to the SCOTUS but if they sided against Twitter it would affect literally every big social media platform in the US which I can't see happening.

Zooming all the way out I don't see why Twitter really care about such a fight as there is no way Google and Facebook (to name just two) would let things go against Twitter as it would be devastating to them as well.

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#252

Post by aikinai »

ikeyany wrote: post #244
mc32 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, so do you censor things like Dr Dre’s 187 because it might be interpreted as inciting violence against (corrupt) police? A public figure of renown among fans.

Two notes: 1) I am not Jack Dorsey and Twitter is not my product, so I'm not sure why you said "you". 2) Dr Dre is not the president of the United States and does not have the authority to direct law enforcement and the military... surely you see the difference.

"Do you" in a sentence like this is equivalent to "does one;" it doesn't actually refer to the listener, at least in American English.

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#253

Post by aebtebeten »

dijit wrote: post #201
ikeyany wrote: post #192

People are wondering "How far does this go? How can Twitter say this is not cool, but allow something like violent movies or games? Where's the line?" The leader of the United States encouraging law enforcement and the military to shoot American citizens for looting, that's the line.

We have laws in the UK that curtail speech like that, "Inciting violence" is a crime. Which I agree with to some extent, you're not innocent of a crime because you convinced a person to harm another, just because you were too cowardly to get your hands dirty yourself. But the US is rather famously not British, so I'm not sure if it's a relevant thing to add to the discussion.

I'm also on the other* side of the Atlantic from this circus, but a little googling over lunch led me to the "Brandenburg Test" for when "Inciting violence" is no longer protected by the 1A. (NB: 1A is an entirely different subject than Twitter's TOS, which I addressed in the original thread)

Briefly: speech which both incites imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action fails to be protected as US "free speech".

In this case, my IANAL analysis would be that the tweet had imminent application, but would be unlikely to produce action, for reasons given in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347453 (tl;dr lethal force is the last resort of a well-regulated militia when restoring public order)

* and am therefore fond of "On the fact..." https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd06xx/EWD611.PDF

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#254

Post by illuminated »

chlodwig wrote: post #238
illuminated wrote: post #183

I know it is "never too late" for things like this to happen, but it's definitely late. One of the main reasons for bad things to happen is the lack of education (which, in turn, leads to resist to change) and, therefore makes people prone to believe to unbelievable things. Social platforms like Twitter should have long had things like "fact checking" ANY statements and should have restricting not only violence glori…

and should have restricting not only violence glorifying posts, but also the ones with racial or sexual discrimination and all the others. Do you think tweets that make derogatory references to Karen's or "tech-bros" should be deleted? Should a Tweet that says, "There will be no peace as long as there is no justice for the centuries of white supremacy and centuries white people oppressing all other peoples." be banne…

I'm not saying every single opinion should be redacted (opinions should not be redacted - they are simply statements of who you are and what are your values), but (false) fact statements and clear/open calls for racial and sexual discrimination, etc.

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#255

Post by dmix »

freen wrote: post #217
mc32 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every feasible interpretation? No way. That’s not gonna work. No one would be able to say anything. At best people would talk like ex Fed chair Greenspan. Undoable.

Please point me to something Obama said that could be interpreted as inciting deadly vigilante violence. I’ll wait.

Why is that the metric?

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#258

Post by mc32 »

giarc wrote: post #250
mc32 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, so do you censor things like Dr Dre’s 187 because it might be interpreted as inciting violence against (corrupt) police? A public figure of renown among fans.

I think you could argue the authority level difference between the president and Dr. Dre means something.

You know, the answer is yes and no. Yes the president has more legal authority and perhaps moral authority, and greater reach, but don’t underestimate the authority of people within their circles. Be it a J Gotti ot Suge Knight.

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#259

Post by notahacker »

mc32 wrote: post #236
ikeyany wrote: post #192

People are wondering "How far does this go? How can Twitter say this is not cool, but allow something like violent movies or games? Where's the line?" The leader of the United States encouraging law enforcement and the military to shoot American citizens for looting, that's the line.

Well, so do you censor things like Dr Dre’s 187 because it might be interpreted as inciting violence against (corrupt) police? A public figure of renown among fans.

Media companies have applied censorship or content warnings to rap music and other art forms - voluntarily or otherwise - for decades without a word of protest from those people determined to make the case for the POTUS' immunity to Twitter's rules

Re: Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”

#260

Post by umvi »

Traster wrote: post #162
bilbo0s wrote: post #131

In fairness, Trump's tweets are not about actually doing anything, they are more about getting votes. So arguing the feasibility of suggestions outlined in a Trump tweet kind of misses the point.

Really? Because literally this week Trump tweeted something and then followed it up with an executive order.

He also promised to throw Hillary in prison for the emails. Still waiting on that one.
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