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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”

#411

Twitter is well within the rights to do this, but I have seen tweets from blue check marks essentially calling for violence and Twitter didn't remove them. So, does that mean Twitter actually -supports- those view points now? If Twitter is going to police people, it needs to be across the board. Otherwise it's just a weird censorship that is targeting one person and can easily be seen as political. Everyone is applau…

> I have seen tweets from blue check marks essentially calling for violence and Twitter didn't remove them

As a Twitter user, I've been concerned with this as well. Clicking on the Minneapolis riots "trend", roughly 1/3 of the top tweets were promoting violence while the overwhelming majority of the remainder were merely sympathetic toward the violence, with only a small sliver denouncing the violence. Note that I don't follow violent or far-left accounts (generally a-political tech accounts, and I'll unfollow people who have especially authoritarian or hateful views in either direction), yet these are overwhelmingly promoted to me (in general, not just in the particular case of the MN riots) either in trends or in the random "here, have this extreme, toxic Tweet from another follower of someone you follow" Tweets that Twitter tosses into my feed. I'm not sure that Twitter is actively promoting extreme left-wing views (it could be that Twitter's user base is really just so far left that its algorithms just can't find any moderate content for me or something), but I don't blame anyone for thinking it does.

EDIT: I'm aware this is a controversial topic, but I'm curious if I'm being downvoted because people don't believe my characterization of my timeline/trends or because my tone was less than thrilled with the volume of left-wing tweets I'm shown or something else. I'm a heretic and I don't deserve my Internet Points, so take them away, but indulge my curiosity about your specific objections! :)

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

#412

Twitter is definitely allowed to do this, legally, but seems like a pretty short-sited decision. There's no way that poking the bear like this is going to lead to anything except a more highly regulated platform.

> There's no way that poking the bear like this is going to lead to anything except a more highly regulated platform.

How? Attempts at regulating Twitter's ability to fact-check on their own privately owned platform would almost certainly fail a First Amendment challenge, and the Democratic House isn't gonna go a long with new laws to crack down on it either.

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

#413
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a worse side effect that comes from conservatives feeling that they have been silenced, as people feel like they have less and less say in a political process they are more and more likely to start employing means outside of it. The real risk here is that if more and more outlets for conservative voices are silenced, whether for good cause or not, this will reinforce the narrative that many of them have that…

Alternatively - if those pushing the far-right violent rhetoric don't have as much of an audience, their support may fade because they don't have a platform. Deplatforming works.

It is an interesting question. Although de-platforming reduces the reach of a group does it increase the overall vitrol of the group, or the level of extremism?

Although it may mean fewer people become part of the community it would also mean that those that remain with it are now more isolated from the outside world and increase the precieved level of persecution? Would this then correlate with an increase in action?

I don't know the answer to this, it seems logical to me that each of these answers would be yes, but I definitely think it is a topic worth investigating and discussing.

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

#414
Trump seems to think Twitter is a public service within his domain, rather than a private company with its own agenda & governance. I'm glad Twitter is responding to him, I respect them for the position they're taking.

In addition to his executive order [1], Trump has threatened to delete his Twitter account [2].

[1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-to-sign-executive-order-t...

[2]: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/twitter-flags-trumps-t...

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

#415
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, Trump, the guy who had a platform plank complaining about his predecessors' use of executive orders as "power grabs" [0], actually issued an executive order about Twitter's TOS ? 0 - https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-19/trump-...

It's nothing new. Politics is a team based sport. My brother calls Obama "King Obama" but is still a huge fan of Trump. I've discussed some of this stuff with him: in his eyes, Obama did stuff he shouldn't have, so Trump can do stuff he shouldn't.

I can understand how people can rationalize some of his failures, but, the second time around, how can someone vote for a guy who has failed on delivering on a very simple and basic campaign promise, one that he can do that unilaterally?

“The country wasn’t based on executive orders,” Trump said at a South Carolina campaign stop in February 2016. “Right now, Obama goes around signing executive orders. He can’t even get along with the Democrats, and he goes around signing all these executive orders. It’s a basic disaster. You can’t do it.”

I know I'm probably pissing in the wind here, but I was looking forward to a president ceding some of his power back to congress, so this one really sticks in my craw. Oh well.

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

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about this one: https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status/1086927762634399744?...

The Trump crowd sure hates Kathy Griffin today. Do you guys know that she is a comedian and not the President of the United States?

im not the trump crowd

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

#417
post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The problem with your response if you've fundementally divided the world into the fearless, social justice serving left and the corrupt, evil, fascist, right. It can be assumed that the far right is not going to change their mind at any point; however the majority of the world isn't far right or far left. Many people are moderates that could go one way or the other. By designating everyone who doesn't agree with you…

I'm sorry reality has taken such a fascist bent but it's not my fault, it's just something we have to contend with now. But your both-side-ism is morally reprehensible in the context of what's happening right now.

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

#418

Twitter is well within the rights to do this, but I have seen tweets from blue check marks essentially calling for violence and Twitter didn't remove them. So, does that mean Twitter actually -supports- those view points now? If Twitter is going to police people, it needs to be across the board. Otherwise it's just a weird censorship that is targeting one person and can easily be seen as political. Everyone is applau…

> If Twitter is going to police people, it needs to be across the board.

That assumes that all users on Twitter are equal. By Twitter's own rules [1], there are two classes of users. Elected officials are held to a different standard. That's why this tweet is hidden behind a click, rather than removed. That's why Trump hasn't been banned despite repeatedly violating the TOS that he agreed to when he signed up for his account.

It makes sense to me that if elected officials (a tiny fraction of the population who already have a much bigger voice than the common citizen) are allowed to break the plebeian rules, then social media platforms should be more willing to point out when they're doing so.

[1]: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/public-intere...

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

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1266340243134963712 EDIT: Scroll down a bit, the original poster made their account private a few moments ago

Whatever tweet he retweeted, it's now unavailable. Looks like Twitter's moderation policies are working as expected.

"burn it down. fuck property. fuck cops."

That's what the tweet says, there are screenshots in the replies.

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

#420

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.

Not sure why you’re downvoted.

I think that you’re right about Trump’s motive. It’s all a PR game to keep him in power, even and especially when he says nasty stuff. If you try to argue with it as if it was reason then it will be like punching a cloud.

Under that mental model, it’s hard to predict how this will play out. I don’t know how this Twitter action will affect the psychology of his supporters. It will be interesting to watch!

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