Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by malvosenior » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:57 PM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #42

malvosenior wrote: post #13

> Last week, a trolling campaign organized by right-wing internet users spilled over onto Twitter. So Twitter bans a bunch of satire accounts for political reasons and the New York Times applauds the decision. This makes me incredibly sad but I guess it's to be expected. If your political position is so weak that some jokes can damage it, maybe it's time to take a deep inward look. I don't see anyone calling on SNL t…

It's not the jokes and mocking they got the boot for it's spreading intentionally misleading election information like when and how to vote.

The article gives one example and says it was a "few" accounts. Why ban all of them?

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

#52

Post by qubax » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:57 PM UTC

rc_bhg wrote: post #15

beauzero wrote: 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.

Actually, propaganda is agreed to be a good thing for a democracy. It's why we have free press and free speech laws.

Many of the founders ran printing presses or newspapers to push their own propaganda. The most prominent being alexander hamilton and the NY Post.

What is bad for democracy is censorship ( aka one sided propaganda ).

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

#53

Post by WillPostForFood » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:58 PM UTC

rc_bhg wrote: post #15

beauzero wrote: 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.

It is no more propaganda than #maga or #orangecheeto or #impeachtrump. It is political satire and commentary.

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

#54

Post by anjc » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:58 PM UTC

michaelflux wrote: post #43

wpietri wrote: post #5

I confess this campaign is a puzzlement to me. There are a bunch of people all repeating the same idea as a way of critiquing people they believe are... all repeating the same ideas?

Originally yes, that was the joke, people just repeating the same buzzwords and catch phrases in response to anything as game NPCs do. However as with all the memes over the last few days, it quickly turns from that into 'well those people are reacting exactly how we thought they would, just keep posting it if it triggers them'. e.g. take Pepe - the only reason it caught on was because the left took the bait and lost…

> "well those people are reacting exactly how we thought they would"

Almost like NPCs...

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

#55

Post by dandersh » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:58 PM UTC

I must admit, it has been entertaining watching how the meme's proponents have acted as if they have uncovered some great Truth of the human experience, when in fact it's nothing more than the tired old "I am a critical thinking individual while those who disagree with me are not." wrapped in video game nomenclature.

I suspect that deep down this was an attempt at coining a "new" SJW after the term had gone mainstream.

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

#56

Post by donatj » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:58 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #34

adamnemecek wrote: post #2

Cmon the meme is kinda funny.

Being funny isn't really a defense against pointing out that it's harmful.

Harmful seems like a stretch.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

[deleted]

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

#58

Post by beaconstudios » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

Carlton87 wrote: post #32

lostgame wrote: post #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.

Y'all went so far left *chan-land is now considered right.

*chan land is chaotic neutral and always has been. Authoritarians just can't handle chaotic. A projection of a high dimensional vector (politics) onto a line (left - right) is always going to be a goof.

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

#59

Post by comesee » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

dandersh wrote: post #55

I must admit, it has been entertaining watching how the meme's proponents have acted as if they have uncovered some great Truth of the human experience, when in fact it's nothing more than the tired old "I am a critical thinking individual while those who disagree with me are not." wrapped in video game nomenclature. I suspect that deep down this was an attempt at coining a "new" SJW after the term had gone mainstrea…

It's a joke

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

#60

Post by ericdykstra » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

One thing I really like about Twitter is that you can choose to follow who you want. If you don't want to see memes making fun of you, just don't follow accounts that post/retweet these memes.

It's sad that Twitter is banning satire accounts. I'm against all censorship of lawful speech, and condemn Twitter and any social media platform that participates in this kind of censorship.