Live data from Hacker News

Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

npr.org

61–70 of 530 posts

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the same thing from the other side is trivially easy to find too. Your comment implied that Twitter looks the other way, but only for liberals, and that claim is laughable at best and it's a trivial task to find counter-evidence. Besides , the first three pages of that search have zero tweets that involve someone telling someone else to kill themselves. They're all mock conversations, or memes, or literally a dis…

Am I to understand that suggesting Trump voters kill themselves is acceptable? Why haven't the posters of every single one of the above tweets I linked been banned? Yet we're only hearing about the "alt right" boogeyman.

>Am I to understand that suggesting Trump voters kill themselves is acceptable?

I have no idea how you would've come to that conclusion, I certainly don't think it and didn't imply it.

Is this really the game we're playing? Really? I have to go find three tweets of Trump supporters telling HRC supporters to kill themselves? Do you really think that can't be trivially found?

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#62

Finally, Twitter is growing up and moving past its cowardly, childish "free speech" dogma. It's taken them way too long to get here though.

Good trolling sir. You had me going for a moment. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zT09Dy13slc/T3CInkRWjRI/AAAAAAAABI...

Where I live a lot of kids have been arrested and imprisoned for that salute.

It so strange as an American expat living under a military dictatorship where any improper speech is harshly dealt with to see American slowly but steadily moving in the same direction. What's weird is it's starting with restrictions on speech in the private sector and education. I'm wondering how long before laws and the courts get behind the restrictions.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#63
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people find the "ideas that powered the NSDAP" quite disgusting. If we are truly building a society of tolerance, whether or not one has a visceral reaction to an idea should not stop whether or not one can discuss and debate it. I'm not a neo-Nazi, but I've talked at length with them about their views. I will give anyone a few minutes to explain what they are about, try to listen to it neutrally, and form my…

Sure, but not everyone enjoys spending their time engaging with Nazi rhetoric. There are plenty of places outside of Twitter where you can actually choose whether or not to have a discussion.

> Sure, but not everyone enjoys spending their time engaging with Nazi rhetoric. There are plenty of places outside of Twitter where you can actually choose whether or not to have a discussion.

You could say the exact same thing about literally any view and it would be equally true.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#64

Good riddance. Twitter shouldn't let itself be a recruiting platform for neo-Nazis and their ilk. This is consistent with the ban on ISIS propaganda accounts, which was also a positive step towards combatting online extremism.

Are the banned "alt-right" commentators commensurate with ISIS propagandists? If so, how much else ought to be banned? Black power groups? Anti-fascist groups? Many "social justice" accounts post anti-white, anti-male messages with impunity. Should we then paint all people concerned with social justice with the same brush?

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#65

I'm not a fan of the "alt-right" or a lot of its subculture. I also don't find it particularly "alt", as much as it is "far" right. It is a lot of the ideas that powered the NSDAP enveloped in the language of the Internet and memes, with the targets broadened from Jewry to non-whites in general. However, I'm also not a fan of suspending these accounts for controversial views if they are not harassing people on the Tw…

I don't see "alt-right" as being so similar to "far-right" based on my limited exposure. I've watched some debates with Milo as well as Gavin Mcinnes. They are definitely not what most Americans would call "far-right" -- in that they aren't anti-gay, aren't anti-drugs, aren't socially conservative, and aren't particularly hawkish. They seem to dislike Republicans like Paul Ryan almost as much as Nancy Pelosi. Milo re…

There are other socially liberal issues outside of gay rights and drugs. On some of those counts Gavin is very very conservative (for example he is very very sexist).

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#66
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. The first thing I thought upon reading this was: would Twitter ban an account with the following description: "dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of African descent in the United States, and around the world." Undoubtedly not. The only difference, of course, is s/African/European/g. I'm a liberal, but I feel that if this election has taught us anything, it should be that suppression of "…

I feel like the left seriously damaged their ability to fight racist ideas when they abandoned the idea of equality. Now, the left calls colorblindness and "all lives matter" racist. (Remember when Martin O'Malley was destroyed for saying that?) They create advantageous standards based on race, and even exclusive positions for non-white applicants. (For example, at the BBC.) And I too doubt they would object to "dedi…

This is a very forgiving point of view.

Institutional racism is real and because of that it can't be undone by just pretending everyone is equal all of the sudden. It is much more nuanced than you make it out to be.

That being said, many of the people that twitter banned are just straight up racist and xenophoic/intolerant speech should not be protected.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#67
post #54
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been plenty of discussion over the past month or so on why this might happen. IIRC, check some of the Peter Thiel-related submissions from around the time he donated to the Trump campaign. Sometimes it's a function of user flags (which affect the ranking even if [flagged] isn't visible) which is a more democratic process, and sometimes it's a function of what whether the mods determine that the discussion is…

My understanding is that there are also algos at work, for example posts that are very young but have many comments fall faster, as a way to negate flame wars.

You're right. Forgot about those when I initially commented, and noticed a sibling had already mentioned them so I thought it was gratuitous to update mine.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I to understand that suggesting Trump voters kill themselves is acceptable? Why haven't the posters of every single one of the above tweets I linked been banned? Yet we're only hearing about the "alt right" boogeyman.

>Am I to understand that suggesting Trump voters kill themselves is acceptable? I have no idea how you would've come to that conclusion, I certainly don't think it and didn't imply it. Is this really the game we're playing? Really? I have to go find three tweets of Trump supporters telling HRC supporters to kill themselves? Do you really think that can't be trivially found?

"And to every black person that voted for Trump as a joke. Malcolm X should kick ur ass. You are not my nigga anymore. Kill yourself"

https://twitter.com/h0elooks/status/796337658549202945

"Please kill yourself racist piece of shit" (seconds ago as of time of writing)

https://twitter.com/braaaaiiinnns/status/799113146602573825

5-6, actually.

Go ahead, I'll wait. Yes, I really think you can't find that, unless we're getting different search results for some reason. I'm not doing some cherry picking of the results here, these are literally the first tweets I can find where "kill yourself" is directed at a person or group and not obviously humorous.

That last one came up in the search while I had the search open, even.

I stand by my original statement and believe I've proven it.

Re: Twitter Suspends Prominent Alt-Right Accounts

#70

This is probably a good move. They should also suppress fake news sites that are obviously not satire, but are meant to mislead. I can't believe I actually support preventing people from sharing things, but somehow this propaganda has to be exposed. This is a sad state we are in now.

This is a corporation enforcing its world view. Would you say the same if Twitter were owned by the right-wing and was banning left wing users?

It's voluntary and free. If you don't like it build your own or go elsewhere. It is their community. Clearly they have made their choice over the cost/benefit of continued association with some people.
Post reply on HN