Is Twitter Silencing Conservatives?

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Legal Insurrection:

Twitter, an invaluable news aggregator when properly run and used, has seemingly taken aim at conservatives and those advocating conservative causes.

 

In early January, Twitter stripped Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero on Twitter) of his “verification,” saying he violated the anti-harassment Terms of Service.

 

A verified account means the user has a little blue checkmark next to his or her user name. It is Twitter’s way of affirming to all other users that this is, in fact, the person he or she claims to be. It sounds like a small thing, but Twitter, like so much social media, is rife with accounts purporting to be or that just look like a real public figure.

 

That verification checkmark tells all the other users that a particular account is the real thing. Having a verified account can be a big draw and boost followers who are otherwise reluctant to be suckered or drawn in by fakes. Stripping verification takes that mark of legitimacy away. It is also a sort of peculiar way to punish violations of terms of service. Assuming @Nero actually violated the terms of service, is the account somehow no longer Yiannopoulos’s?

 

Of course not. More important, it is not at all obvious that @Nero violated the terms of service at all. Stipulate that he is a troll who relishes destroying the Left’s sacred cows and laughs at the resulting discomfiture. Stipulate even that it’s really not nice and consciously deprives people of their “safe spaces.” So what? Five minutes on twitter reveals death threats by and against every possible demographic. Terror accounts proliferate. Anti-Semitism is rampant.

 

Leaving these accounts untouched but de-verifying a public figure like @Nero for violating the Terms of Service in the course of his public persona is nonsensical. Other Twitter methods for stifling anti-PC thought have come to light.

________

 

Twitter twits versus free speech.

[pollyannaish]

I read a lot of Twitter from the pundits. I see a lot of idiots on both the left and right who are just out to make trouble and are complete and utter jerks for no good reason. It's kind of like Lord of the Flies. I have no idea what Twitter censors or Why, but I still see plenty of voices on both sides and the ones who are banned are generally the ones who are the least effective at changing anyone's mind and the most effective at trolling. So who knows, but at this point it is still a private business and frankly I think the right/left tends to cry wolf about a lot of things to claim the victim crown.

[Valin]

Twitter Kicks out Conservative Author Forever
Author Robert Stacy McCain enters Twitter Star Chamber
Jonathan Levin
Monday, February 22, 2016




On Saturday morning we posted a brief compilation of recent events suggesting Twitter might be targeting conservatives, Is Twitter Silencing Conservatives?

 

The impetus Saturday was the suspension of Robert Stacy McCain’s account (@rsmccain). McCain blogs at TheOtherMcCain.com and last February published a book, Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature.

 

That followed de-verification of Milo Yiannopoulos’s account (@Nero). Like McCain, Yiannopoulos is a prominent critic of modern feminism and the Gordian Knot of accusations and recriminations known as “Gamergate.” Oversimplified, Gamergate involves issues about the poor treatment of women in the gaming community.

 

 

The unifying factor is, apparently, that both stepped on feminist toes and Twitter seemingly took action against them.

 

After his personal account was suspended, McCain began tweeting with the account associated with his book (@SexTroubleBook) Friday night or Saturday morning. In addition, the #FreeStacy hashtag trended briefly. Some have suggested that Twitter intentionally suppressed #FreeStacy, but that is difficult to corroborate.

 

Now, @SexTroubleBook has also been suspended:

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Who’s Afraid of #FreeStacy?
Feminists won’t debate their critics and they silence dissent online.
Robert Stacy McCain
3.2.16



a
In an age of lies, the truth is dangerous. When Twitter announced the creation of a “Trust and Safety Council” last month, every intelligent observer understood that censorship would be the result.

The purpose was obvious in Twitter’s choice for members of this Orwellian-named “council,” which includes many left-wing activist organizations, but not a single conservative or libertarian group. Most ominous was Twitter’s decision to ally itself with radical feminism by making Anita Sarkeesian a member of this advisory group. Sarkeesian’s non-profit group Feminist Frequency, formed in 2014, is a tax-exempt vehicle to promote the 32-year-old’s “gender theory” attacks on the videogame industry.

Longtime aficionados of videogames have taken umbrage at what they see as attempts by Sarkeesian and other so-called “social justice warriors” to impose political correctness on the content of games. This conflict erupted into public controversy in August 2014 when accusations of unethical favoritism by certain journalists covering the industry leaped into public consciousness as #GamerGate. The actor Adam Baldwin, who has more than 250,000 followers on Twitter, helped popularize the #GamerGate hashtag. A longtime friend of the late media maverick Andrew Breitbart, Baldwin saw the attempt by Sarkeesian and other progressives to influence the multi-billion-dollar videogame industry as the latest assault in the Left’s campaign to expand its cultural hegemony.

(Snip)

Who is being destroyed, and who is being silenced? I’d like to explain this to the tens of thousands of people who followed my Twitter account, but unfortunately my account has been destroyed and silenced. My friends (and even some of my enemies) who have supported the #FreeStacy campaign are not afraid of Anita Sarkeesian. They have launched a petition called Public Status to encourage Twitter executives to reconsider their allegiance with Sarkeesian and other left-wing totalitarians who seek to eradicate free speech online. “Truth is great and will prevail,” as Thomas Jefferson once said, and an honest citizen should never fear the truth. But we live in an age of lies, and truth is a dangerous thing.

 

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