More Twitter and Facebook banning
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I remember giving talks about the internet back in the early 90s, saying that it was akin to the impact of the printing press. We are still processing its impact. Right now, it sometimes feels like we've given grenades to pre-school children. President Trump has used social media and the media generally with a skill that PT Barnum would appreciate.
Conspiracy theories and fringe movements can more readily seed their thoughts with an ease unknown in the past. The ability for lies (left or right) to bloom and propogate unfettered is disconcerting and at times alarming.
DJT's latest actions could be argued because of his station int he world as akin to yelling "fire" in a theater. Jon's notion that this could result in a short-term suspension can be argued to permit a cooldown, but a complete shutdown? It doesn't seem consistent with our first amendment rights even if one might wish to "be rid of that troublesome" President's pronouncments.
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@kluurs said in More Twitterbanning:
Jon's notion that this could result in a short-term suspension can be argued to permit a cooldown, but a complete shutdown? It doesn't seem consistent with our first amendment rights even if one might wish to "be rid of that troublesome" President's pronouncments.
I also don't think a "permanent ban" is right, but I don't see how the First Amendment applies here since Twitter is a private entity. Surely it's permissible for a private enterprise to say "you cannot use my bulletin board to talk about X, Y, Z." The consumers and the market place can decide whether to reward or punish that private enterprise for it, but it's not a First Amendment issue.
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On Monday, Facebook blocked former presidential candidate Ron Paul from his own page. The move came hours after the longtime congressman and libertarian hero shared an article he wrote criticizing Twitter and Facebook for banning President Donald Trump from their platforms.
“Last week’s massive social media purges – starting with President Trump’s permanent ban from Twitter and other outlets – was shocking and chilling, particularly to those of us who value free expression and the free exchange of ideas,” Paul wrote. “The justifications given for the silencing of wide swaths of public opinion made no sense and the process was anything but transparent. Nowhere in President Trump’s two ‘offending’ Tweets, for example, was a call for violence expressed explicitly or implicitly. It was a classic example of sentence first, verdict later.”
Paul shared the article on Facebook sometime around 10 a.m. EST. Hours later, on Twitter, Paul said he had been blocked by Facebook.
“With no explanation other than ‘repeatedly going against our community standards,’ Facebook has blocked me from managing my page,” Paul announced on Twitter. “Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and nowhere is the offending post identified.”
Paul said the only material posted to Facebook on Monday was the article previously noted, his weekly "Texas Straight Talk" column, which he has published every week since 1976.
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I like Ron Paul more than I like Rand Paul.
Ron Paul called a lot of attention to the Feds easy money policy long before it was cool to do so.
I haven’t follow Ron Paul since he retired, so I do not know whether he has gotten any more or less extreme with his ideology since then. -
@axtremus said in More Twitter and Facebook banning:
I like Ron Paul more than I like Rand Paul.
I like Les Paul better than either of them.
To be frank, I like RuPaul better than either of them
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Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton has been suspended from Twitter over a tweet containing language that he has repeatedly posted in the past, including months ago when the social media platform determined that the language was not a breach of its rules.
Twitter said in September that it received a complaint regarding a tweet posted on Fitton's account that said, "#Hydroxychloroqine is a safe drug," but the social media platform said that it did not find that the post had violated any rules: "We have investigated the reported content and could not identify any violations of the Twitter Rules (https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311) or German law. Accordingly, we have not taken any action at this time," Twitter said.
But now Twitter has suspended Fitton for tweeting the same message that it previously said did not violate its rules, a message which Fitton has posted repeatedly on the platform. Fitton says that even if he deletes the tweet he would remain locked out of his account for seven days.
During a phone call with Just the News, he described it as "disturbing" that a government watchdog organization's leader "would be targeted for abusive censorship like this."
Just the News attempted to reach out to Twitter for comment but has not yet received a response.
"Without any warning I have been suspended for at least 7 days from Twitter for posting a straight-forward tweet about #Hydroxychloroquine," Fitton wrote in a Monday Instagram post. "I had posted this exact tweet repeatedly (once or twice a week) and, in September, Twitter specifically found that it was not in violation of its rules. Nevertheless, they locked me out my account without warning and told me that even if I took down now the supposedly offending post I would still be locked out for 7 days. I have 'appealed' but we all know that this is not about HCQ, it is about finding a pretext to silence another leading conservative voice," Fitton wrote.
