8 ms·

I talked to an ex-twitter employee I met in Ireland at bar. He told me very candidly that twitter employees loathed Milo Yiannopolous and were actively trying t

I talked to an ex-twitter employee I met in Ireland at bar. He told me very candidly that twitter employees loathed Milo Yiannopolous and were actively trying to figure out any way to ban him. Not a fan of Milo, but there are clearly agendas which can't be extricated from politics.

s73v3r_ 8y ago
I imagine a good part of that is because he led a brigade of followers that would go out and harass other users.
- fernandotakai 8y ago
  if that's true, that rule should be applied to everyone, not only milo. there are more right and left-wing fringe users that love to brigade other users.
  - mhh__ 8y ago
    Perhaps I'm playing devils advocate by saying this, but: Isn't Milo one of the most well known cases of this? e.g. "Dealing" with him would help the twitter brand the most visibly.
    - lainga 8y ago
      I'm not sure the average Twitter user wants Twitter to "deal" with him like they're Vito Corleone.
- iosDrone 8y ago
  Can you clarify how he "led a brigade." Point me to an example where he encouraged his followers to say derogatory things?
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    How about when he said that people should, "Start killing journalists," and then the next day someone opened fire at a newsroom.
    - nailer 8y ago
      That's a massive bending of the truth. It was said as a private response to a journalist asking him for comment, and clearly in jest. > The truth, as always, is the opposite of what the media tells you. I sent a troll about “vigilante death squads” as a private response to a few hostile journalists who were asking me for comment, basically as a way of saying, “Fuck off.” They then published it. Amazed they were pretending to take my joke as a “threat,” I reposted these stories on Instagram to mock them — and to make it clear that I wasn’t being serious. https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/posts/1194490660688827 https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/posts/119449066068882...
      - s73v3r_ 8y ago
        Given his track record, I'm not going to believe a single word of his facebook post. Find another source that does not rely on that post to prove the point.
        nailer 8y ago
        I'm not sure what track record you're speaking of - historically people making these kinds of claims have been found to have lied about Milo. Are you saying the screenshots on his instagram are doctored?
        s73v3r_ 8y ago
        None of those claims have been found to be lies. They are based on his own words and actions. I will not take anything on his instagram as any kind of proof of anything; he has absolutely no credibility on anything.
- ericras 8y ago
  I was watching his feed in real time the night he was banned. He wasn't directing people to do anything. He was trashing the Ghostbusters movie and called one of the female actresses a "black dude". It may have been tasteless but it wasn't brigading.
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    Your account of events are very different than reality. You're also ignoring him forging the tweets from her, and referring to a black woman as an "ape".
yosito 8y ago
Well, the shooting he incited in Maryland today should be enough of a reason to ban him.
- Semirhage 8y ago
  The shooting of the journalist at the rally or the shooting at the newspaper? It’s so hard to keep track of American shootings!
- NathanCH 8y ago
  "The bodies are barely cold and left-wing journalists are already exploiting these deaths to score political points" - Milo Yup, sounds like you.
  - yosito 8y ago
    I'm not left wing. I just think Twitter's unwillingness to enforce their terms of service and delete the accounts of those who call for violence has consequences. It's a reasonable opinion.
- sheepmullet 8y ago
  The fake news seems to be jumping on Milo when the shooters motives are currently unknown.
  - sheepmullet 8y ago
    For anyone still following this discussion: We now have evidence the shooting had nothing to do with Milos comments: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5898141/At-four-shot-gunman-Marylands-Capital-Gazette-newspaper-building.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5898141/At-four-shot... Yet at least two people on this thread are acting like there is credible evidence his tweets caused the shooting. This is the danger of fake news!
    - StanislavPetrov 8y ago
      No, this is the danger to jumping to conclusions based on preconceptions. There are plenty of people whose minds were made up about the motives for this attack before being misled by false media accounts or 'fake news'.
otterley 8y ago
Twitter could have easily banned him, and others like him, if they had the will to. It’s their platform and they’re free to exclude anyone they like. The fact that they don’t is, in my view, rooted simply in a desire to remain neutral in an attempt to prevent their MAU growth from declining and resulting in lower advertising income and less attractiveness to investors. In other words, it’s a business decision. Twitter could choose to be more restrictive in favor of civility, but it would be bad for business.
- 18pfsmt 8y ago
  Perhaps you were just not aware? "In July 2016 he was permanently banned from Twitter for what the company cited as "inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others", referring to a harassment campaign against actor Leslie Jones and others."
  - nailer 8y ago
    The weird thing is Milo was apparently removed not for his own specific tweets being mean to Leslie Jones, but because he has lots of followers and he's apparently responsible for their actions. Which is bizarre: Beyoncé fans often harass Taylor Swift but that doesn't make Beyoncé responsible for the actions of others. Meanwhile Peter Fonda has spent this week making death threats and still has an active account.
    - adventured 8y ago
      > Meanwhile Peter Fonda has spent this week making death threats and still has an active account. He did a lot worse than that. He was very directly advocating for the kidnapping, harm and rape of a specific child. You can't get any more open agenda than that as it pertains to the extreme bias in Silicon Valley. Their rules simply do not apply to their favored people. It will be necessary to regulate the tech platforms to stop it (and the Republicans will absolutely do just that, soon). I'm a socially liberal, political independent and the extreme SV bias has me cheering for aggressive regulation of the big platforms at this point. It would be quite simple to implement: if they fail to consistently enforce their own terms, FCC fines that increase in scale with each subsequent violation. Something along the lines of a $10 million starter fine for allowing Peter Fonda to use the Twitter platform to directly threaten harm to a child and taking no action against the user. Ramp it up by $10m with each violation. Either Twitter stops selectively enforcing their own policies, or they get bankrupted (the fine stacking melts with good behavior over time). You'd either apply this regulation to only major platforms (based on users or revenue or both), or scale the fines / consequences to match the size of the service.
ryanx435 8y ago
I met Milo one time. We had a few beers and discussed an investment opportunity. When he isn't playing his troll persona he is actually a very intelligent and reasonable person.
- Jordrok 8y ago
  What kind of person deliberately goes out of their way to discard that supposed intelligence and reasonability and replace it with such poisonous, hateful vitriol?
  - denkmoon 8y ago
    A person who enjoys attention, fame (whether it is fame or infamy), and the perks that go along with it. His antics certainly haven't had a negative effect on his finances and lifestyle from what I can tell.
- digi_owl 8y ago
  > very intelligent So of the biggest trolls are just that. Trying to paint "trolls" are some drooling man-child in a basement does the world a massive disservice.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

I imagine a good part of that is because he led a brigade of followers that would go out and harass other users.

fernandotakai 8y ago
if that's true, that rule should be applied to everyone, not only milo. there are more right and left-wing fringe users that love to brigade other users.
- mhh__ 8y ago
  Perhaps I'm playing devils advocate by saying this, but: Isn't Milo one of the most well known cases of this? e.g. "Dealing" with him would help the twitter brand the most visibly.
  - lainga 8y ago
    I'm not sure the average Twitter user wants Twitter to "deal" with him like they're Vito Corleone.
iosDrone 8y ago
Can you clarify how he "led a brigade." Point me to an example where he encouraged his followers to say derogatory things?
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  How about when he said that people should, "Start killing journalists," and then the next day someone opened fire at a newsroom.
  - nailer 8y ago
    That's a massive bending of the truth. It was said as a private response to a journalist asking him for comment, and clearly in jest. > The truth, as always, is the opposite of what the media tells you. I sent a troll about “vigilante death squads” as a private response to a few hostile journalists who were asking me for comment, basically as a way of saying, “Fuck off.” They then published it. Amazed they were pretending to take my joke as a “threat,” I reposted these stories on Instagram to mock them — and to make it clear that I wasn’t being serious. https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/posts/1194490660688827 https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/posts/119449066068882...
    - s73v3r_ 8y ago
      Given his track record, I'm not going to believe a single word of his facebook post. Find another source that does not rely on that post to prove the point.
      - nailer 8y ago
        I'm not sure what track record you're speaking of - historically people making these kinds of claims have been found to have lied about Milo. Are you saying the screenshots on his instagram are doctored?
        s73v3r_ 8y ago
        None of those claims have been found to be lies. They are based on his own words and actions. I will not take anything on his instagram as any kind of proof of anything; he has absolutely no credibility on anything.
ericras 8y ago
I was watching his feed in real time the night he was banned. He wasn't directing people to do anything. He was trashing the Ghostbusters movie and called one of the female actresses a "black dude". It may have been tasteless but it wasn't brigading.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  Your account of events are very different than reality. You're also ignoring him forging the tweets from her, and referring to a black woman as an "ape".

yosito 8y ago

Well, the shooting he incited in Maryland today should be enough of a reason to ban him.

Semirhage 8y ago
The shooting of the journalist at the rally or the shooting at the newspaper? It’s so hard to keep track of American shootings!
NathanCH 8y ago
"The bodies are barely cold and left-wing journalists are already exploiting these deaths to score political points" - Milo Yup, sounds like you.
- yosito 8y ago
  I'm not left wing. I just think Twitter's unwillingness to enforce their terms of service and delete the accounts of those who call for violence has consequences. It's a reasonable opinion.
sheepmullet 8y ago
The fake news seems to be jumping on Milo when the shooters motives are currently unknown.
- sheepmullet 8y ago
  For anyone still following this discussion: We now have evidence the shooting had nothing to do with Milos comments: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5898141/At-four-shot-gunman-Marylands-Capital-Gazette-newspaper-building.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5898141/At-four-shot... Yet at least two people on this thread are acting like there is credible evidence his tweets caused the shooting. This is the danger of fake news!
  - StanislavPetrov 8y ago
    No, this is the danger to jumping to conclusions based on preconceptions. There are plenty of people whose minds were made up about the motives for this attack before being misled by false media accounts or 'fake news'.

otterley 8y ago

Twitter could have easily banned him, and others like him, if they had the will to. It’s their platform and they’re free to exclude anyone they like. The fact that they don’t is, in my view, rooted simply in a desire to remain neutral in an attempt to prevent their MAU growth from declining and resulting in lower advertising income and less attractiveness to investors. In other words, it’s a business decision. Twitter could choose to be more restrictive in favor of civility, but it would be bad for business.

18pfsmt 8y ago
Perhaps you were just not aware? "In July 2016 he was permanently banned from Twitter for what the company cited as "inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others", referring to a harassment campaign against actor Leslie Jones and others."
- nailer 8y ago
  The weird thing is Milo was apparently removed not for his own specific tweets being mean to Leslie Jones, but because he has lots of followers and he's apparently responsible for their actions. Which is bizarre: Beyoncé fans often harass Taylor Swift but that doesn't make Beyoncé responsible for the actions of others. Meanwhile Peter Fonda has spent this week making death threats and still has an active account.
  - adventured 8y ago
    > Meanwhile Peter Fonda has spent this week making death threats and still has an active account. He did a lot worse than that. He was very directly advocating for the kidnapping, harm and rape of a specific child. You can't get any more open agenda than that as it pertains to the extreme bias in Silicon Valley. Their rules simply do not apply to their favored people. It will be necessary to regulate the tech platforms to stop it (and the Republicans will absolutely do just that, soon). I'm a socially liberal, political independent and the extreme SV bias has me cheering for aggressive regulation of the big platforms at this point. It would be quite simple to implement: if they fail to consistently enforce their own terms, FCC fines that increase in scale with each subsequent violation. Something along the lines of a $10 million starter fine for allowing Peter Fonda to use the Twitter platform to directly threaten harm to a child and taking no action against the user. Ramp it up by $10m with each violation. Either Twitter stops selectively enforcing their own policies, or they get bankrupted (the fine stacking melts with good behavior over time). You'd either apply this regulation to only major platforms (based on users or revenue or both), or scale the fines / consequences to match the size of the service.

ryanx435 8y ago

I met Milo one time. We had a few beers and discussed an investment opportunity. When he isn't playing his troll persona he is actually a very intelligent and reasonable person.

Jordrok 8y ago
What kind of person deliberately goes out of their way to discard that supposed intelligence and reasonability and replace it with such poisonous, hateful vitriol?
- denkmoon 8y ago
  A person who enjoys attention, fame (whether it is fame or infamy), and the perks that go along with it. His antics certainly haven't had a negative effect on his finances and lifestyle from what I can tell.
digi_owl 8y ago
> very intelligent So of the biggest trolls are just that. Trying to paint "trolls" are some drooling man-child in a basement does the world a massive disservice.