6 ms·

Twitter Drops the Big One

37 points by exolymph 6y ago

emerged 6y ago
Twitter doth protest too much, methinks.
- rektide 6y ago
  Go build your/our own then.
  - emerged 6y ago
    My post was intended to imply that Twitter's reaction seemed out of proportion, which can sometimes imply they reacted that way because they feared it may be accurate information. Game theoretically, regardless of their intention it was a bad play because of the Streisand effect.
threatofrain 6y ago
> The tweet, in case readers thought it too subtle, contained a photograph of Tsai alongside the bellicose text. Given that any war involving Taiwan and mainland China will likely begin with an attempt to kill Tsai Ing-Wen and other senior leadership, “wipe out” should not be taken to be a mistranslation or a literary term of art. > It means what you think it does. And Tsai Ing-Wen has a Twitter account. The tweet is, as of the writing of this post, still up. Why? Because Twitter has a significant problem applying rules and interaction norms initially developed for interpersonal conflicts between users to institutional actors (such as loosely state-controlled press entities like the Global Times) and/or individuals representing institutions (like President Tsai Ing-Wen). So a threat from one user (acting as a proxy of a government) against another individual user (the President of another government) is difficult for Twitter. > Like it or not, conditional threats of physical harm are a part of international politics. During the Gulf War, for one, the United States threatened to execute a nuclear strike and “eliminate” Iraqi leadership if Baghdad deployed chemical weapons. And if Tsai had some means of physically threatening the personal safety of Chinese leader Xi Xingping to deter Chinese invasion of Taiwan, she would absolutely be remiss in not using all of the means at her disposal – Twitter included – to publicly communicate that he would be harmed if Beijing dared to put a single rifleman on Taiwanese beaches. > Twitter is banned in China, but Chinese diplomats have accounts. And if Xi operated an account and Tsai made a vague but nonetheless firm threat to physically harm him if war should break out, should she be penalized? The author doesn't intend to answer their own question. If you believe violent speech is acceptable between nations but unacceptable with individuals, what do you do when individuals represent nations? And how does any nationally-based company go on to facilitate international discussion?
- jtbayly 6y ago
  That’s precisely the author’s point.
leephillips 6y ago
The author makes a bunch of statements like: “Twitter needs to have a damned good reason to censor people from even sharing links to a major news story in private messages” but doesn’t really explain why it needs a reason, damn good or otherwise, besides that it felt like it.
- choko 6y ago
  Morality and honesty perhaps? If Twitter wants to be a left wing outlet a la Daily Kos, that's fine, but they should at least be honest about it. Preaching openness, transparency, and honesty while doing the opposite is orwellian.
  - gremlinsinc 6y ago
    Everyone polices their 'platform'... Heck even mods for /r/TheDonald would ban anything anti-Trump, so are they not just as guilty as Twitter?
    - mas3god 6y ago
      Then rename twitter to DemocratTalk, or something more accurate. They cant keep pretending they dont try to tilt the scales.
    - choko 6y ago
      They are not equivalent. Thedonald (didn't they get banned?) markets itself as an online Trump rally and is upfront about the rules as far as I'm aware. Twitter has a set of rules that they enforce in an uneven and selective fashion. Not at all the same thing.
  - Meph504 6y ago
    Do you mean the same left wing outlet that let the president violate their content policies for years, and said they did so because of the significant of the figure doing it? I mean, its real easy to get hyper focused on a specific instance and start making claims like that. But I think if you take a step back, they have let a lot of dirt swing from both side, and in the face of overwhelming pressure from the public have started to be more restrictive on this sort of propaganda as the election is coming up.
cpr 6y ago
Flimsy article? The Biden camp hasn’t claimed the emails are fake, which they certainly would if they were.
bJGVygG7MQVF8c 6y ago
> The New York Post reported a flimsy story about Hunter Biden flimsy groan.
dingaling 6y ago
A lot of sound and fury. Twitter can enforce whatever arbitrary rules it likes on content posted within its system, it owes no explanation to anyone. You sign up to those rules when you join. If I were the author I'd stop at this point and think that perhaps the best way to curb Twitter's power to shape narrative according to their subjective desires is to stop using Twitter to shape narrative...
sorval 6y ago
moronic right wing analysis. The article had personally identifying info so it got blocked. the end.
- mas3god 6y ago
  So why didnt the trump tax return articles get blocked? What about the "damning" Russiagate articles?
jhanschoo 6y ago
> What does Twitter know about how the materials in the laptop were obtained and their validity? Is it invoking a precaution ahead of time in blocking material that could be hacked? If so, Twitter has not bothered to say anything about it. For all we know, it could have been illegally obtained somehow. Wouldn't the Post's claims that the data was obtained by hacking suffice? For as long as nobody is claiming in good faith that the data was not obtained through hacking, the Post's own claim should suffice; I think it is too burdensome for the onus to be on twitter to independently verify that for every case of this like.
- PixyMisa 6y ago
  The Post made no such claims.
  - jhanschoo 6y ago
    It did. > The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer. Hunter Biden email The computer was dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware in April 2019, according to the store’s owner.

37 points by exolymph 6y ago

emerged 6y ago

Twitter doth protest too much, methinks.

rektide 6y ago
Go build your/our own then.
- emerged 6y ago
  My post was intended to imply that Twitter's reaction seemed out of proportion, which can sometimes imply they reacted that way because they feared it may be accurate information. Game theoretically, regardless of their intention it was a bad play because of the Streisand effect.

threatofrain 6y ago

> The tweet, in case readers thought it too subtle, contained a photograph of Tsai alongside the bellicose text. Given that any war involving Taiwan and mainland China will likely begin with an attempt to kill Tsai Ing-Wen and other senior leadership, “wipe out” should not be taken to be a mistranslation or a literary term of art. > It means what you think it does. And Tsai Ing-Wen has a Twitter account. The tweet is, as of the writing of this post, still up. Why? Because Twitter has a significant problem applying rules and interaction norms initially developed for interpersonal conflicts between users to institutional actors (such as loosely state-controlled press entities like the Global Times) and/or individuals representing institutions (like President Tsai Ing-Wen). So a threat from one user (acting as a proxy of a government) against another individual user (the President of another government) is difficult for Twitter. > Like it or not, conditional threats of physical harm are a part of international politics. During the Gulf War, for one, the United States threatened to execute a nuclear strike and “eliminate” Iraqi leadership if Baghdad deployed chemical weapons. And if Tsai had some means of physically threatening the personal safety of Chinese leader Xi Xingping to deter Chinese invasion of Taiwan, she would absolutely be remiss in not using all of the means at her disposal – Twitter included – to publicly communicate that he would be harmed if Beijing dared to put a single rifleman on Taiwanese beaches. > Twitter is banned in China, but Chinese diplomats have accounts. And if Xi operated an account and Tsai made a vague but nonetheless firm threat to physically harm him if war should break out, should she be penalized? The author doesn't intend to answer their own question. If you believe violent speech is acceptable between nations but unacceptable with individuals, what do you do when individuals represent nations? And how does any nationally-based company go on to facilitate international discussion?

jtbayly 6y ago
That’s precisely the author’s point.

leephillips 6y ago

The author makes a bunch of statements like: “Twitter needs to have a damned good reason to censor people from even sharing links to a major news story in private messages” but doesn’t really explain why it needs a reason, damn good or otherwise, besides that it felt like it.

choko 6y ago
Morality and honesty perhaps? If Twitter wants to be a left wing outlet a la Daily Kos, that's fine, but they should at least be honest about it. Preaching openness, transparency, and honesty while doing the opposite is orwellian.
- gremlinsinc 6y ago
  Everyone polices their 'platform'... Heck even mods for /r/TheDonald would ban anything anti-Trump, so are they not just as guilty as Twitter?
  - mas3god 6y ago
    Then rename twitter to DemocratTalk, or something more accurate. They cant keep pretending they dont try to tilt the scales.
  - choko 6y ago
    They are not equivalent. Thedonald (didn't they get banned?) markets itself as an online Trump rally and is upfront about the rules as far as I'm aware. Twitter has a set of rules that they enforce in an uneven and selective fashion. Not at all the same thing.
- Meph504 6y ago
  Do you mean the same left wing outlet that let the president violate their content policies for years, and said they did so because of the significant of the figure doing it? I mean, its real easy to get hyper focused on a specific instance and start making claims like that. But I think if you take a step back, they have let a lot of dirt swing from both side, and in the face of overwhelming pressure from the public have started to be more restrictive on this sort of propaganda as the election is coming up.

cpr 6y ago

Flimsy article? The Biden camp hasn’t claimed the emails are fake, which they certainly would if they were.

bJGVygG7MQVF8c 6y ago

> The New York Post reported a flimsy story about Hunter Biden flimsy groan.

dingaling 6y ago

A lot of sound and fury. Twitter can enforce whatever arbitrary rules it likes on content posted within its system, it owes no explanation to anyone. You sign up to those rules when you join. If I were the author I'd stop at this point and think that perhaps the best way to curb Twitter's power to shape narrative according to their subjective desires is to stop using Twitter to shape narrative...

sorval 6y ago

moronic right wing analysis. The article had personally identifying info so it got blocked. the end.

mas3god 6y ago
So why didnt the trump tax return articles get blocked? What about the "damning" Russiagate articles?

jhanschoo 6y ago

> What does Twitter know about how the materials in the laptop were obtained and their validity? Is it invoking a precaution ahead of time in blocking material that could be hacked? If so, Twitter has not bothered to say anything about it. For all we know, it could have been illegally obtained somehow. Wouldn't the Post's claims that the data was obtained by hacking suffice? For as long as nobody is claiming in good faith that the data was not obtained through hacking, the Post's own claim should suffice; I think it is too burdensome for the onus to be on twitter to independently verify that for every case of this like.

PixyMisa 6y ago
The Post made no such claims.
- jhanschoo 6y ago
  It did. > The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer. Hunter Biden email The computer was dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware in April 2019, according to the store’s owner.