5 ms·

It's a story that's so completely outside of my personal experience that I cannot evaluate it In 14 years of holding a Twitter account, I've never seen anythin

It's a story that's so completely outside of my personal experience that I cannot evaluate it In 14 years of holding a Twitter account, I've never seen anything even close to such things on Twitter, and wouldn't use the platform if I did. If I were to see child pornography on Twitter, I would immediately report it to law enforcement and close my account Well, I hope that poor child wins justice.

marcinzm 6y ago
Welcome to the filter bubble. What you see on twitter, facebook, google, youtube, etc. is going to be radically different than what someone else sees.
- rendall 6y ago
  Indeed. Knowing this is why I don't immediately doubt the story, despite its being outside my experience
throw_m239339 6y ago
Start reading a single (non porn related) message from one these creeps and your Twitter timeline will be inundated with illegal porn content in no time. Twitter is absolutely rife with that horrible stuff, and Twitter certainly does the minimum to remove any of that, as demonstrated by that article. Why even give the benefit of the doubt? Someone reports CP, remove it, period. Of course, Twitter makes money off it... People claim Twitter can't possibly moderate content at scale, except that Twitter makes money at that same scale. Social media can't have it both way, especially when it comes to CP.
- isochronous 6y ago
  "People claim Twitter can't possibly moderate content at scale, except that Twitter makes money at that same scale." I'm sorry, but is that supposed to be a logical argument? Because it doesn't actually make any sense. Twitter is a platform that allows pretty much anyone with an internet connection to post content. There were, on average, 500 million tweets posted per day last year. So on one side you have the set of potential content creators, churning out half a billion tweets per day, and that number will almost certainly continue to steadily increase. So, as a company with a set amount of income, and who is beholden to its shareholders, what's your plan to moderate 500 million tweets per day while still turning a reasonable profit?
  - throw_m239339 6y ago
    > I'm sorry, but is that supposed to be a logical argument? Yes, because these social medias can't have it both ways, I already addressed that. If you make money at scale, well you are responsible for moderation at scale, period. Your argument is just apologizing for Twitter's bad behaviour when it comes to illegal content moderation.
  - briandear 6y ago
    And yet the App Store hasn’t banned Twitter as they did Parler. If the media started reporting about pedophilic content on Twitter and that Twitter’s TOS explicitly allowed pedophiles to discuss their attractions, would the tech gatekeepers continue to allow Twitter? Because this stuff isn’t a secret, but Twitter hasn’t been banned which makes it pretty clear that the Parler and related bans were politically motivated rather than protecting people from harmful content. But we let Twitter get away with these things because the Blue Checks are mostly leftist or hard-left politically and they’d lose their minds if Twitter were banned from app stores.
    - isochronous 6y ago
      That's because twitter actually has content moderation policies in place that they do their best to apply. They're obviously not perfect, but again, the whole reason the app store banned parler was that they had no workable moderation plan in place. Twitter does.
  - mcguire 6y ago
    Under what rules is Twitter required to turn a reasonable profit? (What is a "reasonable" profit?)
    - isochronous 6y ago
      Are you familiar with how publicly traded corporations work?
      - mcguire 6y ago
- icebraining 6y ago
  > Why even give the benefit of the doubt? Someone reports CP, remove it, period. Of course, Twitter makes money off it... Because it may not be CP, but a malicious reporter bullying the poster.
  - throw_m239339 6y ago
    I'm sorry, are you claiming people posting porn on Twitter are being 'bullied' by 'malicious reporters'? when Twitter themselves can't even trace the origin of the pornographic material posted on their platform, when they legally have to since it's not covered by safe harbor laws at first place? Who the hell are you kidding?
    - icebraining 6y ago
      Bullying by false reporting is a common event. Sex workers are a common target for bullying. It stands to reason that bullying by claiming CP is probably not uncommon.
      - throw_m239339 6y ago
        > Bullying by false reporting is a common event. Sex workers are a common target for bullying. It stands to reason that bullying by claiming CP is probably not uncommon. Completely irrelevant concern. Kid's safety is more important, than any concerns about 'sex workers' publishing pornographic content on Twitter. Avoiding the bullying of kids by removing revenge porn published on social media is more important than your concerns about 'sex workers' getting their porn removed. Twitter is legally required to be able to trace the source of anything pornographic uploaded on their platform at first place, as porn is not protected by safe harbor laws or section 230. A sex worker didn't post that child porn video featuring that young boy Twitter refused to remove. There is plenty of other avenues for 'sex workers' to post pornographic content on the internet, removing it from Twitter doesn't make anyone a 'victim', it protect children.
fernandotakai 6y ago
i've been on twitter for the same time and last year was the first time i saw people talking about "map" which apparently means "minor attracted person"[0]. while searching around i found that there's a LOT of twitter accounts basically spewing pedophilia-related/adjacent stuff. i reported every single one of them and... nothing was done. not a single one was removed. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor-attracted_person https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor-attracted_person
- baby 6y ago
  Write an article about it
  - fernandotakai 6y ago
    there already articles about it. according to one of them, twitter changed their TOS to allow people to discuss their attraction to minors on their platform[0]. people always take about "dog whistles" -- imho this is a big one, at least for me. allowing pedophiles to discuss their attraction to minors openly on your platform is completely absurd. [0]https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2020/01/09/twitter-lets-pedophiles-publicly-discuss-their-sexual-attraction-to-minors-scholar-argues/ https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2020/01/09/twitter-lets-p...
    - stickfigure 6y ago
      This reminds me of an old episode of This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/522/tarred-and-feathered https://www.thisamericanlife.org/522/tarred-and-feathered There's one group of people that is universally tarred and feathered in the United States and most of the world. We never hear from them, because they can't identify themselves without putting their livelihoods and reputations at risk. That group is pedophiles. It turns out lots of them desperately want help, but because it's so hard to talk about their situation it's almost impossible for them to find it. Reporter Luke Malone spent a year and a half talking to people in this situation, and he has this story about one of them. I remember it being a pretty remarkable episode, and kind of heartbreaking. More insightful and constructive than the usual tone of moral outrage that the subject is treated with. From reading your article, it seems that Twitter's policy changed to allow discussion of the subject with the caveat that pedophilia could not be promoted or glorified. That seems pretty reasonable, and isn't a dog-whistle for anything.
eznzt 6y ago
That's normal, you only find those things if you look for them. There are lots of profiles with hundreds of thousands of followers full of porn, or football, or welding memes. But you never see them. Yet, there they are.

marcinzm 6y ago

Welcome to the filter bubble. What you see on twitter, facebook, google, youtube, etc. is going to be radically different than what someone else sees.

rendall 6y ago
Indeed. Knowing this is why I don't immediately doubt the story, despite its being outside my experience

throw_m239339 6y ago

Start reading a single (non porn related) message from one these creeps and your Twitter timeline will be inundated with illegal porn content in no time. Twitter is absolutely rife with that horrible stuff, and Twitter certainly does the minimum to remove any of that, as demonstrated by that article. Why even give the benefit of the doubt? Someone reports CP, remove it, period. Of course, Twitter makes money off it... People claim Twitter can't possibly moderate content at scale, except that Twitter makes money at that same scale. Social media can't have it both way, especially when it comes to CP.

isochronous 6y ago
"People claim Twitter can't possibly moderate content at scale, except that Twitter makes money at that same scale." I'm sorry, but is that supposed to be a logical argument? Because it doesn't actually make any sense. Twitter is a platform that allows pretty much anyone with an internet connection to post content. There were, on average, 500 million tweets posted per day last year. So on one side you have the set of potential content creators, churning out half a billion tweets per day, and that number will almost certainly continue to steadily increase. So, as a company with a set amount of income, and who is beholden to its shareholders, what's your plan to moderate 500 million tweets per day while still turning a reasonable profit?
- throw_m239339 6y ago
  > I'm sorry, but is that supposed to be a logical argument? Yes, because these social medias can't have it both ways, I already addressed that. If you make money at scale, well you are responsible for moderation at scale, period. Your argument is just apologizing for Twitter's bad behaviour when it comes to illegal content moderation.
- briandear 6y ago
  And yet the App Store hasn’t banned Twitter as they did Parler. If the media started reporting about pedophilic content on Twitter and that Twitter’s TOS explicitly allowed pedophiles to discuss their attractions, would the tech gatekeepers continue to allow Twitter? Because this stuff isn’t a secret, but Twitter hasn’t been banned which makes it pretty clear that the Parler and related bans were politically motivated rather than protecting people from harmful content. But we let Twitter get away with these things because the Blue Checks are mostly leftist or hard-left politically and they’d lose their minds if Twitter were banned from app stores.
  - isochronous 6y ago
    That's because twitter actually has content moderation policies in place that they do their best to apply. They're obviously not perfect, but again, the whole reason the app store banned parler was that they had no workable moderation plan in place. Twitter does.
- mcguire 6y ago
  Under what rules is Twitter required to turn a reasonable profit? (What is a "reasonable" profit?)
  - isochronous 6y ago
    Are you familiar with how publicly traded corporations work?
    - mcguire 6y ago
icebraining 6y ago
> Why even give the benefit of the doubt? Someone reports CP, remove it, period. Of course, Twitter makes money off it... Because it may not be CP, but a malicious reporter bullying the poster.
- throw_m239339 6y ago
  I'm sorry, are you claiming people posting porn on Twitter are being 'bullied' by 'malicious reporters'? when Twitter themselves can't even trace the origin of the pornographic material posted on their platform, when they legally have to since it's not covered by safe harbor laws at first place? Who the hell are you kidding?
  - icebraining 6y ago
    Bullying by false reporting is a common event. Sex workers are a common target for bullying. It stands to reason that bullying by claiming CP is probably not uncommon.
    - throw_m239339 6y ago
      > Bullying by false reporting is a common event. Sex workers are a common target for bullying. It stands to reason that bullying by claiming CP is probably not uncommon. Completely irrelevant concern. Kid's safety is more important, than any concerns about 'sex workers' publishing pornographic content on Twitter. Avoiding the bullying of kids by removing revenge porn published on social media is more important than your concerns about 'sex workers' getting their porn removed. Twitter is legally required to be able to trace the source of anything pornographic uploaded on their platform at first place, as porn is not protected by safe harbor laws or section 230. A sex worker didn't post that child porn video featuring that young boy Twitter refused to remove. There is plenty of other avenues for 'sex workers' to post pornographic content on the internet, removing it from Twitter doesn't make anyone a 'victim', it protect children.

fernandotakai 6y ago

i've been on twitter for the same time and last year was the first time i saw people talking about "map" which apparently means "minor attracted person"[0]. while searching around i found that there's a LOT of twitter accounts basically spewing pedophilia-related/adjacent stuff. i reported every single one of them and... nothing was done. not a single one was removed. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor-attracted_person https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor-attracted_person

baby 6y ago
Write an article about it
- fernandotakai 6y ago
  there already articles about it. according to one of them, twitter changed their TOS to allow people to discuss their attraction to minors on their platform[0]. people always take about "dog whistles" -- imho this is a big one, at least for me. allowing pedophiles to discuss their attraction to minors openly on your platform is completely absurd. [0]https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2020/01/09/twitter-lets-pedophiles-publicly-discuss-their-sexual-attraction-to-minors-scholar-argues/ https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2020/01/09/twitter-lets-p...
  - stickfigure 6y ago
    This reminds me of an old episode of This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/522/tarred-and-feathered https://www.thisamericanlife.org/522/tarred-and-feathered There's one group of people that is universally tarred and feathered in the United States and most of the world. We never hear from them, because they can't identify themselves without putting their livelihoods and reputations at risk. That group is pedophiles. It turns out lots of them desperately want help, but because it's so hard to talk about their situation it's almost impossible for them to find it. Reporter Luke Malone spent a year and a half talking to people in this situation, and he has this story about one of them. I remember it being a pretty remarkable episode, and kind of heartbreaking. More insightful and constructive than the usual tone of moral outrage that the subject is treated with. From reading your article, it seems that Twitter's policy changed to allow discussion of the subject with the caveat that pedophilia could not be promoted or glorified. That seems pretty reasonable, and isn't a dog-whistle for anything.

eznzt 6y ago

That's normal, you only find those things if you look for them. There are lots of profiles with hundreds of thousands of followers full of porn, or football, or welding memes. But you never see them. Yet, there they are.