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Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk

11 points by mhoad 4y ago

sn0w_crash 4y ago
Suppressing political view points on social media is bad. If only there were people sounding the alarm about this for the past 10 years.
- syzarian 4y ago
  It’s not bad to suppress political views that incite violence, mob mentality, provably false narratives, or other abhorrent types of speech (cue the typical child porn examples). The alarm is in not having a standard of discourse and then banning certain types of political views that are otherwise within the confines of polite discourse.
  - sn0w_crash 4y ago
    Your definition of “incite violence” might be other people asking why they need to remove their child’s penis. Your definition of “mob mentality” might be a group of Asian students asking why they’re being discriminated against in college admissions. Your “probably false narrative” might be someone committing the sin of saying that covid leaked from a Chinese lab. The list goes on and on.
    - syzarian 4y ago
      I didn’t give a definition of incite violence. Also said “provably” not “probably”. It’s not provably false that covid came from a lab.
- a_shovel 4y ago
  These events show that they weren't opposing suppressing political viewpoints on social media, they were opposing "suppressing" their political viewpoints on social media. Suppressing other people is fine. As soon as one of their own gains power, the pretense drops.
andrewclunn 4y ago
> “Twitter was never a healthy ‘public square’ for most of us. Let’s not rewrite history while eulogizing the hellsite,” Loder wrote on Mastodon on Sunday. “Twitter was a frightening battleground where we managed barely to claw out an uneasy existence amidst the worst violent neo-Nazi extremists who constantly published our home addresses, threatened our kids’ lives, and sent hordes of racist trolls into our mentions.” > On Mastodon, they added, “The same principles that allowed us to survive uneasily on Twitter will be required here. Community defense, thoughtful pressure on moderation policies, and eternal vigilance. There are no safe spaces but those we make safe through constant effort. We keep us safe.” Twitter, Loder says, will take a long time to die and disappear entirely, “like a rotting whale carcass.” What if it doesn't? What if people didn't come to Twitter for the left-wing safe space, but instead twitter was turned into a left-wing safe space because it reached a critical mass of people? Then again, what if it was never financially viable and was propped up to maintain the safe space because that was its primary purpose? As somebody who doesn't use Twitter, it seems that #Goku trending is a sign that this "new" Twitter may just be the low brow "who gives a damn about politics" culture that people really want.
pannSun 4y ago
> All four accounts had been singled out for criticism by Andy Ngo, a far-right writer whose conspiratorial, error-riddled reporting [1] on left-wing protests and social movements fuels the mass delusion that a handful of small antifascist groups are part of an imaginary shadow army called “antifa.” Let's see these errors then. [1] is a twitter thread about Ngo's reporting on the Dayton gunman Connor Betts' presence at an anti-KKK protest 2 months before his killing spree. Ngo claims Betts came to an antifa rally and wore black-block style clothing to mask his identity. But this is entirely false - it was not an antifa rally, but a "diverse array of anti-racist groups and individuals". He did wear sunglasses and a bandana to mask his identity, but did not wear "all black". And while he was "in the crowd", the journalist claims he was "not part of any group". I am certain that when links to the right are found with a mass shooter, this same journalist will remain consistent, and claim there is no such thing as the alt-right, merely a "diverse array of anti-globalist groups and individuals", and that while the shooter may have attended their protests, he was "not part of any group". Later in that thread: Ngo showed his fans an image of the small black bloc contingent at the anti-KKK protest. His fans won't hear me say they were about a dozen in a crowd of 500-600 and Betts was not with them. Reminds me of the saying "If there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people are sitting there talking to him, you have a table with 11 Nazis." Apply this rule only to your enemies - the Good Guys can associate with whoever they want, and come out clean. [1] https://twitter.com/RobertMackey/status/1466292569843793921 https://twitter.com/RobertMackey/status/1466292569843793921
a_shovel 4y ago
This was an entirely predictable outcome. When right-wingers complain about platforms controlled by censorious leftists, what they're usually complaining about is that the platform doesn't take orders for who to ban directly from far-right propagandists. But now they've got what they want, and, at least on this website, they can have their political enemies conveniently removed under false charges.

11 points by mhoad 4y ago

Suppressing political view points on social media is bad. If only there were people sounding the alarm about this for the past 10 years.

syzarian 4y ago
It’s not bad to suppress political views that incite violence, mob mentality, provably false narratives, or other abhorrent types of speech (cue the typical child porn examples). The alarm is in not having a standard of discourse and then banning certain types of political views that are otherwise within the confines of polite discourse.
- sn0w_crash 4y ago
  Your definition of “incite violence” might be other people asking why they need to remove their child’s penis. Your definition of “mob mentality” might be a group of Asian students asking why they’re being discriminated against in college admissions. Your “probably false narrative” might be someone committing the sin of saying that covid leaked from a Chinese lab. The list goes on and on.
  - syzarian 4y ago
    I didn’t give a definition of incite violence. Also said “provably” not “probably”. It’s not provably false that covid came from a lab.
a_shovel 4y ago
These events show that they weren't opposing suppressing political viewpoints on social media, they were opposing "suppressing" their political viewpoints on social media. Suppressing other people is fine. As soon as one of their own gains power, the pretense drops.

andrewclunn 4y ago

> “Twitter was never a healthy ‘public square’ for most of us. Let’s not rewrite history while eulogizing the hellsite,” Loder wrote on Mastodon on Sunday. “Twitter was a frightening battleground where we managed barely to claw out an uneasy existence amidst the worst violent neo-Nazi extremists who constantly published our home addresses, threatened our kids’ lives, and sent hordes of racist trolls into our mentions.” > On Mastodon, they added, “The same principles that allowed us to survive uneasily on Twitter will be required here. Community defense, thoughtful pressure on moderation policies, and eternal vigilance. There are no safe spaces but those we make safe through constant effort. We keep us safe.” Twitter, Loder says, will take a long time to die and disappear entirely, “like a rotting whale carcass.” What if it doesn't? What if people didn't come to Twitter for the left-wing safe space, but instead twitter was turned into a left-wing safe space because it reached a critical mass of people? Then again, what if it was never financially viable and was propped up to maintain the safe space because that was its primary purpose? As somebody who doesn't use Twitter, it seems that #Goku trending is a sign that this "new" Twitter may just be the low brow "who gives a damn about politics" culture that people really want.

pannSun 4y ago

> All four accounts had been singled out for criticism by Andy Ngo, a far-right writer whose conspiratorial, error-riddled reporting [1] on left-wing protests and social movements fuels the mass delusion that a handful of small antifascist groups are part of an imaginary shadow army called “antifa.” Let's see these errors then. [1] is a twitter thread about Ngo's reporting on the Dayton gunman Connor Betts' presence at an anti-KKK protest 2 months before his killing spree. Ngo claims Betts came to an antifa rally and wore black-block style clothing to mask his identity. But this is entirely false - it was not an antifa rally, but a "diverse array of anti-racist groups and individuals". He did wear sunglasses and a bandana to mask his identity, but did not wear "all black". And while he was "in the crowd", the journalist claims he was "not part of any group". I am certain that when links to the right are found with a mass shooter, this same journalist will remain consistent, and claim there is no such thing as the alt-right, merely a "diverse array of anti-globalist groups and individuals", and that while the shooter may have attended their protests, he was "not part of any group". Later in that thread: Ngo showed his fans an image of the small black bloc contingent at the anti-KKK protest. His fans won't hear me say they were about a dozen in a crowd of 500-600 and Betts was not with them. Reminds me of the saying "If there's a Nazi at the table and 10 other people are sitting there talking to him, you have a table with 11 Nazis." Apply this rule only to your enemies - the Good Guys can associate with whoever they want, and come out clean. [1] https://twitter.com/RobertMackey/status/1466292569843793921 https://twitter.com/RobertMackey/status/1466292569843793921

a_shovel 4y ago

This was an entirely predictable outcome. When right-wingers complain about platforms controlled by censorious leftists, what they're usually complaining about is that the platform doesn't take orders for who to ban directly from far-right propagandists. But now they've got what they want, and, at least on this website, they can have their political enemies conveniently removed under false charges.