Twitter’s censorship of any conservative or right-wing opinions appears to have become blatant and ostentatious. They clearly don’t care about upsetting anyone on that side of the political spectrum. Of course, being a private company, Twitter can implement whatever policies it wants; but for those of us who believe that freedom of speech is important, it’s just jumped the shark. Vox cites the following examples.
I ****ing hate white people and their inconsiderate asses for voting for Trump. **** you! 1:57 AM 9 Nov 2016
Twitter, in response to a complaint about the above tweet:
Thank you for reporting this issue to us. Our goal is to create a safe environment for everyone on Twitter to express themselves freely. We reviewed your report carefully and found that there was no violation of Twitter’s Rules regarding abusive behavior.
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I ****ing hate black people and their inconsiderate asses for voting for Clinton. **** you! 4:08 AM 16 Nov 2016
Twitter, in response to a complaint about the above tweet:
We’ve investigated and suspended the account you reported as it was found to be participating in abusive behavior.
The Twitter accounts of dozens of conservatives and right-wingers have been shut down, and more are being expelled by the day. Given such an insular, blinkered and ideologically-bound approach, adding to the problems of poor leadership, bad business decisions and increased competition, is it any wonder that the company can’t find a buyer?
Many of those expelled from Twitter (and many of their followers) are moving to Gab, the Twitter alternative that’s growing by leaps and bounds, precisely because it guarantees never to censor its members. It leaves it up to each member to decide what he or she wants to read, and restrict their own content accordingly. A co-founder of Gab claimed yesterday that “13,000 people signed up in the past 48 hours”. I can believe it. Gab is already having to do a major upgrade of its servers to cope with the increased traffic – a sure sign of success.
If you object to individuals being censored by Twitter, give Gab a try. I’m enjoying it there.
Peter
This is why I canceled my twitter account years ago.
All I care about is that Blogger remains an open-ended portal to self-expression, as I only ventured into Facebook territory for a very brief period and never considered becoming a "Twitter twit".
OK, I went to sign up. Lots of pro-free speech stuff on their web site – good.
Then it tells me that I'm 136,000 on the waiting list (!). Not so good.
Oh, Peter, Peter, Peter. Let me 'help' you understand!
It is a 'hate crime' to say anything negative about black people. It is a national virtue to say hateful things about, or exhibit hateful behavior toward, or even brutally attack whites!
After all Whites are responsible for Everything! Well, everything 'bad' that is. Everything good was developed in the Congo, or some other jungle paradise, where it is Heaven on earth.
So there. Now you are educated!!
So, what is your handle on gab, Peter? Interested in following you.
I'm @PeterG.
I tweeted to add those opinions to my political info. I noticed I was not permitted to retweet certain tweets. Just happened to be good news that I could not send. I have deactivated my account.