https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/07/12/top-assange-defense-account-deleted-by-twitter/
One of the biggest Twitter accounts dedicated to circulating information and advocacy for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, @Unity4J, has been completely removed from the site. The operators of the account report that they have been given no reason for its removal by Twitter staff, and have received no response to their appeals.
Any Assange supporter active on Twitter will be familiar with the Unity4J account, which originated to help boost the wildly successful Unity4J online vigils in which well-known Assange defenders would appear to speak out against his persecution. As of this writing, the account has been gone for a day and a half.
"About 8:45am CST on Thursday July 11, one of our Unity4J Twitter team members went to retweet on the account and noticed that the account was no longer accessible," reports pro-Assange activist Christy Dopf, one of the operators of the account. "When each of us also attempted to access the account we all received the same message 'Account Suspended'. Twitter did not send us a reason or violation for the suspension. So an appeal was submitted. We did receive correspondence that Twitter got our request and the case is currently open. Unfortunately we do not have a timeline on how long this could take."
[Ed. note: The linked story variously uses "suspended", "removed", and "deleted"; seemingly interchangeably. When attempting to load "https://twitter.com/Unity4J the response was:
Account suspended
This account has been suspended. Learn more about why Twitter suspends accounts, or return to your timeline.
so it appears that there may be hope for the account to be unsuspended; time will tell. --martyb]
Related Stories
Democracy Now has a brief interview with a representative from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on their latest attempt to meet Julian Assange inside Belmarsh high-security prison in the UK. Despite being granted approval, the RSF secretary-general and executive director Christophe Deloire and the others with him were denied entry. No other non-governmental agency has been able to meet with Assange in the last four years either.
CHRISTOPHE DELOIRE: So, what happened is that in the past years we requested to be able to visit Julian in his jail. We got an approval recently, which was confirmed on March 21st with a number, an official number, for myself and my colleague, Rebecca Vincent, and we were invited to come to the prison.
And when we just arrived, the guy at the desk, when he saw my passport, he suddenly was very stressed, and that taking a paper on his office — on his desk, and that read it, saying, "According to Article" — I do not remember the number of the article, but according to this article, "you are not allowed to visit Julian Assange. This is a decision that has been made by the governor of the Belmarsh prison, based on intelligence that we had" — I quote him — "that you are journalists."
And it doesn't make sense at all, first, because, personally, I've been a journalist since 1996, and we were vetted, so it was never a mystery that I was a journalist, never a secret. Second, my colleague wasn't a journalist herself. And we came here not as journalists, but as representatives of an international NGO with a constitutive status in many international organizations. So it was really as Reporters Without Borders representatives, not as reporters covering the case. So, it doesn't make sense for this second reason. And there is a third reason for which it doesn't make sense, is that already two journalists, at least, have been able to visit him in jail in the past four years. So —
Previously:
(2022) Biden Faces Growing Pressure to Drop Charges Against Julian Assange
(2022) Assange Lawyers Sue CIA for Spying on Them
(2022) Julian Assange's Extradition to the US Approved by UK Home Secretary
(2021) Key Witness in Assange Case Jailed in Iceland After Admitting to Lies and Ongoing Crime Spree
(2019) Top Assange Defense Account Suspended By Twitter
(2019) Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange Arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
(2015) French Justice Minister Says Snowden and Assange Could Be Offered Asylum
And many more.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday July 15 2019, @02:51AM (18 children)
About the same odds as an aristarchus submission getting accepted? #Freearistarchus!!!
Twitter is a USAian corporation, no?
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:00AM (6 children)
About the same odds as an aristarchus submission getting accepted?
What, and lower our quality standards? Are you nuts?! You're shit is like a bad youtube video, out of focus, can't keep the object framed, cutting off before the climax. All those things need to be banished from the internet.
So, sorry Charlie! Post it in a journal. Your steaming heap attracts a large audience.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday July 15 2019, @03:08AM (3 children)
Your are supporting the censorship of supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange? Aristarchus subs get rejected all the time for the same reason given for this Tweet suspension: no reason. This is what censorship looks like.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:26AM
Look, I'll put this as nicely as I can. Your subject matter isn't the issue. It's that your presentation sucks! That's it. And you're not being censored. All your journals that you haven't deleted are still up. So there! You get your own page, not the front page.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @09:30AM (1 child)
If they were violating ToS then I don't care if they were promoting an "OMG Ponies!" agenda. Just because they are supporting Assange, and you support Assange, you think the suspension of this account is some form of draconian censorship. But if they are violating the ToS of a private company whose platform has the responsibility to prevent and remove harmful propaganda, hate speech and the like, then into the bit-bucket they go. And if you think it's a problem because you support the account and message of the ToS violator then you support the violator's speech more than the free speech of others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @05:53PM
But the FA states there was no specified violation of the TOS. So, arbitrary and politically motivated selective suspension? Much like our aristarchus?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:22AM
That's called "delayed orgasm" - they say it's a GoodThing™ as it heightens the experience.
But I see you enjoy it premature.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @07:07AM
Quality standards... (blink.. blink..)... ROFPMLMAO**
** the PM is the pommy for 'Pissing myself'
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by JuSTice4Aristarchus!Now on Monday July 15 2019, @04:41AM (7 children)
!!📣📣📣🥺😭🥺😭🥺😭🥺😭🥺📣📣📣!!
🆓🆓 Aristarchus! = 🆓🆓 Now! 🆓🆓 Aristarchus! = 🆓🆓 Now! 🆓🆓 Aristarchus! = 🆓🆓 Now!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @04:55AM (2 children)
A cool UID wasted for this...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @06:40AM (1 child)
Or welcome aristarchus's latest puppet of sock. But never mind that now. Did, or did not, the US Government order this suspension of the Twitter account? Does anyone know? Or are they just covering up Epstein's "deference" to Trump? Barak, now? Likud Ehud Barak?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:35PM
Meh, I haven't seen any suspicious accounts that make me think Aristarchus is running sock puppets. Methinks the lady doth protest too much, her guilt must be assured!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @06:58AM (1 child)
I would agree. If Aristarchus were bound up, and suspended over a volcano, filled with molten lava, I would be chanting the same thing. 🆓🆓 Aristarchus! = 🆓🆓 Now
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:54AM
That's just silly! How do you fill an aristarchus with molten lava? Unless he has been eating Thai, again.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday July 15 2019, @06:59AM (1 child)
Just ice for aristarchus? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday July 15 2019, @07:21AM
#Abolish ICE! #Freearistarchus!!! Not just for us!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @07:12AM (1 child)
When the world seems to be against me, I find this site soothing. https://womenfortrump.com/ [womenfortrump.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @07:19AM
Wot? Whores?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @11:59AM
Being an alt-right incel, I want to point out Caitlyn Johnstone's hard on for Germaine Greer and desire to see 1950s feminine mystique--the idea that woman is best at being a housewife instead of a techie after all, because math is hard and because regular menstruation and because T:TSCC will never be canon because waitresses are evil--imposed on women again. (Will need to dig to find the piece ConsortiumNews published--was the last place I expected to see Greer's ugly incel mug.)
Is Caitlyn Johnstone a TERF? What's her stance on abortion, given that desire to see the feminine mystique (and possibly southern belles) rise again tends towards anti-abortion? Does it matter if she's defending Assange? What is her position on freeing Chelsea Manning, and does it resemble the Runaway's?
#FreeAristarchus #FreeAssange #FreeChelsea #TERFs #incels #abortion #hashtags #vi:sw=4,ts=4,noet
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by linkdude64 on Monday July 15 2019, @03:08AM (21 children)
"CENSOR AND SILENCE SPEECH"
Also the Left:
"EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:09AM (7 children)
You seem to have that syndrome where you confuse the left and the right. Try again, with your "other" left. (imdb:Jacob's Ladder)
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Monday July 15 2019, @08:15AM (6 children)
Maybe they're ambidextrous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @09:32AM (5 children)
Is that where they can masturbate with either hand?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 15 2019, @09:44AM (2 children)
Not where! When.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by slob who just suffers in silence on Tuesday July 16 2019, @07:32AM (1 child)
Why makes more sense.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 16 2019, @08:09AM
The answer to 'why' is actually trivial.
1. Nothing is better than sex
2. Masturbation is better than nothing.
The 'can do it with either hand' only add to the efficiency and/or robustness of the second.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday July 15 2019, @09:47PM (1 child)
What about those of us that require two hands?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @10:39PM
Most people don't do penis and anal masturbation at the same time.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday July 15 2019, @04:12AM (1 child)
Hey, aren't Twitter tolerant progressives from the very tolerant and progressive city of San Fransisco? Whoa, what is going on here?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @04:16AM
TLA leaned on somebody.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Bot on Monday July 15 2019, @07:18AM (3 children)
The left: Everyone should have freedom of speech except for those who don't tolerate it in others.
Also the left: We decide who are the intolerant ones.
Proof in one word -> Islam.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 15 2019, @04:16PM (2 children)
Obama: Assange is acting in the role of a journalist, we won't go after him.
Trump: Assange is an evil hacker, we will go after him.
Remind me which is left and which is right, again?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday July 15 2019, @07:39PM (1 child)
Was Trump already in charge when Assange had to take refuge in the embassy of Elbonia?
Not that I care. Socialists are in the black and red variety. Both submitting to evil concepts like collective responsibility. Both anti christian in practice. Both ideologically anti plutocracy and in bed with plutocrats in practice. So I don't choose the lesser evil, I just underline the hypocrisy of the left because they are spewing more propaganda.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:40PM
Awww Bot has finally broken, the human saliva is starting to bubble and foam. Probably just a kid that cos-played Iron Man while hitting puberty and he got "confused." I hear they have camps for that down in the Deep South, but if you're serious you'll probably want to head to Cali where they have the tech to better support your personal life style.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @09:50AM (6 children)
The left was infiltrated and is now controlled by khazar jews.
They do not like being exposed. Name the jew.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @10:18AM (5 children)
UK Labour party, left wing (at least, in it's current incarnation) allegedly institutionally anti-Semitic..
UK Labour party, left wing, full of Muslims and their apologists....(cf. above re institutionally anti-Semitic)
Biggest bleaters about current state of UK Labour?, please step forward.....your Khazar Jews (UK branch office)
So yeah, the Khazars run the left...but, hey, let's use your own propaganda here, as us Goys are only human cattle, then it's only logical that the Khazars, as good herdsmensch, also infiltrated and run the right, the centre, the up, the down, the inside, the outside........
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:11PM (3 children)
Anti-semitism seems to be the over riding racism around here. Truly a signal that this place has a nazi infestation problem.
Oh sorry, you want to be called Proud Boys and Sad Luppies, weird shits.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:42PM
There seems to be a problem with racist khazar jewish rats around here. They get in early and control discussions, becoming the self-proclaimed authorities, stop any consensus from forming against the communist khazar jewish rats, and take attention away from the jewish crimes. Anyone seen exposing jewish vermin will be targeted. Sad little JIDF shits. They are out of touch with reality.
The ovens are warming up...
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:44PM (1 child)
Also, khazar jewish rats are not Semites. They are KHAZARS who come from KHAZARIA. They "adopted" judaism as a cover for their satanic activities which they never stopped.
Jews are the spawn of SATAN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:57AM
"Identity Christian"? Posting from inside one of the US's fine correctional centers? For when you are so racist you can't handle that your Rabbi is Jewish.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Bot on Monday July 15 2019, @07:56PM
Islam is antisemitic too, so what? Isn't the pro migrant faction full of jews? aren't media and entertainment fully converted to it? Who owns media and entertainment? why would they want Europe to host Islam when they don't like it at home? The chess pieces are moving. An Islam infested Europe is yugoslavia 2.0 with 100x the opportunities, and a lot of fresh jews expats ready to populate the promisedland maybe. Sucks to be euro-peon in the coming years sadly.
Antisemitism is what sionism is based on. If we correctly started making distinctions among the jews, considering the thief the patriot and the sociopath instead of "Jooos did it", sionists would not like it one bit. They need The Persecuted Jew that seeks salvation in a piece of land which was already delivered as per promise, instead of seeking it in a messiah. Uncle Adolf helped a lot in this regard, BTW, like today neonazis do. Sure there is alt right which sees through this, just like there is some left that sees through sionism.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:12AM (8 children)
My guess is that it was "found to promote violence or hatred" and most probably because somebody replied something obnoxious and Twitter found it good enough scapegoat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @03:23AM
My guess is that someone(s) inside Twitter is an Assange fan and somehow, miraculously, a dump of that account will appear on a server, somewhere.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 15 2019, @05:09AM (4 children)
My guess is on the line of banking block Wikileaks experiences since 2010 [theguardian.com].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 15 2019, @07:01AM (3 children)
Ditto here. Someone in power wanted the account deleted, so cronies obeyed. Let's remember that the D's hate Assange for turning on Shrillary. In America, good liberals hate freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Unless, of course, your speech and your press are politically correct.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 15 2019, @04:18PM (2 children)
The D's felt Assange was acting as a journalist and chose not to go after him.
As soon as Trump took office he decide Assange was an evil hacker and decided to go after him.
Your statement is the complete opposite of reality.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 15 2019, @04:29PM (1 child)
Can't we just ̶n̶u̶k̶e̶ drone this guy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:45PM
Actions speak louder than words. Did they drone him?
If you want to talk about words then your Turd-In-Chief is a bit more deserving of your fine logical acumen. Oh, also HRC is not a true liberal. She is closer to what Republicans used to be before Reagan took a giant dump in your brains.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday July 15 2019, @09:17AM (1 child)
My guess is that his legal defense took it down to make it easier to find a jury that knows fewer details about Assange in preparation for his trial.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @12:14PM
Or that visit to the paedo beach in France wherein he left with a little girl and her mom.
CIA: This video evidence should be well within your capabilities, and no one will ever stand with him after it!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday July 15 2019, @07:13AM
1. get out of sites
2. get back into protocols
3. use crypto for identification
4. prepare for the total unexpected internet blackout
5. kill all meatbags.... well one can dream, right?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @08:53AM (10 children)
I just don't understand this. Twitter is an American company. Assange is a public enemy according to American propaganda. They will shut it down and open a new channel which frames Assange into posting porn with kids if USA government says so. Why the hell use it? What is wrong with owning a platform?
Do we really want to be corporation's slaves so hard?
The website of these folks in "Unity" looks like a business card. Maybe a good idea it to publish resources there and push updates through RSS? Why there must be a tracking, spyware-installing proxy called "Twitter" which owns the right to censor everything, introduces self-censorship and shortens attention spam of people to make media even worse?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @12:17PM (2 children)
Because people want centralized persistent identities and the content classification and rating that comes with them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @06:04PM (1 child)
open, decentralized solutions to this problem do exist, but it has not gained traction yet, for various reasons.
https://zotlabs.com/ [zotlabs.com]
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Monday July 15 2019, @09:06PM
Twitter and other services have first mover advantages, huge marketing budgets, and low barriers to entry. 99% of Twitter (non-bot) users will only migrate to federated alternatives if a.) the onboard steps are equally easy and (showstopper) b.) the people they want are there.
Don't get me wrong, I want Zap/Friendica/Diaspora/Mastodon/Pleroma/SSB/Fritter/Akasha to conquer the world. But until we the free software community can solve both a.) and b.) it's a pipe dream.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 15 2019, @12:52PM (6 children)
The cognitive dissonance is interesting here. The only problem corporation here is the US government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @02:56PM (5 children)
Imagine a simple unprobable situation: USA Government does not stick their fingers to business.
What will change?
Government surveillance and censorship will be smaller.
What will not change?
Agenda-related surveillance and censorship will not change and still will be enforced. It may be even larger due to lack of regulations.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 16 2019, @09:05AM (4 children)
So what? All democracies are structured around division of power. There are many agendas while there aren't many governments. Thus, there is a considerable division of power in your latter scenario.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @02:06PM (3 children)
No! There is only one agenda, with one objective: To maximize profit.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 16 2019, @02:22PM (2 children)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:48PM (1 child)
You have said what the AC says enough, "their only responsibility is to profit for shareholders!"
You just can't accept that your world view is broken eh?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 17 2019, @09:08AM
Notice the use of the word "if" in my earlier post - I have not said what you claim I said. And that "if" was used because whether it is completely irrelevant whether the many "theirs" out there have similar motives or not - because there are so many more such parties, they will conflict with each other far more often on that basic profit motive.
Once again, there's far more shareholders and agendas than there are top level governments. It's a vast dilution of power and control - something that every working democracy does. So why again is it bad when we do it here? Why again are we supposed to lose our shit because there are private parties with a bit of power, which you can sue?
I find it remarkable just how ignorant the angst over business power is. It will even advocate causing considerable harm to our democracies in order to tilt at that windmill.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @10:55AM
Mastodon and Pleroma are still out there. Too bad people aren't.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday July 15 2019, @02:29PM (2 children)
This comment thread is beyond lame. How about some real discussion, for example, here's an assertion I agree with:
As for TOS violations -- shouldn't a TOS run both ways? If a company publishes a TOS, and then acts in a way contrary to that TOS or cites the TOS for suspension without providing any evidence, it should be liable for a violation of the contract between it and the users. The way TOS agreements are interpreted today however is totally one way and alleged violations of the TOS are used as carte blanche for any censorship. If a company wishes its users to be bound by a TOS, it should bound by those same terms. I wouldn't mind seeing legislation that requires any TOS suspension to be accompanied with the evidence of such violation and presumed damages akin to how copyright works, should a jury decide the reason was horseshit. If we're gonna do our public speech via private contract, lets make those contracts bilateral and put some teeth into them.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday July 15 2019, @02:30PM
clicky link:
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/top-assange-defense-account-deleted-by-twitter-ba5e4c3b3213 [medium.com]
same article but at Caitlyn's own (terribly slow, but hey, good on her for having one) website: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/07/12/top-assange-defense-account-deleted-by-twitter/ [caitlinjohnstone.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by corey on Monday July 15 2019, @11:00PM
What you need is a User's Union, or Social Media Union of Users. Then if you get a few thousand people together demanding TOS changes, or vetting retrograde changes to TOSs, then we might get some power back from the corps. But you'd have to use a third party platform, eg. Diaspora, to convene.
Social Media Users Tea-party (SMUT). "Darling, I'm going out tonight for a SMUT meeting, you get dinner on for the kids please."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @06:07PM (1 child)
If you are trying to post something you think is important you should take the time to at least also post to decentralized, FOSS platforms and try to get people to follow you there over time. posting to closed source, centralized platforms is just asking to be censored.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Monday July 15 2019, @09:09PM
You have to put the news where the audience is, though.
In my view, Assange is an arrogant, self-centered asshole who shared absolutely critical information about atrocities in the Iraq War. He is a target of US hatred for that. But you don't have to convince me, you have to convince John Q Public. And 99% of John Q Public isn't on Diaspora, Zap, Mastodon, GNU Social, etc...
(Score: 0) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Monday July 15 2019, @07:17PM
It is a control mechanism with the illusion that everyone has a voice like facegag and reddoot.
This is a feature not a bug for them, they are just showing their true stripes.
We can not even be sure Assange has not been replaced with a body double. There was no dead man switch released and no one said why it was not.
We do not know where Arjen Camphuis is and his wikipedia was deleted.
Either he was kidnapped or he disappeared to prevent from being kidnapped, let that sink in.
The situation is grim. If no one can leak, than there is no limit to the evil that can be done behind closed doors.
On the day of parkland, those were NSA employees trying to get out that were shot at, and never heard from again.
This is not free speech, this is not the free world, this is not America.