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UK Cops Have Decided Impolite Online Speech Is Worth A Visit From An Officer
In this case, it was Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan being visited by the Norwich Police Department on a Sunday morning. He was apparently reported by outspoken trans rights activist Adrian Harrop. Linehan had posted tweets criticizing Harrop's televised debate with a woman who had paid for a billboard depicting the dictionary's definition of the word "woman," which bothered Harrop so much he complained and got that taken down as well.
Harrop was the reason Linehan was talking to police officers about tweets that didn't even violate the Twitter Rules. He had merely suggested Harrop's steamrolling of the billboard buyer during a televised debate might have been "male privilege." Another tweet alleged Harrop had threatened women and doxxed them for not being friendly enough to his cause. This is the tweet Harrop admits bothered him so much he needed to call the police. This is the disturbing, but ultimately useless, outcome of Harrop's decision.
[...] You can't recognize free speech while still insisting everyone has to be nice to everyone else while online. You can hope that's what will happen, but you can't demand this of the general population. Unless you're in the UK, in which case you can, because you don't really recognize free speech and should probably remove that phrase from the government's collective vocabulary.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Friday December 28 2018, @07:19PM (16 children)
Stop spreading bullshit.
A police officer's job in the UK, more than anything else, involves calming non-criminal situations and keeping the peace.
A bobby who can't knock on your door and ask you to keep the noise down, be more civil to your neighbour, or consider the consequences of a tweet isn't capable of doing their job. It literally does not matter that they aren't crimes, because they aren't arresting, charging or imprisoning anyone.
No different to your complaint that the neighbours are having a loud party - the police can't arrest people for having a party. But they can knock on the door civilly, ask them to keep it down, and bite their tongue if they do get a load of abuse about doing so, even though they can't arrest anyone for a suspected crime.
And quotes like:
"The UK government might think complaints like these will be handled civilly by public servants with the power to deploy deadly force, but that's a big assumption when the underlying "crime" is incivility."
Are entirely misleading. Extremely few police officers have the power to deploy deadly force. And the reason they are few, and rarely utilitised, is that our police are CIVIL. Sure, jump on with your story about a policeman pulling you over and arresting you after you gave him a mouthful of abuse and hassle for him telling you that your back light is out (I've been stopped by police loads - they are ALWAYS civil, and very forgiving and could have easily nicked me for things that they just gave me a little "get it fixed when it's convenient" hints for).
The UK police received a complaint of hate speech. They knocked on the guy's door, knowing they couldn't do anything "legal" about it. They just wanted to assess and moderate the situation before it grew out of proportion. They had a word. The guy didn't want to listen, they walked away, AND LITERALLY NOTHING HAPPENED. That's what police do in situations that don't involve actual crimes. That's what you WANT them to do. Because 9 times out of 10 they don't get a dickhead, they get a normal person who then goes "Oh, right, sorry, no, I didn't intend to cause offence, thanks officer" and the situation dies - the "victim" thinks that their concerns are acted on, the "perpetrator" moderates their behaviour, and nobody is arrested or causes paperwork.
Anti-police sentiment may be rife in the US and with some people in the UK. Now consider what you WANT the police's response to be? Because if they'd just ignored it and then the guy had committed actual hate speech, they'd be in the press. If the "victim" had been attacked, they'd be in the press. If they'd done NOTHING about the concerns, they'd be in the press. If they'd stormed in and arrested him or investigated him (not even charged him!), they'd be in the press. So instead, the local bobby (not even some long investigation CID shit, but the guy who sighed and happened to be nearest) knocked on the door to ask what's happened, got an earful and STILL they got into the press.
Stop that shit.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @08:15PM
What? Get your shit together, you wanker. The police have better things to do than deal with the likes of you. They've got drone terrorists to track down and Brexit riots to plan for.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @08:25PM (4 children)
This is simple intimidation via police.
Lets see... for a noise complaint you can go to your neighbor just like the cops. "please keep it down". Then its either fuck off or sure n/p.
When you call the police they show up and see if there is any noise, or just assume the person turned it down when they saw them.
It's no longer "please keep it down", its complaints have come about the noise you're making TURN IT DOWN.
And sure you can tell them to fuck off but they can give you a ticket. And then "hey, is that weed I smell".
So now in your scenario, someone makes a joke that offends their enemy. Instead of coming back with something witty, they called the cops.
And they come to your door while your showering, eating dinner, in your underwear, etc. "What did you say online, you're offending people, you may have committed a "hate speech"
"You know what the penalties for that are? Better not make us come back here again, watch what you say lad because we're listening"
Maybe the police won't shoot or beat or fine you for either of these things, it would be ridiculous but that threat is behind EVERY interaction you have with them. When you don't comply the so called civility gets less and less.
You've got a light out its pretty clear cut, jokes online are not. One you fix and move on, the other is subject to everyone's whims.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @11:24PM (2 children)
They're not dense, you are.
You were created by a screwed up society, and think that everyone should be as screwed up as you are.
Better societies keep an eye on troubled people, and help those in need.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:19AM
Bootlicker.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 31 2018, @07:35AM
If there are all these normal people who aren't screwed up, then how did society end up that way? Mental failwaves from a few throwbacks? What's going on here is that some screw ups get to use the power of the state to harass some other screw ups. It's not going to make screwed up societies any better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @02:08AM
Or it's the neighbor deciding you'd be better off with a few broken bones for daring to interrupt their concert. Maybe a bullet to the head.
I'll call the cops, thanks all the same, because the cops can legally do things to people that I can't.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Friday December 28 2018, @08:49PM
I had no idea that a text forum can achieve such high decibel levels... Sorry, you're wagging the dog. The negative consequences come from the failure to control one's reaction to a damn tweet. Offense is taken, not given.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by shortscreen on Friday December 28 2018, @09:38PM
Your version of police as reasonable, dependable folks, who calm a situation instead of escalating it, sound much nicer than what many people have come to expect in the US.
On the other hand, the idea that you would have them turn up at your front door to confront you about a tweet (with or without an allegation of "hate speech" whatever that is) pretty well sours the whole story.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Friday December 28 2018, @10:58PM (1 child)
I have to laugh at you hysterically for your blindness to police intimidation, and yet at the same time, I'm envious if that's your real relationship with the cops. Here in the USA, it's quite a bit different of a relationship. The police regularly abuse us, unconstitutionally confiscate our property, moonlight for the rich as anti-union enforcers, kill anyone one of us that they perceive as a threat to their lives (usually black people), torture people before death (Kelly Thomas), and have become increasingly militant with a strong reliance on military hardware. On top of that, they abuse the purpose of unions to create their Blue Shield to remove all accountability and effective civil oversight.
You've described Mayberry, a fictional US town in the 50s where everybody knew everybody and it wasn't a cop knocking on your door, or pulling you over. It was Frank, Steve, Bill, etc. and you didn't need to fear them at all. Like you alluded to, they would show up anyways if they knew of a dispute between two people, to help bring peace and civility back. Imagine Don Knotts in his kindly way moderating a dispute, and that's the picture you've painted for me.
I'm not sure the police actually exist as you say they do, but I would like to think we could live in a world where the police and your relationship to them, are as you said. I do see your point though, and if the officer just came and talked because it was reported, that might not be so bad. Except our valid cynicism of the cops makes us see that as intimidation and an attempt to stifle free speech. Although, I've not heard anything about the conduct of either party during the visit, just the fact it happened, and we are all to extrapolate from that with our own biases.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:41PM
Ed III, I once bought the DVD of the film "Borat". It greatly enhanced my knowledge of "Cultural Learnings of America", a country I've never visited (and am not planning to).
There was a little menu on the DVD with "cut out" film scenes. One of them left me sitting with my mouth open in surprise (no, not the beach sex scene).
It was when Borat and his producer Azamat are stopped by the police.
I thought: "in that scene, Sacha Baron Cohen shows the difference between police under civil control, and police that is just the biggest meanest best armed gang of them all".
Civilization!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:13AM
Oh sure, nothing happened this visit...a formal police visit, made after a drama queen makes a formal complaint, he received an official Police Warning...which will now appear on his police record, and once back at base the visiting officers will then fill in the requisite paperwork c/w transcripts of whatever Mr Linehan might have said to them as further evidence and pass it up the chain, as this happened in England, this chain will eventually end at some wonk at the CPS who then looks at it and decides if they then think they can proceed with a prosecution under one of the multifarious 'catch-all' laws they've passed to hammer people with.
In this case, if they go for it, I'd bet our old friend 'The Malicious Communications Act 1988' could be called into play...that vague '..cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.', the vagueness being how legally quantifiable the perceived distress or anxiety actually caused..or they could opt for using 1.4A.(1) of 'The Public Order Act 1986'...same sort of vague BS that requires legal testing of the material and it's allegedly offending properties.
If the man from CPS, he say yes! then one fine day Mr Linehan will either be visited again by a couple of not-so-nice plods and taken for a wee ride in one of their cars...or will be requested to attend his nearest nick with his solicitor in tow where he'll be formally charged..
Even if the man from CPS he say no!, this is another mark on Mr Linehan's card...and will be used against him when they need it.
So, Nothing happened eh? and you've the audacity to accuse others of spreading bullshit..
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday December 29 2018, @02:37AM
Wait -- what? You support this? Sending the police out to talk with impolite twitter users? I didn't read your entire post so correct me if I'm wrong and you think it is flat out ridiculous to send out the cops over a twitter post -- don't they have some acid attacks or drunken brawls to deal with? Is it really worth the chilling effect on the free discourse of ideas to have the cops come by and say "hey, we see you are a little bit impolite on twitter." Holy fucking cow. The UK should just slip under the waves.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by fakefuck39 on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:36AM (1 child)
the police are paid by the public to enforce the law. no law was broken. what is it you're not getting here sherlock? you can write pages and pages of nonsense to muddy the water, but the facts are very clear:
a guy wrote shit online that someone didn't like. that someone called the cops. instead of the cops telling this shithead no law was broken, they showed up at a guy's house to "investigate." there's nothing to investigate, as no law was broken. this is literally the police not doing their job, and annoying the shit out of the population paying them to do their job. what is it that you do not understand?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:19PM
I think the main problem is that in the UK, there apparently is a criminal law against offending people online and apparently, even innocuous tweets can get you in real trouble. Stalin is winning.
(Score: 2) by Pax on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:24AM
"the police can't arrest people for having a party."
oh really? so tell me of this Criminal Justice act which was for the stopping of the very parties you mention????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_Order_Act_1994 [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @06:22PM
there's no such thing as hate speech you stupid fucking slave. and no i don't want goddamn pigs knocking on MY goddamn door because some delusional freak got offended. don't come fucking with me unless you have a complaint of an actual crime. fuck your police state.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday December 28 2018, @07:57PM (11 children)
I looked at the billboard. The definition looks legit to me. Seems a bit tautological for a “trans rights activist” to bother with. I don't see anything in the picture that refutes either The Second Sex or Whipping Girl.
I see nothing progressive about Harrop's activism and belligerence.
As Azuma put it, this is how you get TERFs! But the elites want TERFs, don't they? That's also why they're also infiltrating cis lesbian spaces to spread the idea that trans women who are pre-op or no-op want to stick their mutant clitorises into cis lesbians.
It is entirely likely that certain vocal activists, acting in the capacity of so-called “social justice warriors,” are compromised. There is documentation of civil rights movements being compromised in the past.
On top of this, the media cannot be trusted at all to give accurate reporting if this subject matter comes up in the news. Large sections of the media may be compromised [consortiumnews.com] by the Five Eyes intelligence services [wsws.org].
(Score: 2, Troll) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday December 28 2018, @10:00PM
The more I look into it, it looks like that idiot kurenai.tsubasa has a history of roughly the same thing as Harrop. I was wrong for exactly the same reason Harrop is wrong.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday December 28 2018, @10:18PM (8 children)
Kurenai, some pre-op/no-op transwomen DO want to stick it in cis lesbians. 3 so far have tried to make their case with me, one of them extremely persistently. It's not going to make me a TERF, but it's also making me think the MtF community needs some serious shaking up. Even if it's something as crude as "hey, you wanna be a woman, you get everything that goes with it, including this society's firm placement of us at bottom. Male privilege looks especially bad on someone who's transitioning."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:01AM
That's it, I've had it. Will somebody *please* cut together some Archer clips and re-dub them with that phrase? It's been bugging me ever since your post on this topic.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:10AM
Yeah, and they need to knock that shit off. If a person wants to identify as a woman without correcting their mutant clitoris, then they must accept the limitations that come with a mutant clitoris.
We must delineate the no-op position here of identifying as a woman who happens to have a male reproductive system from the pre-op position of being hampered by an inability to access necessary health services including genital surgery. In the case of the pre-op trans lesbian, I guess life's just not fair. They should consider abandoning the two major capitalist parties and studying the Russian Revolution, because waiting for the capitalist system to give them a way to get surgery is going to be a very long wait.
If trans folks disregard a potential partner's genital preference, then they have become a TERF stereotype. If they persist, then they are engaging in sexual harassment and/or rape.
In general, all this angst about gender and race issues is the bourgeois class telling you that you can't find a steady job because you're a woman and don't have male privilege. Then they tell me that I'm struggling because I'm trans and don't have cis privilege. Then they tell white guys that they're not rich because the Mexicans and Muslims are terkin their jerbs. And then, and then, and then, and then.
For every demographic we can imagine, the bourgeois running the show can tell that demographic which other demographic to blame. And then we're all at each other's throats. The working class has been divided, and the spectre of some kind of Transitional Program (heh) has been defused.
We're all being equally fucked by the elites.
And my personal opinion is that those trans lesbians trying to stick their dicks in you are either a.) fundamentally misguided or b.) CIA agents who got tired of posing as little girls on IRC. Well, maybe not CIA. Probably TERF groups that would love to make you think that a trans woman wants to rape you (classical trolls). Or (especially if meatspace) they've been fundamentally misguided by CIA assets and other useful idiots in high places in academia spouting postmodern bullshit.
Everybody needs to understand the implications of COINTELPRO [wikipedia.org]. The Security and the Fourth International [wsws.org] investigation is also a fascinating read.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:13AM (5 children)
Well put (from the perspective of someone who has no direct experience with this). How/is this topic covered during transition counseling? It must be, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @09:57AM
They are told that they have more acceptance of their poor status [wikipedia.org] and not try to look past the privileges [bing.com] they had. They are also told to be less confrontational as that's toxic masculinity.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday December 29 2018, @03:01PM (3 children)
Why? This is the TERF misandrist notion that all those assigned the male gender at birth are rapists. However, assignment of the male gender at birth is a legal status and ultimately arbitrary. The idea that one should demand of cis lesbians sex as a part of trans activism screams fifth column. Why can these trans lesbians not have their lesbian sex with other trans women? Are they questioning the validity of their own gender transition? Are they aware of the inherent contradictions they're participating in if it must be a cisgender lesbian they have sex with? I should be as equally qualified as Azuma to have lesbian sex with them (well, considering I'm heterosexual, technically I'm less qualified, but only on that ground). If they want to have sex with a cisgender lesbian because they have a genital preference, I think we have just discovered the exact nature of their hypocrisy!
This is old and doesn't reflect Azuma's recent experience: Cotton Ceiling: Uncovering the trans conspiracy to rape lesbians [transadvocate.com], but this should give background information about what is going on here.
Now, maybe it never came up for me because I'm a heterosexual trans woman. However, the notion that “men” (as defined by the solitary data point of reproductive system sex) are rapists unless counseled is rotten. The vast majority of men, statistically speaking, are not criminals. The idea that men will engage in rape unless insulted and called de facto criminals [deepdyve.com] (who have merely not yet been caught) for an hour or two is regressive. That nonsense has no business being anywhere near gender counseling.
Statistically speaking, 90% of trans women are lesbians. It seems that sexual orientation and gender identity, besides both stemming from conditions in the womb, are otherwise completely unrelated. 90% of people born with male reproductive systems are attracted to women. So it is with trans women, and this is particularly fascinating, at least to me. Sexual orientation evolves completely independently of gender identity! I never woulda guessed that on my own. So already there are 10% of trans women for whom such counseling would make no sense.
Additionally, consider that a trans woman is never once at any point in her life a man. She is a woman who, for an entirely arbitrary reason, was brainwashed and violently forced (with guns but often lesser weapons down to even fists) to think she is a man by well meaning people who loved the man they had her mistaken for, but they not did love her herself. Does that make sense? The “men are from Mars and women are from Venus” approach is regressive, ridiculous and does not survive scrutiny (see Serano, Friedan, and Beauvoir).
Another example. Looking closely at groups like Black Lives Matter, I see the same fundamental perversion. Why did BLM disrupt a Sanders rally? That is highly suspicious to me, even moreso when we consider that Sanders' opponent in the 2016 Democratic Party primary was a woman who promoted the misandrist, racist, and patriarchal-fascist “superpredator” theory. The ruling class pulled out all the stops to ensure that Sanders did not win the primary, and groups like BLM that may be CIA fifth columns were likely part of that strategy. (Remember all the crowing about BLM being funded by Soros? Well, I'm telling you that, from a leftist perspective, considering Dr. King Jr.'s experience with the CIA, that idea seems not only legit but probable.)
Perhaps the most egregious example of the disconnect of the interests of a demographic being completely at odds with the interests of politically motivated actors is the ethno-fascist state of Israel. The people who promote these confusions (e.g. if one opposes transfemale rape of ciswomen one is automatically transphobic, if opposing BLM's regressive actions then racist, if opposing Israel's genocide then anti-Semitic) are sociopaths, and they have no problem promoting complete fabrications, engaging in false flag operations (see the White Helmets), and other mendacity.
In the final analysis, the working class must overcome these diversions. Things will never get better for any of us until we do. The proletariat are like ents. Something is about to happen that has not happened for 100 years. The proletarian class is about to wake up and find that they are strong.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 29 2018, @03:20PM (2 children)
Funny how we come to some of the same conclusions about economics and the elite playing divide-and-conquer with We The People. I've said for a while now that the reason they keep the race divide going is that the instant, for example, poor white men realize they have much more in common with poor black women than rich white men, the game is over. Wouldn't surprise me at all if some fifth-columnists are playing the same game in the LGBTQ community. In fact, given how different each of the letters are, it's probably an inevitability.
Why can't we all just get along...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:38PM (1 child)
I am so sorry about the crap I posted up until a couple months ago. I know I've also said similar before. I hope to show something different with my future comments.
My guess is that there was a lot of money from the DeVoses (connections to the Black Water mercenary group) and VanAndels and other Michigan bourgeois families involved (of course I was not the only victim) funneling into the college I went to (GVSU)—and bourgeois “donations” are never generous in nature but instead are the hierarchy of power and control in capitalism, and likely also in the incident where I lost access to local medical care. I fell for the fifth columnists hook, line, and sinker. Not much of an excuse, but I think I see what really happened to me.
Your intuition is spot on about a good number of things. It is logical and supported by the available evidence, so even somebody slow in the head like me can eventually figure it out. I feel that the vast majority of people want to get along, and I hope that, on the other side of the massive upheavals that are likely about to happen, we will find a way to secure for ourselves the necessities of modern life—food, heat in winter, shelter, medical care, etc—so that we may, in fact, abandon the nation-state system (we have already abandoned it in a cultural sense) and begin to get along on a global basis. (If Lenin was not on to something, hopefully at least Lennon was.)
Also, the legal weed is awesome. Maybe it's not for everybody, but it helps me with objective analysis in spite of deep personal trauma surrounding certain subject matters.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday December 29 2018, @08:19PM
I was actually wondering if you'd gained access to prescription medication very recently. Weed is, well, not exactly what I had in mind, but if it helps you, excellent. My sister uses it for her depression and anxiety, and claims similar benefits. I personally am "straight-edge"--nothing worse than caffeine goes into this body--but am glad you found something to help you function and ease the pain.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by NPC-131072 on Saturday December 29 2018, @02:08AM
Hello fren, I present my comments below as a fellow transwomen and consortium news aficionado.
Control of a state or organization by large interest groups [britannica.com] and criminalizing criticism is not progressive?
Like the idea that trans activists are targeting children [ageofautism.com] it's all just a right wing conspiracy. [thefederalist.com]
Typical RWNJ conspiracy. [threadreaderapp.com] We on the left should be concentrating our efforts on deplatforming those who protest the emerging status quo (aka nazis).
(Score: 2, Troll) by ilPapa on Friday December 28 2018, @09:14PM (2 children)
They're a perfect pairing of grievance and whining.
The trans rights activist doesn't have a twat and Graham Linehan is a twat. They deserve each other.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday December 28 2018, @09:23PM (1 child)
Harrop does not appear to be a trans woman.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:03AM
No, but in the British vernacular, he does appear to be a cunt.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Friday December 28 2018, @10:42PM (14 children)
Indicate the source of the href when viewing the list of submissions. Twitter IS NOT A NEWS SOURCE, and I don't appreciate being taken there. Seriously, linking to Twitter is fucking moronic. end /rant
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:17AM (7 children)
Considering they're frequently the original source for official statements [pri.org], you may be wrong.
Not much of a dispute with that, though, based on the source of those official statements.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:33AM (6 children)
No, I'm not wrong. Twitter is not a fucking news source. I don't care how densely your try to pack information into 140/280 characters. The instant I see Twitter being mentioned as a source, I move on. There is nothing of value there, and in general, nothing of value on Twitter.
The only reason it remotely has utility in journalism, is for the click baiting. That and Orange Anus prefers something vapid and shallow, instead of actual press conferences where you can call him on his shit to his face. Hence this perverse move to give Twitter the validity as an information source that is wholly undeserved.
It's not a news source, when the sources can be deleted and manipulated after the fact.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:30AM
Twitter is not just a news source. It can be a primary source if the subject of interest is using it. You aren't going to get the Gettysburg Address on there, unless it is multi-tweeted, but there is still valuable and newsworthy information.
I'm not sure where this is coming from because we have linked Twitter in summaries plenty of times. Usually when TFA linked it, but still.
Here's a good example of Twitter being a useful source: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/12/24/205202 [soylentnews.org]
That is just plain false. And nobody is asking you to comb all of the crap on Twitter to find the value. The value is being curated for you. Heck, you don't even have to click on it because Twitter is not TFA.
This can apply to any news article you link. BBC and Reuters often replace all of the text of an initial draft of a breaking news article.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Touché) by fakefuck39 on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:49AM (2 children)
Something generating news is a source of news. It's not a source that reports on news, but it is the actual news. You either lack common sense, or think being dense is "cool" and are pretending to be dense. A tweet containing new information from OrangeWig is a source of news. A text message on my phone is a source of news. A photo of a car crash posted on 4chan is a source of news.
News are new things you didn't know. A source is that which provides the information. I have a feeling that since you're on this site, you're not in high school, so pretending to be dumb should no longer be cool. Unless you're one of those losers that was picked on a lot, and it never gave you a chance to mentally mature into an adult. I guess keep pretending to not understand basic things, as I keep laughing at you?
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Saturday December 29 2018, @10:50PM (1 child)
Uh huh. First, go fuck yourself. Second, Twitter is not a news source, and will never be one. It's a collection of the inane ramblings of the public, often as unverified sources, that can be treated as hearsay. Just because there is a dumpster fire of a President insisting on using it to communicate to his supporters does not mean Twitter has validity. Your insistence that 4Chan has any validity as a news source makes you sound like a fucking retard. It's not a viable source in any way, shape, or form.
Journalists that create vapid articles that simply link to a fucking tweet, are not producing anything of value. When they actually have a source on record, or the information was published on platforms other than social media, then it can be taken seriously. Until then, it's easy to say that "my Twitter account got hacked", and just as easy to delete tweets. What does that leave the journalist with? Nothing.
If you insist on calling it news, than call it what it is: very low quality and unusable sources
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: -1) by fakefuck39 on Monday December 31 2018, @07:35AM
hey, you should call the SEC and tell them to put Musk back. Information suddenly loses its value when it gets placed on twitter. I guess that means anything you say is not a news source, because out of you and twitter, you are definitely the more retarded one. A news source is anything that gave you information you didn't have before. There is more spam on twitter, but there is new information on twitter. As soon as you repeat information from nasa, it stops being news. Because you're dummer than twitter. Because you are purposely pretending to be dense, and are actually proud of it.
Is a text message a new source? How about one from your boss that says you're fired because your company just laid off 10k people? Oh shit, I forgot you hippies don't know what a job is. Carry on.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:30AM (1 child)
Fortunately twitter posts are short, so I would suggest that it be considered a "volatile" news source, and that it you want to reference it, you MUST copy the text you are referencing into the document containing the reference. Just like with a volatile integer.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @07:36PM
> Fortunately twitter posts are short, so I would suggest that it be considered a "volatile" news source, [...]
It can be treated as hearsay.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:33AM (4 children)
https://soylentnews.org/my/comments [soylentnews.org]
Select "Show link domains in comments and stories" under "Display Link Domains?".
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:40AM (3 children)
Thank you. Sorry, but Twitter will never be a reputable source for anything. If it's worth saying, it can be done in a real article. I'm tired of this bullshit or news being, "somebody said something on Twitter". It's inane and meaningless, and has no place in journalism. There is no valid Ven diagram cross section between social media and journalism.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:49AM (2 children)
In the SpaceX Starship article, the few short sentences (and in one tweet, a single digit) that Musk shared about the vehicle represented massive news and interesting details to people obsessively tracking the vehicle's development. News articles about this quoted some of the tweets, but some articles only vaguely paraphrased the tweets or did not cover certain aspects.
And with this article, the tweet(s) in question led to an IRL visit by police.
In both cases, it is wholly appropriate to link to Twitter, as it is a primary source.
News articles are now created in response to people merely tweeting and you hate that. But it's not much different than someone saying something on a radio program, or on a cable news segment. A person conveyed a message using some medium, and it was amplified by the news media.
Maybe what you really hate is the "soundbite culture", something that existed long before Twitter. Or maybe you just really really really hate President Trump and that has rubbed off onto his clickbait platform of choice.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:46AM
I hate the things in your final paragraph, _and_ Twitter!
(Score: -1) by fakefuck39 on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:46AM
you're arguing with someone w/ the iq of a talking horse, and probably just as ugly. very entertaining read.
(Score: 0, Troll) by NPC-131072 on Saturday December 29 2018, @02:18AM
Twitter provides plenty of evidence of transwomen being abused. [twitter.com] Get with the program - bigot!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @11:16PM
Too bad they dont have it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Entropy on Saturday December 29 2018, @01:26AM (4 children)
Because rape doesn't hurt anyone's feelings, right? Or maybe it doesn't hurt the right people's feelings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @04:10AM (2 children)
What rape gangs are you talking about?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:05AM (1 child)
>> What rape gangs are you talking about?
Maybe [bbc.co.uk] these [bbc.co.uk] are [bbc.co.uk] the [bbc.co.uk] ones? [bbc.co.uk]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @05:24AM
Maybe I'm just dense. I get that TFA and yours are both examples of propaganda, but how are those related to this propaganda piece?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @06:31PM
just like the pigs in the US are too busy stealing and kidnapping for non-crimes to go after actual legitimate rights violating criminals.