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from the sometimes-a-cigar-is-just-a-cigar dept.
A Twitter rules update rolled out on Wednesday to address the site's "verification" system, and it attached a new set of standards to any user whose account receives a "blue check mark."
Twitter's "verification" system is used to confirm accounts of celebrities and other accounts of "public interest." However, the feature has long straddled a blurry line between identity confirmation and "elite" user status, especially since verified accounts receive heightened visibility and perks such as content filters. That issue returned to the headlines last week when Twitter gave a blue check mark to white nationalist Jason Kessler. Kessler is best known as an organizer of the Unite The Right white-supremacist rally, but before then, he had racked up a significant record of online hate propagation, particularly with anti-Semitic rhetoric about "cultural Marxism."
"Twitter on Wednesday removed the 'verification' checkmarks from the accounts of a number of white nationalists and far-right activists -- in a move that critics say could have a chilling effect on free speech." http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/11/16/twitter-targets-white-nationalists-and-far-right-activists-in-de-verification-purge.html
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 17 2017, @04:19PM (3 children)
First, I do not have any of FaceTwit. So I may be speaking out of turn.
IMO, Twitter's "blue star" should be an indication of verification. Nothing more. Not an endorsement.
Part of that neutrality is that they should not pick and choose who they will verify. But that would mean they probably need to get into the business of charging a significant fee in order to do the verification.
If they are not (already) charging a significant fee to do verification, then I don't have a problem with them picking and choosing whom they will bother to verify for free. If you want Twitter to expend effort to verify you, then you should pay for it. Sort of like a verified domain name certificate.
I don't have a problem with Twitter banning accounts that repeatedly engage in bad behavior after a warning. But I think it might work better for Twitter to not tie the blue star to the bad behavior question. If the bad behavior warrants removing the blue star, it probably should warrant account cancellation.
Nazis can create their own anti-social network platform.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @05:07PM
Twitter doesn't care what you or the Nazis think. You have no say in what Twitter does. Twitter demonstrates every other month with yet another stupid drama that they don't care what you think. Don't like it? Perhaps create and/or join a decentralized social network.
A while back, hyperlinks were how you got from one profile to another, and I believe we called them webpages instead of profiles. Webrings were the groups you could join. Obviously that fell out of favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @05:58PM
Quite right there mate. "I have no idea what I'm talking about but I want my views to be taken seriously"? You want to be able to chime on something you don't use and don't like. Well, not only does free speech mean you get to do just that, you can do it on Twitter if you so choose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @05:29PM
Rainbow Flag for liberals, Black Swastika for conservatives, and Blue Checkmark for people don't DGAF.