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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The social media giant may be guilty of violating of California law regarding discriminating against a political class, and being deceptive to their customer base. Twitter, by discriminating against people on the right, has exposed itself to a potential cascade of legal liability—including a potential class action suit.
Despite being from dangerous.com, this is not an attempted troll. The author gives a quite interesting analysis of Twitter's potential legal issues in censoring political speech in California.
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The Strong Case That Twitter Censorship Violates California's Civil Rights Laws
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
HELP! Man trapped in a human body!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @03:40AM (18 children)
In a story that you submitted about people supposedly being censored for their so-called 'identity' you have just applied the exact same rationale for censoring aristarchus's submissions as twitter has for censoring the assholes of the alt-reich - don't be a shithead.
The irony burns it fucking burns!!!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 26 2018, @03:54AM (17 children)
On the contrary, when he's not overly shitheadish with his subs, they get published. A good rule of thumb is don't go beyond one, maybe two, sentences of biased snark in the summary. That's what the comments area is for.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 26 2018, @04:15AM (16 children)
"Just post in the comments then" is the same thing as telling alt-reich shitheads to just open a new account. You are banning his ability to have his submissions seen by everyone based on the content, that's censorship by alt-reich standards.
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Friday January 26 2018, @08:06AM (15 children)
Let me dispel this accusation quickly. I am now speaking as Editor-in-Chief, a role which means I am ultimately responsible to the board - and to the community - for the content that we publish. We have not, do not, and hopefully will never censor comments, unless legally obliged to do so. Comments are the views of private individuals and the only moderation is that given by the community itself.
However, the requirement for submissions is quite different. The entire editorial team goes to great lengths to ensure that stories are interesting, factual, accurate and unbiased, and it is the failure to meet these requirements that causes most submission rejections. Other reasons include when we receive several submissions over a protracted period of time which basically cover the same issue. Rehashing the same story does not increase your chances of having a submission accepted. We are trying to provide material that will encourage an intelligent discussion from which we can all benefit and, perhaps, be entertained and educated.
Political submissions are difficult to process in the usual way - they invariably see the story from one viewpoint or another and often are biased by their very nature and content. I, personally, would have been happier if we had never had the 'Politics' nexus but, as the requirement is to serve the community, I have to live with the decisions that the community has made. So we view each political story as the same as any other to the maximum extent possible, accepting that it will probably contain some bias. Is it interesting, factual and accurate, and is it a story that has not been covered recently and which can create an intelligent discussion? Submitting the same old rhetoric every few days is a very quick way to have your submissions rejected. Has the submitter tried to look at the issue from another other point of view? If not, then it will probably not see the front page.
Politics is different in other ways, too. Comments are made by people who usually already have a well establish position and no amount of intelligent analysis and discussion will change that. I have never seen a discussion on a political story that has sensibly argued a case which has changed the position taken by another commenter. The moderation system also tends to fail because people just moderate based on their own political leanings and not based on the arguments being made by others. Don't like someone else's politics - they mark them as Spam, Troll or whatever. The 'Politics' nexus has, I believe, brought the worst out in our community without making a significant improvement in our output.
Is there a place for biased political discussions - YES! Put them on your journal page where they will still be read by those that want to see them but where you have to put your name to them. We do not censor journal stories so you can have your say and your discussion without having to go through the editorial filter that is an essential part of keeping this site alive and interesting to the majority of the community.
And ACs, if you don't like the fact that you haven't got a journal page, then give yourself a nickname and make an account and all of your problems are solved. If your anonymity is more important than having your say then please do not complain about it. None of the big names that have shaped our world have done so from a position of anonymity - they have entered the history books where their names are clear for all to see.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Friday January 26 2018, @09:26AM (13 children)
If only, janrinok, your explanation had any connection to reality.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday January 26 2018, @09:41AM (12 children)
Feel free to message me directly, or send an email with your specific concerns and I will try to explain why your submission(s) did not reach the front page. This is a genuine offer, but please make sure that you have read and understood what I have already written. I that stopped the release of the submission that had been accepted a few days ago - it did not, IMHO, reach the standards that we expect. I will be the first to admit, however, that the system is not perfect and if I/we have made a mistake I will admit it and rectify it if at all possible.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday January 26 2018, @09:41AM (11 children)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday January 26 2018, @10:24PM (10 children)
You were out of the loop for a while, correct, janrinok? Good to have you back! This all started after Charlottesville, when one editor, and one non-editor, objected to a submission of mine on the alt-right, claiming that I was trying to paint all conservatives "with a broad brush". That submission was also blocked, and I did put it in my journal, along with some telling IRC dialogue. There has been a clear attempt to ignore submissions critical of, or even about, the alt-right, which is why I keep submitting them. And there has been some interesting dialogue on the few that have made it through the embargo. Sorry, but I do not see that I am the problem here. You can keep rejecting my submissions, if you so desire. But let's be honest about what is going on.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @01:54AM (9 children)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 27 2018, @06:51AM (8 children)
You are aware, janrinok, that lowly Soylentils have no Direct Message capability, though it has been asked for in the past. So I am not able to respond to you in "private". And I am not sure this is the time, or the place, to respond in public. But again, thank you for the responses and the measured and rational discussion of the issues. But I think it is obvious to any objective reader that we have problem with censorship right here on SoylentNews.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:52AM (7 children)
And as I have explained, I do not agree that any censorship is taking place. You are free to publish whatever you wish on your journal pages. The editorial team are responsible for ensuring that all stories that appear on the front page meet specific requirements to protect the site from possible litigation.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:17AM (6 children)
I would respond, except that I cannot, since I do not have access to direct messaging. That was my point. Whether you agree or not is immaterial. Someone is going to sue SoylentNews over what I submit? That is laughable. Takyon his own self has committed actionable libel against space companies, just recently. And you really think that one of these neo-nazi alt-right personas are going to sue for defamation? My god, man, they are neo-nazi white supremacist alt-right fascists! They are proud (boys!) at being called out. But, nice excuse for suppressing the left-leaning, or as we ourselves call it, the "reality based community". So please, disagree, or get me direct messaging capability. I want to send private messages to khallow. I feel he needs them.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:05AM (5 children)
You could try email - our addresses are easy enough to find: editors_name@soylentnews.org. Secondly, and for the umpteenth time, please start a journal entry to that we can take this conversation there.
You scoff at this concept? Only a few weeks ago you made a submission that claimed a prominent person in the alt-right community had been arrested by the police for causing an affray outside a venue at which he was appearing. That claim was totally wrong. Two other individuals with no connection to the person you named were responsible. The source material that you 'quoted' clearly stated that the 2 individuals had been detained and charged. That alone would have left both you and us liable for litigation in the US had we published it.
Again, you seem to be letting your own extreme political views show. They are exactly the people who might sue us for the publicity value alone - never mind the kudos of being able to claim that they had the site shut down. As your submissions tend to be littered with similar statements you might soon begin to understand why they are not being accepted for the front page. Put them in your journal!
Finally, unless you take this discussion elsewhere I will have to stop responding to your accusations. This is OFF-TOPIC for this story.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:21AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:22AM
And thank goodness I am quoting myself, so i will not be legally liable for being a Soylentil!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:42AM (2 children)
Now you are being dishonest. I returned the submission to you and you rewrote it. This conversation is now closed unless you contact me via other means.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 27 2018, @10:03AM (1 child)
NO, you still did not understand the submission, and you said last comment that you were not going to respond. Are we accomplishing anything here, janrinok? SoylentNews is a hive of alt-right scum and villainy, and it might just be well to come out and admit it. Continue to exercise your judgment as you see fit, I have no problem with that. But it will continue to make SoylentNews appear to be right-leaning. At least that should keep all the alt-right, alt-light, alt-wrong, and just plain Nazis from suing to take down one of their main supporters. Now, seriously, we have to stop meeting like this! We should be talking about Twitter censoring those innocent people with slightly different views about how we should kill all the jews, and gypsies, and Communists, and Slavs, and orangutans. Oh, and the gays.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @11:21PM
Some of us would kill off the Greeks with dementia, and learn to get along with all the rest.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Friday January 26 2018, @10:05PM
I don't beat my meat in the hopes of disfiguring it, just for kicks, and maybe even the horrific response of any bystanders. I view political commentary much the same.