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Twitter has been engaged in a game of whack-a-mole with accounts linked to "terrorism" since 2015, and has announced that it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts as part of its efforts to "combat" extremism:
In its ongoing effort to combat violent extremism, Twitter announced Friday that it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 because of what it called their connections to terrorist or extremist groups, primarily ISIS.
NPR's Aarti Shahani reports that the company says there is no "magic algorithm" to identify terrorist content on the Internet, so they're forced to make make challenging judgment calls based on "very limited information and guidance." "The company says it's trying to strike the right balance between enforcement against tweets that break the rules, the needs of law enforcement, and free expression," Aarti reports.
In a statement, Twitter also said it has "increased the size of the teams that review reports," enabling it to respond more quickly to terrorism-related posts. "We have already seen results, including an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter," the company said.
The statement comes just weeks after a woman sued Twitter, accusing the platform of giving voice to ISIS. Tamara Fields, a Florida woman whose husband Lloyd died in a November attack on a police training center in Amman, Jordan, said Twitter "knowingly let the militant Islamist group use its network to spread propaganda, raise money and attract recruits," according to the complaint. The suit also alleged that "ISIS members use Twitter to post instructional guidelines and promotional videos, referred to as 'mujatweets.'"
Related: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Asks for "Spell-Checker" for Hate and Harassment
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06 2016, @01:37PM
Twitter has also played "whack-a-mole" with people who espouse views at odds with the mass "migration" of people from the Middle East into Europe.
In fact, it was suggested that they were too busy playing whack-a-mole with the nationalists, and they feared "offending" a certain religious group, that they completely ignored ISIS to begin with.
This seems too little, too late.
No surprise that their value is in free-fall, and half of their senior staff have left in the past few months. Twitter, like Reddit, is a platform of censorship, and users are leaving it in droves.
And of course, the remaining leadership just doesn't get it. "Oh, people are leaving our platform of censorship? We need to give users up to 10,000 character posts so they can get their point across better (so long as that view is in line with our SJWs)."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06 2016, @02:07PM
https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/695776161385680896 [twitter.com]
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Saturday February 06 2016, @09:35PM
Exactly!
Is there really any reason to believe that Twitter is doing anything much against actual terrorists like those supporting the Islamic State/Daesh?
Or is it just an excuse?
Is there really any reason to believe the US and their "allies" like Saudi Arabia are truly harming the Islamic State/Daesh? If there is then why do they all suck so tremendously at it?
Is there really any reason to believe Turkey is not aiding and abetting the Islamic State/Daesh? Then why do they attack Russia and the Kurds instead of islamists?
Is there really any reason to believe NATO is acting against the Islamic State/Daesh? Then why is Turkey still a member?
Is there really any reason to believe that any government that is part of Five Eyes, Six Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes are doing anything effective in order to stop mass surveillance? If there is then why is teh surveillance and manipulation increasing and being legitimized through "law"?
Is there really any reason to believe that the EU & the US aren't using the ruins of Ukraine as a honey pot, a kill zone, and a distraction, or maybe a failed attempt at releasing an imaginary safety valve aimed to deplete a nearly non-existent enemy i.e. actual nazis? So why the fuck are they supporting them like the US Pentagon did when the amendment from the US congress outlawing support for the nazis was simply removed?
Is there really any reason to believe that the government believes in accountability and transparency and informed public discourse or even public democratic control of the government? If there is (is there ever?) then what about Manning, Assange, Snowden, and anyone else like them or somewhat similar to them including Dotcom?
It is the same politicians cozying up to each other and making decisions. If they claim ignorance then they also claim incompetence. In one instance they'll hide behind the UN and in another they'll boldly defy all responsibilities mandated by the UN and/or the UN charters.
I see no reason not to think that it's malice. I see no reason to trust them.
Twitter is just one example of government-private combined censorship & surveillance but the same goes for Facebook, and Eric Schmidt and Google is already mentioned in TFS, but its far more widespread than that. Recently the Guardian became one of the latest newspapers to shut down comments on anything to do with immigrants and islam, they were far from the first "newspaper" to do so or to move to surveilled systems and/or requiring identification, and/or harassing people who say something they do not like including to the point of getting them fired or taking away their children.
Yet the same forces claim to offer debate. The "elite" politicians are still talking about dialogue and discussion even though it is (or should be, including to anyone on the extreme left) extremely obvious that they're lying: they've been criminalizing and punishing anyone with a different point of view for decades already. Not years, decades.
Any government that does not protect the human rights of those they govern is illegitimate.
Any government that does not represent the people they are governing is illegitimate.
The governments can't even protect actual refugees from other immigrants. The police is unavailable and unresponsive and can only arrive afterwards anyway. If you protect yourself you will be prosecuted.
I support revolution.
It would have happened many years ago if people weren't so good at closing their eyes to the victims and it might not happen yet since so many still close their eyes but until it does (peacefully through elections or not) things will only continue to get worse.
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