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Twitter permanently suspends Trump's account:
US President Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", the company says.
Twitter said the decision was made "after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them".
Mr Trump had earlier been locked out of his account for 12 hours.
Twitter then said that it would ban Mr Trump "permanently" if he breached the platform's rules again.
Reacting to the permanent ban, Trump 2020 campaign adviser Jason Miller tweeted: "Disgusting... if you don't think they're coming for you next, you're wrong."
It comes after Mr Trump tweeted several messages on Wednesday, calling the people who stormed the US Capitol "patriots".
Hundreds of his supporters entered the Capitol building as the US Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election. The ensuing violence led to the deaths of four civilians and a police officer.
The siege took place just hours after Trump addressed supporters and told them: "We will never give up; we will never concede."
[...] On Thursday, Facebook said it had suspended Mr Trump "indefinitely". The popular gaming platform Twitch also placed an indefinite ban on the outgoing president's channel, which he has used for rally broadcasts. So has Snapchat.
Two online Trump memorabilia stores were closed this week by e-commerce company Shopify. On Friday, Reddit banned its "donaldtrump" forum for the president's supporters.
[...] The big question now is, can Trumpism survive without the backing of mainstream media? Or will it simply slip into the shadows of the internet?
(Emphasis retained from original.)
Also at Ars Technica, CNET
Full Twitter explanation at: blog.twitter.com
(Score: 5, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday January 09 2021, @02:37PM (93 children)
Now that Trump is done for, is almost out of office, and finally disavowed even by his supporters, Twitter suddenly finds the courage to do what they should have done years ago.
Pff...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 09 2021, @02:42PM (7 children)
Right? I mean I'm glad to see it, but how many thousands of lives could have been saved and how much political bullshit prevented if they'd done this in 2017?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @02:46PM (1 child)
Maybe twitter likes money and collecting data on the people tweeting? Did you consider that?
Why would they care about saving lives and preventing political bullshit? They want as much death and political be as possible because it leads to more tweets!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:19PM
It's a treasure trove for open intelligence gathering. Interested members of the government will let them operate like they did before the Trump presidency, where Twitter spent two dollars for every dollar in revenue.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @06:58PM (3 children)
do you know how many Neo-Bolsheviks' useful idiots are going to be slaughtered when this cold civil war goes hot? All you motherfuckers filling up minnosota with somalians, michigan with muslims, california with chinese, other places with congolese, etc? All the Jew "charities" funding and organizing it are going to die. All you race traitors cheering it on and clutching pearls whenever people even ask what's going on while they're being robbed, raped and murdered by niggers and central american gang members are going to be dragged down the street and left to feed your starving street dogs.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:58AM
As I said elsewhere: I like my porn to be about sex, not violence. You do you (but please, in the privacy of your own room!).
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @08:13AM
Oh, my! Sounds serious!
You forgot to mention the Germans, the Italians, and the Russians. I wonder why that is?
What about the Catholic and Lutheran charities? Are they going to die too? JUst asking for some friends.
Like I said, this sounds serious! When did you say this was going to start? Also, could you leave your contact information in your next response? I think that some of the folks at your local mental health department might want to get in touch with you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:47PM
Y'all couldn't even get enough people for a coup, how are you going to slaughter us? Your bullshit cult is too small, you don't have enough guns or money to make a dent.
Every african-from-Africa I've met has been hard working, values education, and appreciates the relatively high levels of safety and freedom we have in the west. Without immigrants from war torn countries willing to do business in the inner city, how would we prevent total economic collapse in those ghettos? Without immigrants willing to work long hours for low wages, how would our remaining manufacturing jobs be filled? Who is going to do janitorial work?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:33AM
Probably no lives, and no bullshit would be saved.
The @POTUS account would've been used, and there would've been a huge fucking argument about silencing official government communications from the White House. Regardless of the current active administration.
That was the real problem, Little Donny used the imprimatur of the office to spread his bullshit and made it 100% partisan politics to discuss moderation at all.
Twitter was actually trying in my estimation to walk a fine line. It really took armed insurrection before BOTH Little Donny's account and the @POTUS account was so forcefully "moderated". In the past recent months, Twitter has been putting disclaimers on the tweets instead.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @02:49PM (48 children)
Reckon I should start banning folks here whose politics I find repugnant or is it only when you find them repugnant that folks should be silenced?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:11PM
People like you should be banned. You're tossing the water of solid logic and reason on a perfectly good and typically irrational flamewar. Oh, you wanted to reduce database load. Okay, I get it. If you'd run ads, you'd rather fan the flamewars. (more activity -> more dollars)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:30PM (13 children)
Have you never booted someone who broke the TOS? Should the President get to tell you, the private owner of a website, what to host on your page?
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @04:51PM (1 child)
Perhaps yes, if the private website is dominant enough to become equivalent to a public square.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @05:12PM
Government overreach!!!!!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:06PM (10 children)
It's not a 1A issue, noob. I didn't say the government should force them to continue hosting his content. It's pure and simple a Censorship of the people by the powerful = Bad issue.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:45PM (9 children)
k
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:27PM (8 children)
FTFY. The government is not our daddy. We don't need all of our problems solved by it. Not all levels of shitty behavior need to be illegal but they all need to be called out.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @08:18AM (7 children)
Which is why you will be relieved to find out that this particular problem is not being solved by the government but by a private company. Don't you feel better already?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:14PM (6 children)
Erm, no, it's being caused by a private company. There's a difference.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @12:04AM (5 children)
So you take personal responsibility for the problems caused by SN? I demand an immediate revocation of all IP bans and removal of all content filters infringing on our right to post lame comments!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 11 2021, @03:46AM (4 children)
Post all the lameness you like. The filters only get created when you start spamming them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:43AM (3 children)
It is my right to post whatever I'd like, keep pretending your censorship is somehow not censorship just because you think it is a good thing. Words have meaning smart guy.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:47PM (2 children)
Post whatever you like, just don't post the same thing over and over. That ain't conversation, that's either advertising or propaganda.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:37PM (1 child)
This is a public square, and each story is a diferent telephone poll. If I want to post my message to every board that is my right, and even if I want to generate more exposure by re-posting the same point in reply to multiple comments that is also my right. You're just a typical leftist authoritarian censoring content you do not agree with.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday January 13 2021, @05:09PM
Boring troll is boring.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Tork on Saturday January 09 2021, @05:20PM (13 children)
You know damned good and well that if somebody here made a post that brought unwanted attention to SN you'd remove it, especially if investigators were sniffing around for federal offenses.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:05PM
I suspect most of us have not read the "offending" Tweets that they chose to use as their basis for closing his account. The link [twitter.com] to their explanation is in the OP. Here they are:
Those two tweets were used as justification for banning the President of the United States. And now thousands of other individuals are being purged as well, with no explanation whatsoever, not even farce used to ban the President. I don't think people understand the magnitude of what's happening right now. I'm sure you know of the "First they came for the..." poem. I'm not going to be cliche and recite that. What is much more interesting is this [ucsb.edu] discussion with the author of that poem, Martin Niemöller. If you are unaware, he was a Lutheran Pastor for some context to his comments:
Big tech has been colluding to censor more and more of society, with each new offense being far less egregious than the one prior. This very overt entry into the realm of politics at the highest level is unprecedented, and disconcerting. In a normal country, if the president were being censored by corporations and media then government would act quickly to ensure they always have a voice. But in our country government and media/corporations are instead merging and colluding, and working to ostracize anybody who gets in their way.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:09PM (9 children)
We don't remove anything legal, no. We removed spam once and we'll still remove very ill considered comments at the user's request but we do not remove explicitly political speech of any stripe and never will.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:15PM (8 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:20PM (1 child)
Where did he do that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:47PM
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:29PM (4 children)
No, we will not. Speech, like guns, does not kill people.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:14AM (1 child)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:16PM
Easy to say period. You have your priorities list and liberty is obviously not at the top like it is on mine.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:37AM (1 child)
Yeah, right! It is the bullets and the words that do the actual killing part! Good point, Buzzard!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:15PM
No, it's the people. At least until our AI-controlled robot overlords arrive.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:22AM
It's not less if you consider spam worse.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:07AM (1 child)
Like that set of Runaway's frothier rants I've been screenshotting and saving links to...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:56PM
The level of obsession between you two is very creepy. I think if you stop stalking each other, it will improve your mental health.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday January 09 2021, @08:53PM (2 children)
No, I reckon Twitter should either stick to "Anything goes for a president" or "We'll enforce the TOS even for presidents" from start to end. Here, they were very lenient with the orange ape as long as he was in office, and now that the tide is turning, they're changing their tune to be on the good side of the new administration.
Many collaborators did the same thing in the closing months of WW2: they all joined the resistance just before the end. It's disgusting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @10:08PM
Problem is the "TOS" change with the fluctuating pressure the cancel culture movement puts on them. Much of it probably coming from their own employees. They did keep the channel open for a very long time, even restoring his account after that rogue employee unilaterally shut it down. Now in the final days of the Trump administration, management just didn't have the will to stand their ground longer. Their loss; Trump made Twitter over the last four years, without him they will go back to pretending to be a going concern that spends a quarter to get a dime back.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:30PM
Sounds a whole lot better than what they're doing now, yup.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:14PM (6 children)
And that would differ from the current state of affairs in what manner, precisely? Asking for a friend.
#Freearistarchus!!!!!
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:37PM (5 children)
It wouldn't for you. You make me laugh. Not unlike a video of a monkey fucking a cat: wrong but funny.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @02:18PM (4 children)
So I've been watching both of you argue for years now, and with the tales from other users along with some of TMB's actions it is clear that TMB did something authoritarian against aristachus' user account in the past but has since stopped persecuting him. Ari won't let it go because such double standards must be exposed. Like Trump TMB can't ignore the truth and flips out every time.
Ah well, such abuses are what happens when you give power without oversight. At least he is shackled by his ideology and has just enough integrity to not go full Trump.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:19PM (3 children)
I argued in a public IRC channel with the editors that one of his submissions was biased to the point of propaganda. Exactly the same as any other user is free to do.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:38PM (2 children)
Love when I hit a nerve. What deep dark secrets are you, of all people, ashamed of? Rhetorical question, I do not expect honesty from you.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 11 2021, @03:50AM (1 child)
You couldn't hit a nerve with anything short of drilling a hole in my boat. Spouting stupid on the Internet, no matter how hard you try, is going to remain nothing but boring.
Ask ari then.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:58AM
Sweet sweet sauce, thank you for proving my point. Om nomnom!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:11PM (5 children)
You (assuming NCommander and the board are okay with it, unless I underestimate your authority here) can absolutely do that should you choose to do so.
Twitter, like SoylentNews are private entities and have wide latitude to do what they want with their property, as you well know.
I take your point, but I'd also point out that SN has its own TOS with rules that can (and do) result in moderation and IP address bans. How is that so different from Twitter's TOS?
That said, should you start banning folks, I'm not 100% sure what I'd do. But the actions I would take wouldn't be based on *who* you chose to ban.
It would (unlike Twitter) be mostly a waste of time, unless you block AC posting as well. Again, as you well know.
Whether you (or I) think Twitter's actions were good or bad is irrelevant (well, unless you're a major shareholder or Jack Dorsey -- I don't hold any Twitter stock, do you?).
Personally, I don't really care because I don't use that wretched hive of scum and villany, nor do I have (and never did) any interest in what L'Orange has to say for himself.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:33PM (4 children)
Can != should was kind of the point. And calling out bad actors is never a waste of time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:55AM (3 children)
A fair point.
Whether or not Twitter should or shouldn't do anything is certainly a reasonable area for debate.
That said, what gets me riled (you're not making this argument, I just hear it from others far too often so I'm going to riff on it here as it's related) is when folks make the argument that "Twitter shouldn't be censoring! They're blocking free speech!" they ignore the obvious fact that Twitter has free speech rights too.
And if Twitter can be *forced* to publish speech they don't wish to publish, that impinges on Twitter's free speech rights.
And if their rights can be abridged, that means you or me or anyone else can have their free speech rights abridged too. And I can't and won't support that.
If the price of *my* free speech rights is that big corporations get theirs too, I'm willing to pay that price.
Don't like what Twitter allows/disallows on their site? Go somewhere else. No one is *forcing* you to use Twitter. Set up your own Mastodon instance. Use someone else's. There are lots of options.
I certainly don't use that site and it doesn't harm me in any way.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:13PM (2 children)
Oh, there are some arguments to be made that running a communications network of a decent size should put you in something like a Common Carrier situation. Once you reach a scope that technically allows you to be a moderator of most of the nation, you have a responsibility to not abuse that power to further your own ends.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @01:25AM (1 child)
No, it is a choice for people to use services. Your same argument could be applied to Fox News and the rightwing lies they push. Twitter is not like phone service, there is no shortage of platforms people can use, there is no monopoly preventing people from making their own message available over the internet.
It is astounding that a supposed Libertarian is advocating the restriction of a corporation's rights. YOU tell people to fuck off from around here ALL the time, but somehow the scale of the user base somehow changes the obligations the owners have?
I'll just file this away as Teh Mighty Buzzard is a hypocrite and his ideology is not to be trusted since it depends on his personal feelings on any given issue. You are not someone to be trusted with protecting people's rights.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 11 2021, @03:51AM
You don't read so good. I was not addressing Twitter or Facebook specifically. I was addressing the idea that private companies should be allowed to censor however they like regardless of circumstances.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday January 11 2021, @12:08AM (2 children)
Someday soon you may not have a choice in the matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @01:46AM (1 child)
That is what you conservatives keep asking for with repealing section 230 . . . . . . .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @06:04AM
As soon as 230 is repealed, lawsuit trolls will come out of the woodwork. I do wonder how long it will be before something is forwarded to NCommander. It will be nice to get a third party perspective on how popular this website is.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Saturday January 09 2021, @02:50PM (29 children)
At least the white supremists are going to have their day in court, followed by their days in jail.
Remember how a week ago Trump's daughter was talking about running for the senate in Florida? It looked like a serious threat. Now it just looks ludicrous.
Ted Cruz just nuked himself. And Donald Trump, even though he's still president, if being openly dumped on by world leaders saying he should resign.
The pendulum had, like all pendulums, reaches its maximum arc in one direction, and now the MAGAt-heads are going to pay for their hate. And the Republican Party has two choices - run away from Trumpism and maybe surviving, or dying.
A week really is a lifetime in politics.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:09PM (5 children)
You think they'll go away now? Remember how the republican vote side is almost as large as the democratic side. They are not going away. There will be no healing the nation or anything cause both sides by now already hate each other. One side just wants the other to join it and/or fade away but that just ain't going to happen. So you might hate the republicans or the trumpists or whatnot. But side wise they are more or less equal and this whole thing doesn't really change anything. If the pendulum is now swinging back, eventually it will reach the maximum arc on the other side to and swing right back again.
In the middle of December, before the "siege" or "coup" or whatever people claim or believe it was, PEW Research had an interesting publication about the differences in the voters. As far as I can tell nothing has really changed. None of the recent events changed anything about it. The only thing that remains true is that the other side doesn't understand the other side and doesn't want to, something that goes both ways so there will be no healing, there will be no reason and quite frankly nothing will improve and be better. The extremist wing on each side is more or less equal in size and fervor.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/12/17/voters-say-those-on-the-other-side-dont-get-them-heres-what-they-want-them-to-know/ [pewresearch.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:35PM (2 children)
Ah, both sides.
Have you heard of Fox News?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @07:02PM (1 child)
what is your point? fox is controlled by the same international jews that control the ap and everything else.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:14PM
I didn't realize that the Murdochs were Jews.
I guess you learn something new every day.
Ignorance is not attractive, friend.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @06:07AM (1 child)
Last time I checked, primaries occurred within the party. That is the real test.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:50PM
No, the real test is weighting them down and throwing them in a pond. Primaries are completely worthless at telling who's a witch.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:14PM (22 children)
Trump did not incite any riot. You liberals have been thrashing and bashing and trashing and the conservatives are sick of your droning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:36PM
I blame the rock and roll thrash metal and legalized reefer.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:53PM (10 children)
He only gave a speech in which he told a crowd to never give in, be strong and fight, go down to the Capitol, and stop Congress from confirming the election results, right before that very crowd went down to the Capitol and fought to stop Congress from confirming the election results. Oh, and he not-very-subtly threatened the Vice-President with violence if he didn't help overturn the election results, shortly before members of the crowd he was speaking to attacked the Capitol with the stated intent of finding and murdering the Vice-President.
That's incitement.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @04:01PM (4 children)
Round here we call that 2nd Amendment rights. I.e. the right of all white people to overthrow the government because they created Western civilization.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @07:29PM
Maybe you should use your second amendment rights to form a militia to help defend the government against terrorist groups who just used violence to attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government because they didn't like the election results?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @09:21PM (2 children)
But, Jordan Peterson and Gavin McGinnis are both Canadians. Is this something about the Commonwealth, and the Queen, and the fact that Meghan Markle [pagesix.com] is black?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:15AM (1 child)
Don't forget Murdoch the Australia! Some groups that claim to hate foreign influence sure are heavily influenced by foreign actors!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:43AM
Are you suggesting the entire Trump presidency has been a plot by the British Empire to re-take the American Colonies? And Canada, Australia, South Africa, Fiji and Tonga, Burma, and Hong Kong are in on it? Makes sense, the last time the Capitol Building was sacked was by British Military Forces in the War of 1812! Trump supporters are back to finish the job? They are making Benedict Arnold look like an amateur! Ha!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by slinches on Saturday January 09 2021, @07:40PM (3 children)
You conveniently forgot the part where he also called for the protest to be peaceful. Far more inflammatory rhetoric has been used by major political figures to spur on support for as long as there have been protests and political rallies. Should we go back and look at what people were saying prior to the BLM riots last year and charge anyone who used strong language for incitement?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by helel on Saturday January 09 2021, @08:56PM
By "BLM riots" you mean the people burning police stations [twincities.com], killing people [news.com.au], and plotting to kidnap public officials [cnn.com]? Yes, I think if we had done something about the Trump using strong language leading up to those attacks we'd like not see the violence in the capitol now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:40AM
There is a difference between enticing violence and believing, arguing, and expressing your opinion that the election was stolen. Expressing your opinion that the elections were stolen doesn't entice violence any more than the videos of police brutality do. Otherwise you can reasonably argue that it was the videos of police brutality that enticed violence and it was those that released the videos that should be held accountable because their videos resulted in violence. The next time there is police brutality let's make sure that any videos of it don't get out and that no one is made aware of it.
It's dishonest for CNN to conflate enticing violence with arguing that the elections were stolen. Arguing that the elections were stolen should be protected speech. Enticing violence is not. If CNN is so blatantly dishonest about something so obvious then it makes people wonder what else they are lying about. It's no wonder no one trusts the media. I don't blame them. When the media is dishonest people lose trust in the media and this may give rise to conspiracy theories.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @02:03PM
You are blinding yourself to the truth. Much like his condemnations of white supremacy Trump's calls for peace are muted and his lack of action to control the riot says everything you need to know. Not to mention his violent language throughout the rest of his speech.
You don't to scream that someone should be murdered, beaten, humiliated and imprisoned in one breath, then throw on "be nice about it" in the next. How does anyone still fall for Trump's lies?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:45AM
Not sure where you're getting your info, maybe I missed it.
Let's not forget that 'Biden has stated his desire to ‘beat the hell’ out of Trump'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/22/trump-joe-biden-2020-presidential-run-go-down-crying [theguardian.com]
But that's OK. CNN won't repeat that over and over and over. They are selective about what they repeat over and over and over.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @04:01PM
Are you trying to say the feds have a copy of your selfie in the capital building?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by srobert on Saturday January 09 2021, @06:09PM (7 children)
Actually I think he did. But even if that were not the case, he certainly neglected his responsibility to stop it. And that alone would justify neutralizing him ASAP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @10:28PM (6 children)
What do you propose that he could have done to stop it? Once the doors were
kicked inexcuse me opened by the guards, it was too late for him or anyone else to stop, and then he was silenced so he couldn't respond. Yes, those who illegally entered the Capitol building should be prosecuted, and the ringleaders, Zip Tie guy, pipe bomb/molotov person should all be facing hard time, but Trump (and damn you for making me defend him) was repeatedly calling for a peaceful protest, which he and his followers had every right to do. Even of the group entering, only a few were set on violence. The rest appear to have been invited in by Capitol security. The whole thing smells like a set-up, and if so then it went perfectly.(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @11:19PM (2 children)
He could have *immediately* called out the National Guard to support the Capitol Police [newsweek.com].
He could have gone on TV and Twitter to *strongly* denounce the riots and violence. Instead, we got weak sauce and "We love you" as the message to the insurrectionists.
He could have done any number of things. But he did not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:00AM (1 child)
He did denounce it. The problem is that the TV networks like CNN didn't mention that and so you just assume it didn't happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V47UfRDpdk [youtube.com]
"He could have gone on TV"
Trump can't force the TV networks to carry his message.
Yes, CNN could argue he could have done more to call in the national guard sooner. I won't necessarily disagree with that. He could have done more to stop the destruction and property damage and violence done during the BLM protests as well. There is an argument to be made there. It's dishonest for CNN to conflate claiming that the elections were stolen with inciting violence.
"and Twitter"
As others have mentioned, one of the biggest mistakes Trump made was relying on a third party private media platform to carry out his message. That's ridiculous. Politicians shouldn't be beholden to any private media (including Fox or CNN), the government should have its own media outlets that politicians can freely use. Sure Fox and CNN can still exist but perhaps they should exist alongside a government media. In fact I would almost go as far as to say that broadcasting monopolies shouldn't be 'owned' by private entities and cable companies that carry private media should also be required to carry government sponsored/funded media (the government can fund it). Kinda like how other countries have BBC as well. You are free to have private media (the government can't control all the media) but the government should also have its own freely available, publicly funded, media that everyone has access to.
There is CSPAN (which is relatively neutral) but that's on cable. The problem with CSPAN is that it's not sensationalized and people want entertainment (the problem is with what people want).
The media wants to polarize us and they need someone to villainize because that's what gets ratings. Unfortunately when you villanize people you disenfranchise them and they may react negatively. Of course this is great for the media because it gets even more viewership and ratings.
The real villeins here are the media.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @02:05AM
It was really weak sauce. CSPAN showed Trump's video that he posted to Twitter (at around 4PM on Wednesday) and Trump was very vague and said "go in peace" and "respect law and order" while most of the video was him complaining about the election being stolen "from me, from you, from the country" and blaming fraud and the "other side" for massive fraud. And he ended this rambling with "we love you." But don't take it from me. Hear it from the jackass' mouth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AeI6Mv0ALg [youtube.com]
I'd add that this was posted *hours* after the rioting started and it was clear that the coup wasn't going to succeed. IIRC, CSPAN and other outlets had already reported that the members of Congress and the electoral vote certificates had been safely removed before the insurrectionists could get to them.
So no. He didn't do the right thing. Even Mike Pence did much better when he tweeted:
and then followed it up with:
Note that the above isn't spin from the media, nor is it some sort of Democratic plot. It's what each person said. See for yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:19AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @12:26PM (1 child)
But the private media is not required to carry his message.
Something is wrong when public servants must have their message filtered through private media to get to the people. This model needs to change. People should have free (as in not have to subscribe to cable or other service that costs money) access to what the government and politicians have to say. The government can pay for it, I have no problems with this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @10:41PM
They know this, it is just to further their mUh ViCtImHoOd narrative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @10:48PM
The result of doing too much LDS.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:19PM (1 child)
They were in a dilemma. Trump attracted products (eyeballs) to sell to the customers (advertisers). Banning Trump would alienate the product. It's irrelevant but banning Trump also plays into his grievance narrative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @01:37AM
What are you suggesting? We should attempt to appease Nazis?
(Score: 2) by srobert on Saturday January 09 2021, @05:55PM (2 children)
I'm uncomfortable with the censorship. But at the moment I can't help but feel that re-activating Trump's twitter account is like handing a machine gun to a monkey.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2021, @07:07PM (1 child)
oh yes, those words! how they hurt me!
(Score: 2) by srobert on Sunday January 10 2021, @05:27PM
Was anyone hurt by the mere words of Adolph Hitler? Yeah, some people can do a lot of harm with their words. Probably more than a monkey with a machine gun.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 09 2021, @07:43PM
Courage? Not even. All decisions are strictly business. If Trump loses his ratings mojo, out he goes.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..