Twitter suspends American far-right activists' accounts, cracks down on hate speech

[Tennis]

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...vists-accounts

Twitter has suspended the accounts of a number of American “alt-right” activists hours after announcing a renewed push to crack down on hate speech.

Among the accounts removed were those of the self-described white-nationalist National Policy Institute, its magazine, Radix, and its head Richard Spencer, as well as other prominent alt-right figures including Pax Dickinson and Paul Town.

Spencer, who according to anti-hate group SPLC “calls for ‘peaceful ethnic cleansing’ to halt the ‘deconstruction’ of European culture”, decried the bans as “corporate Stalinism” to right-wing news outlet Daily Caller.

“Twitter is trying to airbrush the alt right out of existence,” Spencer said. “They’re clearly afraid. They will fail!” Members of the Reddit forum r/altright called the move a “purge”.

Spencer’s ban is particularly notable, since he previously had a verified account on Twitter - the badge the company gives to noteworthy accounts to prove they are who they say they are. In the past, Twitter has stripped accounts of their verified status in the wake of abuse, as the company did with an editor at far-right news outlet Breitbart this year, but the company does not appear to have previously acted so conclusively against an account it had once given what could be interpreted as a badge of approval.

A Twitter spokesperson said “the Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies.”

The move came the same day that Twitter announced a new push against hate speech and harassment on the site. The company announced new features intended to allow users to control what content appears in their notifications, but it also confirmed a change to its training process for moderators on the site, and a new set of tools for reporting hate speech.

Those changes were welcomed by users, but also seen as too little, too late. As with Facebook’s clampdown on fake news on its social network, users interpreted the social network as finally realising that its platform was facilitating and emboldening the far right, but only during the week after the far-right’s candidate of choice had won the US presidential election.

For former Twitter users, both those cast off the site due to their extreme views, or those quitting Twitter in protest, a new social network is hoping to hoover them up instead. Gab advertises itself with the slogan “Free speech for everyone”, and features a green frog as its logo. Webcomic character Pepe the Frog was added to an online hate symbol database in September owing to the figure’s co-option as an alt-right icon.

In a statement, Gab said: “We are a free-speech website and nothing more. Gab is open to all users, regardless of their political beliefs, ideology and moral views. Our mission is to put people first and to foster discourse without hindrance and proscription, as is occurring throughout the online community.

“We use a frog, because it has long been a symbol of fertility, creation, going back to the ancients. It’s seen as a symbol of prosperity.”

So far, though, the service has just 12,000 users, making it small in comparison to other far-right meeting places such as Stormfront.

About time! Seriously why did it take so long? The amount of hate speech that has been spewed by these people is insane.
It will be a welcome change to use Twitter and have to deal with so much less vitriol.

How do you feel about this change? Did Twitter go far enough?

[Deleted]

Freedom of speech, but not for those I dislike.

[Kujako]

Twitter can either be an international bastion of free speech, or not. They opted for the later. Which is perfectly fine, but they no longer get to claim the moral high road about helping disenfranchised groups over seas.

- - - Updated - - -

Freedom of speech, but not for those I dislike.

Private company, no expectation of free speech.

[Tennis]

Freedom of speech, but not for those I dislike.

They do have freedom speech if they're talking among themselves in their basements. Not on Twitter. A private company can set its own rules.

[melodramocracy]

Speech is not free, despite what many will claim. More at 11.

[Deleted]

About time! Seriously why did it take so long? The amount of hate speech that has been spewed by these people is insane.
It will be a welcome change to use Twitter and have to deal with so much less vitriol.

How do you feel about this change? Did Twitter go far enough?

Finally. It's also insane that this could go on so long. Twitter needs to be more active against hatred!

[May90]

They do have freedom speech if they're talking among themselves in their basements. Not on Twitter. A private company can set its own rules.

Yet if Twitter cracked down on left activists' accounts, you would sing a different song then.

Twitter actions being legal doesn't make them right. I have no love for "far-right", but let them talk, the world needs to know its anti-heroes!

[Zyster]

Yet they support burning down buildings and beating up old people. Makes sense.

- - - Updated - - -

If they were banning LGBT accounts you would see them in court. Nothing happens the other way around. Makes sense.

[Turtlewithnoshell]

Yet they support burning down buildings and beating up old people. Makes sense.

- - - Updated - - -

If they were banning LGBT accounts you would see them in court. Nothing happens the other way around. Makes sense.

Yes, we all know twitter is owned by the intolerant left.

[Astigmatizm]

Ah yes. Hate speech. Speech I do not like.

Glad to see it being censored, controlled and deleted. :^).

[Machismo]

There is no restriction to their freedom of speech. The government is in no way taking away their blessed right.

It's no different than saying that someone can masturbate into a coffee can... they just cannot do it in my house.

[Zyster]

Yes, we all know twitter is owned by the intolerant left.

Do you actually know? You support intolerance?

[Machismo]

Do you actually know? You support intolerance?

You seem to be intolerant of Twitter right now, do you support intolerance?

[Zyster]

You seem to be intolerant of Twitter right now, do you support intolerance?

Is that a yes or a no? Didn't quite get an answer out of a yes or no question.

[PC2]

Twitter should make a specific list of what language is banned, that way we could make sure it is being implemented on all accounts.

[Machismo]

Is that a yes or a no? Didn't quite get an answer out of a yes or no question.

You didn't ask me.

Now, if you were asking me, I would say that it depends. I'm utterly intolerant of pedophilia, so in that aspect, I would support intolerance. When it comes to any private entity, they should be able to do whatever they want, so long as it does not harm others. Of course, one does not have to support something, yet can still feel it should be legal. I don't support the use of meth, but I'm not going to take that away from the tweakers.

[Adolecent]

Freedom of speech, but not for those I dislike.

In larger parts of the world it is pretty common to counter hate-speeching since opinions can also be publicised in a civilised manner, and without inciting the crowd. Many learned the lessons from Nazi Germany you know.

[Dug]

Good the far right needs to be stomped out of existence. Tired of accommodating these shit heads.

[Kujako]

If they were banning LGBT accounts you would see them in court. Nothing happens the other way around. Makes sense.

LGBT is a protected class, right-wing is not. (shrug)

[Wyrt]

Ah yes, the whole, "You don't tolerate my intolerance so you are intolerant," argument. Might as well just scream, "NO YOU!"