What does Twitter and Gamergate have in common?

[steve58]

Anita Sarkeesian

Apparently Twitter has created a Trust & Safety Council and appointed Sarkeesian as head inquisitor.

[mirth]

And Twitter takes one more step toward complete irrelevancy.

[Nefaro]

Trust & Safety Council? 

It's surreal.  This is the path Neo-Libs have been happily heading down, too. 

I remember a time, decades ago, when organized censorship was something religious conservatives were berated for doing.  Now such things pale in comparison to the ever-encroaching Ministries Of Political Correctness & Brainwashing In Education.

[bayonetbrant]

While I agree that some things do go overboard, what solution would you guys propose to people being doxed on Twitter, or threats of violence being made against specific users?

Clearly there is room for abuse with whatever system they are trying to propose. But let's not forget that it is being proposed in a reaction to some legitimately vile behavior

[mirth]

I'm not sure why Twitter can't handle it with their internal administration structure. If you look at that list of organizations for the Trust & Safety Council it seems more like a PR move than anything that is actually going to improve Twitter.

[bayonetbrant]

I'm not sure why Twitter can't handle it with their internal administration structure. If you look at that list of organizations for the Trust & Safety Council it seems more like a PR move than anything that is actually going to improve Twitter.

maybe.

but you can't deny that there's been no shortage of shitheaded behavior on Twitter, especially around Gamergate.

[mirth]

There are scumbag assholes on the internet. Not exactly a new situation.

[Nefaro]

While I agree that some things do go overboard, what solution would you guys propose to people being doxed on Twitter, or threats of violence being made against specific users?

Clearly there is room for abuse with whatever system they are trying to propose. But let's not forget that it is being proposed in a reaction to some legitimately vile behavior

There have been plenty reports of people, expressing different political or personal beliefs than the Thought Police "moderating" Twitter, have been given the infamous "shadowbanning" by just such a censorship brain trust.  That practice has been outed by internal twitter whistleblowers. 

Not for death threats, but to silence public discussion or debate which doesn't jive with the Ministry's strict views.

It's a private company, AFAIK, so they can feel free to let their Mind Gestapo silence anyone who doesn't toe their party line.  They can have their own circle jerk and pat each other on the back for silencing everyone else.  But it also points to the ever-increasing censorship trend which many have been warning about, and we're beginning to see such tendencies working their way into lawmaking too. 

This hasn't been the only example. 


I suspect most of us here are sharp students of history, and shouldn't have to warn about blowing off or excusing such behavior.  Perhaps my thoughts could be blown off as Libertarian paranoia, but it's better to question often & early especially when it comes to matters of political censorship.

[Nefaro]

And the "Trust & Safety Council" is as 1984 as can be.

I'd think such a name was made up as some type of Onion News joke, making fun of this kind of stuff.  Insane.  *facepalm*

[bayonetbrant]

Again, I think the implementation is probably going to need significant overhaul from what I know of its initial proposal.

But I've never heard anybody else propose any sort of solution to the significant personal threats that have been issued and required police intervention, other than simply telling people to either suck it up or get off of Twitter. Both of those solutions to me seem pretty stupid.

Again, I'm not trying to defend the actual implementation, because it does smack of heavy-handed over-reach. 

But rather than just tell people how stupid it is, do you have an alternate solution for the very real problems of the doxing, threats of violence, and personal attacks that Twitter users were subjected to?  We're not talking about calling people names; we're talking about pictures of people's houses, with addresses and phone numbers, posted publicly, that resulted in follow-on vandalism and credible threats of violence to the point that some Twitter users had to abandon their homes.
There is no way that behavior is OK.

What's your solution to police it?

[mirth]

I don't have a solution, nor do I really care how Twitter decides how to handle it.  I do not use the service and I've never had an interest in it.

In the end, the only way people can protect themselves from the types of attacks you are describing is to not use the service. That may seem unfair, but that is the reality of it.

[Gusington]

Twitter is a hive of scum & villainy.

[MetalDog]

I'm with mirth.  Don't use it.  Never saw the need for it.  As far as a solution is concerned, technology is sufficiently advanced to be able to track most of these 'keyboard heroes' who make threats, post pics and addresses, and generally make life miserable.  Find them and charge them.  Hold them responsible for their behavior.  It won't stop all of it, but, it will get the message across.

[Arctic Blast]

This is what happens when you run a major social networking site and ignore serious, serious problems that have been going on for years. You're stuck trying to catch up and probably over-reach in a panic to reassure people and stay solvent.

[LongBlade]

An op/ed on Twitter.

http://nypost.com/2016/02/23/twitter-targets-trolls-but-winds-up-silencing-conservatives/