Are Twitter and Facebook Censoring Conservative Users?

censoring speechPosted by Tina

On Friday morning I noticed that Twitter stock has tanked a bit. It seemed odd since Twitter is such a popular tool for expression. Twitter’s user base is still healthy at 305 million users but it’s lagging behind compared to it’s closest competitor, Instagram. Why does it matter to us? it doesn’t except that a story in US News, posted at Yahoo also caught my eye. It features conservative Twitter users who believe they have been targeted and censored by Twitter because of their political leanings:

Twitter, an invaluable news aggregator when properly run and used, has seemingly taken aim at conservatives and those advocating conservative causes.

In early January, Twitter stripped Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero on Twitter) of his “verification,” saying he violated the anti-harassment Terms of Service. …

Yiannopoulos reported this week:

Rumours that Twitter has begun ‘shadowbanning’ politically inconvenient users have been confirmed by a source inside the company, who spoke exclusively to Breitbart Tech. His claim was corroborated by a senior editor at a major publisher.

According to the source, Twitter maintains a ‘whitelist’ of favoured Twitter accounts and a ‘blacklist’ of unfavoured accounts. Accounts on the whitelist are prioritised in search results, even if they’re not the most popular among users. Meanwhile, accounts on the blacklist have their posts hidden from both search results and other users’ timelines.

Our source was backed up by a senior editor at a major digital publisher, who told Breitbart that Twitter told him it deliberately whitelists and blacklists users. He added that he was afraid of the site’s power, noting that his tweets could disappear from users’ timelines if he got on the wrong side of the company. (continues)

I urge you to read the entire article. Read more on this here.

Twitter is probably losing users for a variety of reasons. But some of those losses may be due to conservatives who’ve decided a company that practices censorship isn’t deserving of support. On a similar front…

CNN’s Money program reported in early February about similar complaints with Faceboo and how they inspired some curious users to form the website, Online Censorship. The site “… reports from users in an effort to shine a light on what content is taken down, why companies make certain decisions about content, and how content takedowns are affecting communities of users around the world.” (Warning the link contains X-rated materiel)

Some of this censorship is associated with political correctness. But it goes beyond that. There’s something rotten going on in the progressive community. In America it seems to have begun on college campuses a few years ago when conservative speakers were dis-invited to speak or if they did speak were treated rudely. This trend moved into new territory when the IRS targeted conservative groups during an election year to prevent their participation. The silencing of voices is an egregious affront to freedom and speech rights. We expect it to happen in oppressive regimes but certainly not in America. Concerned Americans of all persuasions need to step up to nip this in the bud.

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8 Responses to Are Twitter and Facebook Censoring Conservative Users?

  1. J. Soden says:

    To the Libs and Progressives, the idea of “free speech” only applies when you agree with their sometimes whacko ideas.
    Reasoned discourse is never allowed. Should you violate that rule, you are immediately considered a racist or bigot. Or worse.
    Therefore should the Left start with their name-calling, you can wear those terms as a badge of honor.

  2. J. Soden says:

    Am on Twitter and Facebook, however my real name and other personal info are imaginary. I decided long ago that putting real personal info out on the web wasn’t a smart idea, ’cause you never know who is listening/watching.

    NSA can find me, but I refuse to make it easy for them. And now/ you’re wondering if J
    Soden is my real name . . . . . . . . .

  3. J. Soden says:

    Oops! The internet gremlins must’ve hit the “post comment” key by accident, so I”ll finish my thought.
    Regarding posting online – it shouldn’t matter who you are, only what you say (or type). And trying to get a thought across with humor beats bad language and name-calling any day!

  4. Tina says:

    I agree J. And you are very good at applying humor.

    I’m more concerned with the nuts on the left who believe they can monitor and decide what is permissible and what is not. It’s my understanding that the posts being denied are not any more excessive in terms of bad language or “hate”, and probably less so, than others from a more progressive bent and yet they are being denied the use of the medium.

    Remember the professor that thought she could grab a few thugs to remove the student journalist’s from her protest? People like that are just goofy in the head and they are passing this “thinking” off as education.

    Our free nation will not survive if this keeps up.

  5. Chris says:

    “In early January, Twitter stripped Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero on Twitter) of his “verification,” saying he violated the anti-harassment Terms of Service.”

    Well, he did, and continues to do so. He’s one of the main supporters of “Gamergate,” a group that was formed in order to attack a female video game reporter by falsely accusing her of trading sex for positive reviews. She was targeted with rape and death threats even after the accusations were proven false, and abusers continue using the #gamergate hashtag to target progressive female journalists and anyone else they label a “social justice warrior.” All of this has been done with the full-throated support of Yiannopolous and Breitbart; I’ve little doubt Twitter was in the right to take such a move as removing his “verified” status. It’s not like they banned him from the platform entirely.

    And even if they did, it wouldn’t be a violation of his freedom of speech; Twitter is a private enterprise, not a government entity, and thus has the right to censor whomever and whatever they’d like. Given the platform’s dominance in communication, I’d rather they did not ban anyone of any political ideology unless that person is engaging in threats or harassment. But I’ve seen plenty of openly white supremacist accounts on Twitter; I don’t think they’re censoring people simply for their beliefs, and I wouldn’t take claims that they are seriously from anyone associated with Yiannopolous or Breitbart for that matter.

  6. Dewster says:

    Do not troll and you will be fine.

    You realize you can hire a troll on twitter right? twitter is losing because their CEO’s are idiots.

    The poor conservatives propaganda is so boring!

  7. Pie Guevara says:

    Re : ” Twitter is a private enterprise, not a government entity, and thus has the right to censor whomever and whatever they’d like.”

    Wow! Nice to see the Chris Troll get something right now and then. Also, people using a social media service have a right to object to and question the provider’s policies. A completely legitimate pursuit even if ineffective.

    I had never heard of “Gamergate” until Chris brought it up and would not trust anything he has to say about it. Now, just exactly what does that have to do with concerns that conservative groups are being censored? Nothing, of course, Chris just wants to foster the impression that conservative groups deserve to be censored and that they are responsible for death threats. Classic Chris! Troll on boy, troll on.

    This is truly hilarious. Two of Post Scripts most prominent trolls who whine constantly to PS all the while grotesquely tossing insult and hate speech at Jack and Tina. Yet here they are. Trolling away! HAH!

    These two belligerent boobs need a mirror. I have attempted in the past to serve as one, but they are just too clueless to get it.

    I sometimes wish Jack and Tina would censor whomever and whatever, but if they were to censor these two troll-boobs a lot of unintentional humor would be lost.

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