Tag: Twitter

100 Days Without Trump on Twitter: A Nation Scrolls More Calmly

New York Times logo

Democrats are breathing easier. Republicans are crying censorship. For all of the country’s news consumers, a strange quiet has descended after a four-year bombardment of presidential verbiage.

That soothing sound that Gary Cavalli hears emanating from Twitter these days? It is the sound of silence — specifically, the silence of former President Donald J. Trump.

“My blood pressure has gone down 20 points,” said Mr. Cavalli, 71, whose obsessive hate-following of Mr. Trump ended for good when Twitter permanently barred the former president in January. “Not having to read his latest dishonest tweets has made my life so much happier.”

It seems like just yesterday, or perhaps a lifetime ago, that Mr. Trump swaggered through the corridors of Twitter as if he owned the place, praising himself and denigrating his enemies in an endless stream of poorly punctuated, creatively spelled, factually challenged ALL-CAPS DIATRIBES that inflamed, delighted and terrified the nation to varying degrees. That all ended on Jan. 8, two days after a mob egged on by his incendiary remarks had stormed the United States Capitol in an ill-conceived effort to overturn the results of the presidential election. Continue reading.

Twitter suspends right-wing activist James O’Keefe

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James O’Keefe, the activist best known for producing and promoting selectively edited, deceptive videos used to advance a far right wing agenda, appears to have been suspended from Twitter, and that suspension appears to be permanent.

On his verified Instagram account O’Keefe posted a screenshot of the suspension:

James O'Keefe Suspended Account
O'Keefe Instagram Post


Continue reading.

GOP’s Marjorie Taylor Greene fumes after admitting defeat in costly legal battle

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) griped after she was prohibited from blocking other Twitter accounts as part of a lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles-based political action committee.

The Georgia Republican agreed to pay $10,000 in legal fees to MeidasTouch LLC, which will donate the money to two nonprofit groups, after Greene blocked the PAC’s account for posting criticism of her and former president Donald Trump — and the lawmaker fumed afterward.

“Because of this PAC’s frivolous lawsuit against me, I’m not allowed to block people that threaten my life and my children’s lives every single day on social media,” Greene tweeted. “And they are bragging about donating the money to organizations that want to take away my guns, so I couldn’t defend myself and my children, when people show up to murder us like they threaten.” Continue reading.

Dominion Voting tells Facebook, Parler and other social media sites to preserve posts for lawsuits

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SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems have asked Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Parler to preserve posts about the company, even if the material was already removed for spreading misinformation.

The posts need to be kept “because they are relevant to Dominion’s defamation claims relating to false accusations that Dominion rigged the 2020 election,” according to the demand letters from Dominion’s law firm Clare Locke. Dominion sued Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell for more than $1.3 billion each in January, alleging that the lawyers defamed Dominion by saying the machines were used to steal the election from President Donald Trump.

Dominion asked each company to keep posts from slightly differing lists of people. Those included right-wing pundit Dan Bongino, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Powell. It also included news organizations Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax and — in Twitter’s case — Trump. Continue reading.

Conservatives grumbling about censorship say they’re flocking to Parler. They told us so on Twitter.

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The pro-Trump Internet can’t stop talking about their exodus from Big Tech. But very few of them have actually abandoned their long-time social media homes.

Maria Bartiromo, the Fox Business anchor seen on TV six days a week, has joined a chorus of pro-Trump commentators urging followers to flock to Parler, the social network that promises no fact-checking or “editorial bullies trying to tell you what to think.”

She told Parler chief executive John Matze in an interview earlier this month that Twitter, where she has 927,000 followers and has posted more than 33,000 tweets, has suppressed her speech so mercilessly that President Trump himself should abandon the site.

“I will no longer accept the censorship that is happening on Twitter,” she said. She would still use the site to promote her guests and TV shows, she added, but she would not “be dropping any scoops” there, and that “it is Parler where you will find real stories and the things I’m working on and my opinions on things.” Continue reading.

How Twitter and Facebook plan to handle Trump’s accounts when he leaves office.

New York Times logo

Many world leaders generally have wider latitude on Twitter and Facebook because their comments and posts are regarded as political speech that is in the realm of public interest. But what will happen to President Trump’s accounts on the social media platforms when he leaves office?

At Tuesday’s hearing, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, said the company would no longer make policy exceptions for Mr. Trump after he leaves office in January. During Mr. Trump’s time as a world leader, Twitter allowed him to post content that violated its rules, though it began adding labels to some of the tweets starting in May to indicate that the posts were disputed or glorified violence.

“If an account suddenly is not a world leader anymore, that particular policy goes away,” Mr. Dorsey said. Continue reading.

Twitter will flag premature claims about who won the 2020 election

Axios logo

Twitter said Friday it would be making a slew of significant new product and enforcement changes to help clamp down on misinformation leading up to the election.

Why it matters: It’s the most aggressive set of changes that Twitter has rolled out to date to curb election-related misinformation on its platform. 

Details: Twitter said that beginning next week, it would officially take action on tweets that claim an election win before it’s authoritatively called. Continue reading.

Twitter Takedown Targets QAnon Accounts

New York Times logoThe company permanently suspended thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy theory movement. Facebook was said to be preparing to take similar action.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Twitter said Tuesday evening that it had removed thousands of accounts that spread messages about the conspiracy theories known as QAnon, saying their messages could lead to harm and violated Twitter policy.

Twitter said it would also block trends related to the loose network of QAnon conspiracy theories from appearing in its trending topics and search, and would not allow users to post links affiliated with the theories on its platform.

It was the first time that a social media service took sweeping action to remove content affiliated with QAnon, which has become increasingly popular on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Continue reading.

Silicon Valley is getting tougher on Trump and his supporters over hate speech and disinformation

Washington Post logoBut civil rights activist and other critics say Facebook and other tech companies are still too timid

The nation’s technology industry has begun taking a harder line against hate speech, misinformation and posts that potentially incite violence when made by President Trump and some of his most extreme supporters after years of treating such issues gingerly for fear of triggering the wrath of the nation’s most powerful politician.

The moves, such as labeling false posts by Trump and banishing forums devoted to supporting him after years of policy violations, have taken place across the industry in recent weeks, with actions by Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitch.

Even Facebook, which long has given wide latitude in allowing problematic posts by Trump and his followers, on Wednesday closed down a network of more than 100 accounts and pages affiliated with Trump confidante and felon Roger Stone. The action came years after his use of social media first came under the scrutiny of federal investigators and involved issues dating back to 2015 that the company said it had unearthed only recently. Continue reading.