Announcing the Twitter Trust & Safety Council

Callate

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I stand for freedom, family values, patriotism, and safety!

And if that statement doesn't make you uneasy, where have you been for the last twenty years?

It would be just loverly if Twitter could make a simple set of rules that would prevent people from threatening or doxing each other on their service. But I don't think that's going to happen. Either nothing will change, or different standards are going to be applied to different tweeters depending on whether the onlooker approves of their apparent sentiments or not. This tweeter got you fired from a job you worked twenty years obtaining, but it's okay, because they were "punching up". This tweeter questioned whether you should get to shout people down because of your self-inflicted misery, and that's bad, because they're "punching down".

As I said elsewhere, I'm very tired of "safety" being used to indicate anything other than the absence of a direct and real threat to an individual's physical health. But that's where we are; it's joined the ranks of words like "family values" and "freedom" that used to imply simple virtues but now form a kind of doublespeak.
 

DoPo

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Silvanus said:
Regardless of whether it's a good idea or not, did they have to name it something so ominous?
It does sound very Orwellian, I agree. I'd expect such a name to crop up in 1984 2061.
 

Silvanus

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Kalki said:
Look on the bright side, finally there's going to be a universally recognizable example of "Orwellian" to point to. That's... something.
You mean other than Nineteen Eighty-Four, surely?
 

Schadrach

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...and here's our first great example of what the Trust and Safety Council considers inappropriate for Twitter, given that the account was suspended shortly afterward.



Dangerous speech indeed.
 

Ihateregistering1

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I don't even use Twitter, but can't someone just make a profile, send whatever threatening stuff they want, and then when they get banned, just make a new profile?

Also: "Faculty Director of UC Berkeley?s Greater Good Science Center"

I know I'm not the only one who thought of the Tau when he read that.
 

Lightspeaker

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Ihateregistering1 said:
I don't even use Twitter, but can't someone just make a profile, send whatever threatening stuff they want, and then when they get banned, just make a new profile?
Yep, there is absolutely nothing to stop you making new accounts. Its only really a problem if you're actually invested into an account. So if you just wanted an account to harass people you can easily get a new e-mail address anywhere and then create a new twitter account with that e-mail address. Takes five minutes at most.

In other news: Stephen Fry quit twitter after a twitter mob attacked him for a joke made at the BAFTAs the other day.

See...this is why I don't actually use twitter for any kind of serious reason or have a personal twitter account.
 

s0denone

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thaluikhain said:
Eh, as I understand it, Twitter has long promised to protect vulnerable users, without actually doing much in practice.
But isn't that the problem?
What is a "vulnerable user"?

More or less vulnerable than an Escapist user? Should we disallow certain opinions because they do not fit our worldview? We don't like people who like Madden because I feel triggered as I have spent hundreds of euros on games that offer me nothing new.

Or is it when someone says something that a user finds "offensive" or "creepy"?

If it is, then why aren't parties from both spectrums represented on this so-called "council"? As far as I can see, there are no free-speech advocates, but instead it is filled with people who seem to think that everything constitutes criminal harassment.

Maybe some of it does --- But wouldn't you want opposing viewpoints on "Council"? Particularly if the point is to find out what is to be acceptable on a website?

I get that Twitter is a private enterprise and I can't really fault them specifically, but I sincerely hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Lightspeaker said:
In other news: Stephen Fry quit twitter after a twitter mob attacked him for a joke made at the BAFTAs the other day.

See...this is why I don't actually use twitter for any kind of serious reason or have a personal twitter account.
Haha. That is fucking sad. I didn't watch the BAFTAs but you just had me read up on what happened with your post. Fucking Twitter, man.

I would suppose 100 people calling you a "misogynist" would also constitute "harassment" to the point that the "Twitter Security Council" should step in, no?
 

Cecilo

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s0denone said:
thaluikhain said:
Eh, as I understand it, Twitter has long promised to protect vulnerable users, without actually doing much in practice.
But isn't that the problem?
What is a "vulnerable user"?

More or less vulnerable than an Escapist user? Should we disallow certain opinions because they do not fit our worldview? We don't like people who like Madden because I feel triggered as I have spent hundreds of euros on games that offer me nothing new.

Or is it when someone says something that a user finds "offensive" or "creepy"?

If it is, then why aren't parties from both spectrums represented on this so-called "council"? As far as I can see, there are no free-speech advocates, but instead it is filled with people who seem to think that everything constitutes criminal harassment.

Maybe some of it does --- But wouldn't you want opposing viewpoints on "Council"? Particularly if the point is to find out what is to be acceptable on a website?

I get that Twitter is a private enterprise and I can't really fault them specifically, but I sincerely hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Lightspeaker said:
In other news: Stephen Fry quit twitter after a twitter mob attacked him for a joke made at the BAFTAs the other day.

See...this is why I don't actually use twitter for any kind of serious reason or have a personal twitter account.
Haha. That is fucking sad. I didn't watch the BAFTAs but you just had me read up on what happened with your post. Fucking Twitter, man.

I would suppose 100 people calling you a "misogynist" would also constitute "harassment" to the point that the "Twitter Security Council" should step in, no?
That is punching up and is completely acceptable. Men cant be victims of real harassment, you should know this by now.