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Tag: Twitter (Page 1 of 2)

Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Tweet Was a Bigly Unforced Error

It’s difficult to believe that U.S. President Donald Trump was playing 3D chess when he tweeted out last Sunday that several radical, first-term Democrat Congresswomen (now known as the Squad) should go back to their home countries. The POTUS apparently forgot that when your opponents are fighting among themselves, you should get out of the way. read more

Google Fires Free-Speech Advocate

Search giant Google has apparently terminated the employment of software engineer Mike Wacker. Last month, the self-described Republican published an open letter about the “outrage mobs” that evidently run the show within the company. The only political views acceptable within Google are left or far left; expressing a dissenting view prompts complaints to HR., Wacker claimed. Wacker even hinted that going public could result in his firing. read more

Twitter Hit with $250 Million Lawsuit

Congressman Devin Nunes is suing Twitter for defamation in a filing that he says is the first of many. Nunes, a California Republican who headed the House Intelligence Committee (which made him a target of the far left or alt left), is seeking money damages totaling $250 million (a trendy number) for defamation from the social media network, among other forms of requested relief. He also maintains that Twitter shadow-banned him and others. Although the president has spoken about and tweeted about social network bias, neither the Trump administration or possibly compromised GOP lawmakers collectively have taken any substantive steps to address against social media censorship as yet. Nunes has taken the matter into his own hands. read more

Twitter HQ Gets Loomered: Laura Loomer Protests Outside NYC Office

Conservative firebrand Laura Loomer has handcuffed herself to the front door of Twitter headquarters in New York City to protest online censorship and is live-streaming the encounter. Twitter recently put Loomer’s account on a permanent suspension.

Update: the NYPD has reportedly arrested Laura Loomer.

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Although Loomer — who often uses the left’s confrontational tactics against them — is receiving criticism by dismissive liberals and conservatives, especially the blue-check Twitter cohort, the demonstration continues with a heavy police presence. It doesn’t appear that she is leaving anytime soon.

That said, in this era of politically motivated social media suspensions, outright bans, shadowbanning,  de-platforming, de-monetization, inflated or squelched trends, and so on, is this form of street theater completely out of line?

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In June 2017, Loomer, an independent journalist, rushed the stage at Shakespeare in the Park during a contemporary interpretation of Julius Caesar to protest the the assassination of a Trump lookalike in the play’s Caesar role.

Y'all liberals (I love you all) who read me don't get this Laura Loomer stuff.

Breaking the 4-minute mile was seen as impossible. Roger Bannister broke it, and since then 1,400 followed him.

"Conservatives" never engaged in left-wing style activism.

Today the game changed. read more

Twitter Reinstates Jesse Kelly Following Uproar

Twitter has reinstated the account of U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran and Houston-based talk show host Jesse Kelly. What was originally deemed an out-of-the blue, as it were, permanent ban on Sunday for the conservative pundit was reclassified by the influential social network as a temporary suspension, but without a specific explanation for either action.

From The Daily Wire:

“‘The account was temporarily suspended for violating the Twitter Rules and has been reinstated,’ a Twitter spokesperson told The Daily Wire. ‘We have communicated directly with the account owner.'”

"Temporarily suspended"? What a boldface lie. Twitter “permanently suspended” Jesse Kelly's account and told him it “will not be restored.” But now under the threat of a Congressional investigation, they say it was just "temporary," and now it's magically restored. https://t.co/T4w6D14AzF read more

Twitter Suspends Jesse Kelly Who Warned About Online Censorship

Last summer, Jesse Kelly predicted that the de-platforming of a fringe media personality like Alex Jones was merely a trial run for banning mainstream conservatives, libertarians, and populists from social media.

Exhibit A for the accuracy of this prediction is Jesse Kelly himself.

Similarly, perhaps the shenanigans in Broward County, Fla., Arizona, California, and elsewhere in the 2018 midterm elections constituted a trial run for the 2020 presidential contest.

A Marine Corps combat veteran and Houston-based talk show host, Kelly made these observations about free speech or lack thereof in The Federalist in August 2018.

“The leftists will not stop (and did not stop) at nutty Alex Jones, because they do not think you are much different from him…They just knew Jones was the weak member of the herd. They could pick him off as a test run. Next they’re coming for you.,.The same people who ceded control of public education, the federal bureaucracy, the media, movies, and music to the left have once again found another hill not worth dying on. ‘It’s only social media,’ they say. Yeah, fear not. Around 2.5 billion people use Facebook and Twitter. What’s the worst that can happen if we just let the left have them?…We need to stop whistling past the graveyard and realize the left is seeking total victory. They do not want to compete in a marketplace of ideas. Their goal is to silence dissenting voices.”

On Sunday, Twitter abruptly permanently suspended Jesse Kelly for unspecified rules violations without providing an explanation.

Shortly after his article hit the Internet, former congressional candidate Jesse Kelly discussed the censorship with FNC’s Tucker Carlson, likening it to modern-day book burning.

U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, a vocal Never Trumper in the GOP, backed Kelly even they disagree on politics.

“Jesse Kelly can’t stand me. And I think his tribal war scalping stuff is stupid and wrong. But that doesn’t matter much compared to the bigger picture here: The trend of de-platforming and shutting down speech is a bad precedent for our free speech society.”

Jesse Kelly can’t stand me. And I think his tribal war scalping stuff is stupid and wrong.

But that doesn’t matter much compared to the bigger picture here: The trend of de-platforming and shutting down speech is a bad precedent for our free speech society. https://t.co/V11v6uDZY3 read more

Facebook Employees Band Together to Support Diversity and Tolerance

About 100 bold Facebook employees have stepped forward to align themselves with a group calling for ideological rather than merely cosmetic diversity.

In an unusually fair story, The New York Times reported on this development.

“The post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board last week. Titled ‘We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,’ it quickly took off inside the social network. ‘We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,’ Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer, wrote in the post, which was obtained by The New York Times. ‘We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.’ Since the post went up, more than 100 Facebook employees have joined Mr. Amerige to form an online group called FB’ers for Political Diversity, according to two people who viewed the group’s page and who were not authorized to speak publicly. The aim of the initiative, according to Mr. Amerige’s memo, is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company.”

The post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board. Titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,” it quickly took off inside the social network. https://t.co/aHEZ09cRSh read more

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