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Twitters Says It Will Ban Trump If He Breaks Hate-Speech Rules (qz.com)

Twitter has made a serious effort as of late to limit hate speech on its social media site, especially after Election Day where "biased graffiti, assaults and other incidents have been reported in the news." The company now faces President-elect Donald Trump, who has used Twitter for the past 18 months as a megaphone for his views and rants, which many would consider as "hate speech." According to the American Bar Association, hate speech is "speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or other traits." Quartz reports: While Trump's deceptive tweets may not violate Twitter's rules against harassment, threats and "hateful conduct," Twitter is still keeping an eye on his account for more egregious offenses. This week, the company told Slate it would consider banning key government officials, even the president, if its rules against hate speech or other language were violated. "The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies," a spokesperson wrote. Twitter confirmed with Quartz that everyone, including government officials, were subject to the policy: "The Twitter Rules apply to all accounts," a spokesman wrote. Trump may not have crossed that line yet, but he hasn't exactly refrained from making incendiary claims. Most recently, he claimed that Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who allegedly carried out an attack injuring 11 students at Ohio State University, "should not have been in our country." Artan was a legal permanent U.S. resident, whose family had fled Somalia for Pakistan in 2007. He arrived in the States in 2014.

18 of 1,058 comments (clear)

  1. Abdul Razak Ali Artan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually I agree with Trump with this one. This guy should not be in our country. He obviously hated it. So he should go live in a Muslim country, like Somalia or Pakistan. Love it or leave it. And stand the fuck up for the anthem too, you aren't being oppressed.

    1. Re: Abdul Razak Ali Artan by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You see, stuff like this is what I've been worried about. It doesn't matter whether Trump is literal Hitler, figurative Hitler, metaphorical Hitler, or fucking Mecha-Hitler. Yeah, we've seen presidents like Lincoln being the go-to example that have done things that aren't too constitutional. And that business about the Japanese internment. And no, it wasn't right. But America is great enough that it made it through. And while I'm starting sentence with conjunctions, I should point out that those two examples were actual fucking wars not a bunch of hysterical snowflakes freaking out about the (gay and vegan) Moooooooooooooslims. We've got so many snowflakes doing that it's turning into a fucking blizzard.

      I want to live in a country great enough to treat criminals with justice, yes to treat them better than they deserve in shithole countries like, oh I don't know, what Daesh wants to build! 'Course, that guy's not a citizen unlike the flag burners Trump wants to strip of citizenship, just a legal resident. Deportation would be one appropriate response in this case, and I'm too lazy to research precedent or see what the moon matrix media has to say about this one. If the snowflakes demand that he be deported and set free without answering to us for his crimes, so be it. Why not? That's a great precedent there. Want to kill a bunch of Americans? Why, all you have to do is head on over, cause death and destruction, and all they'll do is send you back!

      I want to live in a country great enough that its citizens can freely show disrespect to national symbols and traditions. I want to live in a country great enough that its citizens can freely show disdain for that country's religion. I want to live in a country great enough that its citizens can freely block the president on social media.

      So are Trumpers going to finally bring an end to America's greatness?
      .
      .
      .
      I suppose eventually, Germany did become great again. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, given enough time, everything changes.

      Oh and, my sig! Merry fucking Christmas!

    2. Re: Abdul Razak Ali Artan by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And stand the fuck up for the anthem too, you aren't being oppressed.

      There's a reason the very first Amendment in the Constitution is freedom of speech. Even the Second Amendment, which deals with the defense of the nation, comes second to it. You have every right to sit down or kneel for the Anthem, or burn a flag, whether you are trying to make a statement or just being a dick. It's hard to "Make America Great Again" when you want to remove some of the basic freedoms that make America great in the first place.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  2. Re: Finally, the gloves will come off! by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nobody is talking about banning speech. Twitter is talking about banning users who violate their rules. That's it.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  3. Immigration policy is not hate speech by iamacat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Being welcomed to a country you are not citizen of is not a human right. We can consider pros and cons to ourselves vs humanitarian benefits of admitting a particular immigrant of from a particular country where terrorism and other crime is more common than in US.

    Refusing to have a rational discussion on this subject without accusations of hate and racism is how we got Trump.

    1. Re:Immigration policy is not hate speech by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Of course, It is perfectly possible to have a restrictive immigration policy without shittalking about foreigners.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Immigration policy is not hate speech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Notice how the left ignored the Ohio State attack after it was revealed the attacker was both Muslim and didn't use a gun? The second it no longer fit their narrative, they completely ignored it even happened.

    3. Re:Immigration policy is not hate speech by Drakonblayde · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wish I had mod points to push this up to +5.

      Alot of folks just don't understand the frustration that the liberalists create by basically saying we can't say anything bad about anything. We don't live in a happy utopia where everything is perfect.

      The United States is a melting pot of cultures and religions. Some of those cultures and religions don't mix very well, so there's going to be friction.

      By trying to pretend there isn't and trying to put a lid on it, is just going to cause it to boil over. If you can't talk about it, then there's never going to be resolution, just conflict and friction in perpetuity

  4. Oh look... by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Funny
    A Trump article.

    How refreshing!

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  5. Someone grab the popcorn by quantaman · · Score: 5, Funny

    On the one hand, hate speech, censorship, and the limits of Presidential power are all very serious topics.

    On the other hand, President Trump getting banned from Twitter and watching the resulting tantrum would be beyond hilarious.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  6. Re:If??!?!?!! Really, now Twitter?!?!?! by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you expand "hate speech" to include "speech that offends groups" then so did EVERY OTHER politician (and most of their supporters).

    In fact, doesn't Hillary calling Trump supporters "deplorables" fit this definition almost perfectly? I'm pretty sure Trump supporters are a group who were pretty fucking offended by that statement.

    But something tells me only the right-wing politicians and supporters will get banned. Call it a crazy intuition.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  7. Responsibilities of a publicly traded company by StandardCell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It occurs to me that, while a company shouldn't necessarily advocate for open harassment of its users, it needs to apply the policy equally if it is to be taken seriously.

    Take, for example, the radical feminist Clementine Ford. She has repeatedly engaged in blatant anti-male harassment and is known to then cry wolf when a man responds with anti-female harassment and had a man fired from his job for his comment. Yet, for some reason, Clementine Ford's account is still miraculously active. No matter what Trump said he did or didn't grab, this woman should be off Twitter permanently by that same policy.

    This is a pattern that repeats over and over. As it is obvious that Twitter is engaging in selective enforcement, they are not only slowly alienating a substantial portion of their user base for the minority of vocal SJWs, they are threatening their own safe harbor provisions for anything else that goes on Twitter such as terrorist communication or other criminal activity. That translates to fewer users and significant financial risk for operating as they currently do.

    The real question is: why are the shareholders not demanding Dorsey's resignation for these policies? Mentioning Trump is a complete non-sequitur and clickbait for Salon's liberal slant. More importantly, it indicates that they are defocused from the real goal of shareholder returns and preserving shareholder value. The tail can't wag the dog any more, and it has to belong to the same animal in any case. Either Twitter curates content consistently or they get out of that business and respond only to complaints of criminal and terrorist activity; otherwise, this half-way house will fall on itself.

  8. Re: Finally, the gloves will come off! by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually no, they're not that simple. You can read them here.

    I reaffirm: nobody is banning speech. Twitter is banning people who break their rules of conduct on their forum.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  9. Re: Finally, the gloves will come off! by Entrope · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does a bakery, as a private company, have the right to say "No cakes that we don't like"?

    Does a family-owned store, as a privately held corporation, have the right to say "We won't pay for medical services that we believe are morally equivalent to murder"?

    Many Americans think the answer to those should be "yes" -- and if you say no to this, but yes to Twitter, then you should think very carefully about how much sense it makes to draw the line where you draw it.

  10. Re: Finally, the gloves will come off! by superwiz · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The key was custom wedding cake. They were prohibited from not making a custom-made item for a proceeding when participating in such a proceeding would violate their religious choice. They weren't refusing to sell a general item like a pre-made cake for a gay wedding. They were forced to make a custom cake. Which made them active participants in the wedding. States governments have to abide by the BIll of Rights to the same degree as the federal government. I don't recall the SCOTUS decision, but there was one which established this standard. So this court decision prioritized civil rights over religious rights clear and simple.

    Depending on New York State law, with which I'm not familiar, Donald Trump's restaurants may have the same requirement.

    Nonsense. Restaurants provide general service. If they refused to host a special occasion or make some off-menu item, then it would be a fair comparison. But the bakery in the Oregon case did not refuse to sell any items for a gay wedding. They refused to sell custom-made items. It makes all the difference when discussing whether this was a religious coercion or not.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  11. Re: Finally, the gloves will come off! by Entrope · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, Trump's followers (and a lot of others) complain that Twitter isn't honest about the rules they use. Also that a lot of Twitter's supporters are inconsistent in applying the values they claim to hold or as dishonest as Twitter.

  12. Re:Twitter, aka @Jack, doesn't care about hate spe by kuzb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some people aren't even that subtle. For example, take Manveer Heir the openly racist developer at Bioware who makes no secret how much he hates all white people by broadcasting it all over Twitter. This is really the problem, they only consider it racism if it's hate speech directed at certain select groups.

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    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
  13. Oppression by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Love it or leave it. And stand the fuck up for the anthem too, you aren't being oppressed.

    "Love it or leave it" is what privileged fools say when they are actively sticking their fingers in their ears so they don't have to hear the truth from people who are being abused by our government. There are plenty of people who genuinely ARE being oppressed in this country. Sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in very blatant ones. Ask any black person if they feel oppressed by the police. Ask a person with brown skin how easy it is to get a bank loan. Compare the number of unarmed minorities who get shot by police to the number of white people. Ask women how things are going with that equal pay for equal work.

    I am a US Citizen because I was born here. I didn't ask to be born nor did I ask to be a citizen. Love isn't unconditional. The notion that I should automatically love the country if it is doing things to actively harm me or things I care about is just nonsense. There are lots of people who are oppressed. Just because YOU aren't being oppressed doesn't mean shit to someone who is. If they want to sit down to make a statement during the playing of the national anthem then they are doing EXACTLY what the first amendment is for. So is burning a flag. Free speech isn't about what is comfortable for you to hear. It is making a statement that tells what they think without harming anyone.