Posted on 05/10/2018 3:12:57 PM PDT by lonewacko_dot_com
Research data shows Twitter heavily censors replies to government officials.
This is NOT a partisan issue: Twitter censors about as many replies from liberals as they do conservatives. See the examples involving @AjitPaiFCC, @NancyPelosi, @EPAScottPruitt, @HouseDemocrats, and many more at the link.
This censorship gives some citizens an unfair advantage over others.
We are not asking you to regulate Twitter or similar. We only ask you to speak out against this practice and to urge government officials to tell Twitter not to censor replies to their accounts.
If Twitter refuses to allow a level playing field, then government officials should be urged to close their accounts. That will give Twitter a strong incentive to comply.
On many threads, Twitter is censoring 30% to 50% or more of the replies. They're probably censoring millions of their users.
All of that makes Twitter extremely vulnerable. Not only are they censoring large numbers of their users, they're deceiving them into thinking they aren't being censored. If enough of those users find out what Twitter is doing, Twitter would be in big trouble.
Rather then a grandiose plan to sue Twitter or regulate them, the petition only asks something that the White House could easily do. Those government officials who refused to go along would look bad. Twitter would look bad.
Even if the petition doesn't get 100,000 signatures, if it gets enough this could get media coverage and that would serve the same purpose.
Some will say this petition doesn't go far enough. The point of the petition is to start with something perfectly reasonable: censorship of tweets to government accounts. Simply getting enough attention to that will change how Twitter does things in other areas.
Some will say something like, "I don't use Twitter". Yes, but those who make policy and impact your lives do.
Note: the reports at the link in the post were created using an open source app I wrote. You can use the app to check both replies to and replies from specific accounts. Feel free to run it with different accounts to verify what Twitter is doing.
In addition to signing the petition, please send the petition link or the link to this page to talk show hosts, media figures, and others. If enough people find out what Twitter is doing, we can make them change their policies.
I’ve heard that Twitter engages in what insiders call ‘shadow bans’ in which you can see your posts on someone else’s feed but no one else can.
They fool you into thinking you’re not being censored.
Let the market decide.
If Twitter censors posts consumers will migrate to another platform.
If a large number of people migrate away from Twitter, their market cap will decline.
Again, let the market decide.
That’s what the petition is about: influencing the market. Read the last paragraph.
Petitions are a waste of time. Ineffective.
I was suspended last week for saying “Islam is a terrorist religion”. They can go to hell.
If you want to influence the market, deactivate your Twitter account and dump your Twitter stock.
At least nobody is talking about enforcing our longstanding Anti-Trust laws against Amazon.
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws
The Sherman Act outlaws “every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade,” and any “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize.” Long ago, the Supreme Court decided that the Sherman Act does not prohibit every restraint of trade, only those that are unreasonable. For instance, in some sense, an agreement between two individuals to form a partnership restrains trade, but may not do so unreasonably, and thus may be lawful under the antitrust laws. On the other hand, certain acts are considered so harmful to competition that they are almost always illegal. These include plain arrangements among competing individuals or businesses to fix prices, divide markets, or rig bids. These acts are “per se” violations of the Sherman Act; in other words, no defense or justification is allowed.
So I can't close an account and reduce their reach by *1*.
However, the bottom line of the petition is this:
If Twitter refuses to allow a level playing field, then government officials should be urged to close their accounts. That will give Twitter a strong incentive to comply.
"Should be urged."
Voluntary closing of accounts.
That could reduce their reach by thousands.
“If Twitter refuses to allow a level playing field, then government officials should be urged to close their accounts. That will give Twitter a strong incentive to comply.”
I have no argument with that.
Email every politician that represents you and ask them to deactivate their Twitter account or you will not vote for them, and sell your Twitter stock.
Amen to that!
When the Founders spoke of “unalienable rights”, were they only referring to limits on government power? I think the phrase “endowed by their Creator” suggests otherwise. It would apply both to governments and to the Twitters of the world.
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