Posted on 01/21/2019 9:37:38 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Twitter has suspended an account that helped a widely publicized encounter between Catholic high school school students and a Native American man go viral.
CNN Business reported on Monday that Twitter took the step after receiving questions from the news network about the account.
The account, @2020fight, posted a minute-long video of the interaction on Friday night with the caption, "this MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March."
According to a cached version of the video seen by CNN, the post garnered at least 2.5 million views and at least 14,400 retweets. The network notes that the partial video of the incident had been previously posted on Instagram, but that the caption from @2020fight helped promote it to widespread attention.
@2020fight claims to belong to a California schoolteacher. However its profile photo is of a blogger based in Brazil, according to CNN, which noted that Twitter's guidelines explicitly prohibit "fake and misleading accounts."
"Deliberate attempts to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter by using misleading account information is a violation of the Twitter Rules," a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill.
The CNN report comes just days after video clips passed around social media appeared to show a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky mocking a Native American elder at the Indigenous People's March in Washington, D.C.
The most widely viewed video featured a student, Nick Sandmann, smiling as an Omaha elder, Nathan Phillips, played his drum directly in front of him. Several of the students in the video are wearing "Make America Great Again" hats.
The students were initially accused of harassing Phillips, with many criticizing their actions on social media. The Diocese of Covington condemned the students and apologized for their behavior.
Additional footage and reports emerging later appeared to show that Phillips approached Sandmann after other protesters started hassling the students. It remains unclear whether Phillips was intervening on behalf of either group.
Sandmann said in a statement on Sunday that "misinformation" and "outright lies" were being spread about the encounter. He also said that a group of African-American protestors said "hateful things" in their direction.
"The protestor everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him," Sandmann wrote. "I did not see anyone try to block his path. He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face."
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Sunday voiced support for the students, saying after fuller video emerged that the media had misrepresented the incident.
"In the face of racist and homosexual slurs, the young boys refused to reciprocate or disrespect anyone," Massie said on Twitter. "Even when taunted by homophobic bigots, which was obviously bewildering to them, they insulted no one."
A who’s who of the so-called elite!
You should see the meltdown over @ the dump over this-it is HILARIOUS!
“Talia” was also the source of the story that claimed Trump had miss-colored the American flag during a school visit on Aug. 25. Looks more like a Brock-type operation.
McDonagh said he found the account suspicious due to its “high follower count, highly polarized and yet inconsistent political messaging, the unusually high rate of tweets, and the use of someone else’s image in the profile photo.”
Molly McKew, an information warfare researcher who saw the tweet and shared it herself on Saturday, said she later realized that a network of anonymous accounts were working to amplify the video.
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Russia Russia Russia.
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Justin Wise from the Hill twice reported that this this took place at The Indigenous Peoples March. When the group came by bus very likely provided by the school to show up for the March For Life rally which is where this occurred.
My best guess: Blue as in Leftist + Tick as in bloodsucker?
BTTT
“blue tick” should be blue check I believe.
It’s a reference to a “VERIFIED” twitter account. I don’t use Twitter, but my understanding is that famous folks have verified accounts so you know it’s the actual person.
So there are 1,000 fake Trump twitter accounts, but only one real POTUS account with the check.
It’s a symbol of some status and acceptance on the site as having the check removed is a downgrade in some way. Needless to say, a bunch of conservatives got de-checked last year when big tech went after ALL conservatives on social media.
16? There must have been 50 plus kids at that march.
My first experience with Twitter was when some CongressCritter holed up in the Capitol posting from behind the barricades, so to speak. It was thrilling to follow. How sad that the little message service became another bulwark of people protecting people from themselves.
If you weren’t on Usenet, especially during the Whitewater affair, you don’t know the fresh air of unfettered discourse we breathed back then.
Freedom is a relative thing. Those who reach some form of maturity clinging to shackles they have never lived without, experience an ersatz freedom. Billy Beck Jr said it best. We’re like a prisoner standing in the middle of his cell, shouting out through the bars, “I’m free! I’m free!”
It’s fortunate some of us at had a fling in the 1960s because we’ve been in lockdown for the last twenty years.
National Review Online who went after these kids like there was no tomorrow.
No, they won’t be punished.
And no matter how cynical you get,
it’s never enough.
Slander and RICO.
The only way this nonsense is ever going to stop.
Yes, frequently spelled DUmp.
Phillips is one strange Indigen. A coup stick and a tom tom in the 21st century? ROTFL. I know it impresses the white chicks but geez. The boy needs to pull himself out of the stone age and get with the program.
The Coup stick and tom tom are props for his paid act. He needs to get back on his reservation
He’s no Code Talker
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