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Twitter’s new rules could result in a major purge of alt-right accounts
www.recode.net ^ | 12/18/2017 | By Tony Romm

Posted on 12/18/2017 12:36:52 PM PST by Red Badger

The new rules took effect today.

Twitter began enforcing new rules today to suspend users affiliated with hate groups “on and off the platform” — a policy that already has led to the disabling of some alt-right accounts.

Initially announced in November, Twitter also started penalizing users whose profiles include “hateful imagery and display names,” presumably including Nazi insignia, or those who use a “username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior.”

For Twitter, the two new restrictions are attempts to combat rampant harassment and abuse on the site. Users affiliated with the alt-right or neo-Nazi movements in particular have seized on the company’s notoriously lax oversight to stoke racial tensions, peddle false news reports and attack their critics, including Democrats. Earlier this year, they organized a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., with the aid of the platform.

To that end, the Dec. 18 enforcement deadline left some of Twitter’s right-leaning users this weekend fearing a full, messy “purge.” Some said they’d be shifting to Gab, an alt-right-friendly social media site, and encouraged their supporters to do the same.

And by Monday morning, some alt-right accounts had indeed gone offline. That includes the account for the white supremacist group American Renaissance as well as some users tied to the far-right group, Britain First, including a user that President Donald Trump once retweeted.

“Today, we are starting to enforce these policies across Twitter,” the company said in a blog post today. “In our efforts to be more aggressive here, we may make some mistakes and are working on a robust appeals process. We’ll evaluate and iterate on these changes in the coming days and weeks, and will keep you posted on progress along the way.”

To be sure, Twitter never explicitly mentioned alt-right or neo-Nazi groups in the rules it first previewed in November. Rather, its new policy more broadly sought to outlaw “specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people.”

Notably, though, Twitter has said it would be monitoring groups’ behavior outside of the website, as it makes its decision as to which users have run afoul of its new guidelines.

“You also may not affiliate with organizations that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes,” the policy says.

For months, Twitter has felt pressure — from users in the U.S. and regulators around the world, particularly in Europe — to crack down on hate speech. Recently, the company has started stripping verification status — the infamous blue checkmarks — from users who violate its policies.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: achillwind; antifa; blm; good; liberalfascism; polititicalpurge; twitter; whydotheyhateamerica; whydoyouhateamerica
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Yet they scream for 'Free Speech' and 'Net Neutrality'..................
1 posted on 12/18/2017 12:36:52 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

LOL! Yeah, but radical extremist alt-left is okey dokey. As usual.


2 posted on 12/18/2017 12:38:25 PM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: Red Badger

CTRL-Left continues it’s Long March.


3 posted on 12/18/2017 12:39:00 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Benedict McCain is the worst traitor ever to wear the uniform of the US military.)
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To: Red Badger

Well, net neutrality went away, so I guess this is a victory for people who insisted it was a Communist plot.


4 posted on 12/18/2017 12:39:12 PM PST by Fredpooll
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To: Red Badger

So Twat Master Dorsey will be suspending ANTIFA accounts? Yeah, sure.


5 posted on 12/18/2017 12:39:36 PM PST by JME_FAN
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To: rktman

To a radical extremist, there is no such thing as ‘Alt-Left’. It’s ALL LEFT!...................


6 posted on 12/18/2017 12:40:23 PM PST by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: Red Badger

There won’t be anyone to right of Mao on twitter in 12 months.


7 posted on 12/18/2017 12:40:56 PM PST by JohnyBoy (The GOP Senate is intentionally trying to lose the majority.)
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To: Red Badger

Twitter begins purge of far-right accounts as new hate speech rules take effect

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/12/18/twitter-begins-purge-far-right-accounts-as-new-hate-speech-rules-take-effect.html


8 posted on 12/18/2017 12:41:05 PM PST by Innovative ("Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." -- Vince Lombardi)
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To: Red Badger

What about alt-left BLM and Antifa?


9 posted on 12/18/2017 12:41:09 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: rktman

Any Antifa accounts purged?


10 posted on 12/18/2017 12:41:16 PM PST by txhurl (Banana Republicans, as far as the eye can see)
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To: Red Badger

nazi = left wing group with very slightly different goals than commie. Nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the right - never has been, never will be.


11 posted on 12/18/2017 12:41:31 PM PST by rigelkentaurus
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To: SaveFerris

Why, they are MAINSTREAM groups, not ‘Alt’ Anything!.................


12 posted on 12/18/2017 12:41:59 PM PST by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: SaveFerris

Why, they are MAINSTREAM groups, not ‘Alt’ Anything!.................


13 posted on 12/18/2017 12:42:03 PM PST by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: Red Badger

That’s why they did it. To get rid of accounts used by the people who are saying things the left wants to eliminate.

The left is passionate about stopping all comments about *slam, and what it is doing to the (formerly) free world.

The left is insane with anger over Trump’s win. Their dream of turning the USA into a marxist-*slam alliance $hithole has gone away.


14 posted on 12/18/2017 12:42:34 PM PST by I want the USA back (*slam is not a religion. It is a political movement to establish a religion.)
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To: Red Badger

Twitter continues to turn to the fascist side.


15 posted on 12/18/2017 12:43:00 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: JohnyBoy

They are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.............


16 posted on 12/18/2017 12:43:33 PM PST by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: rigelkentaurus

Yes, only skoolchildren think Nazi was right-wing.

National Socialist German Worker’s Party

Commie Wiki makes it “far right”. Yeah, socialism is far right. /s


17 posted on 12/18/2017 12:43:56 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Red Badger

Yet you still see on twitter tweets from people who say “I hate White People” apparently that is A OK


18 posted on 12/18/2017 12:44:30 PM PST by Sarah Barracuda
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To: Paladin2

Which is ironic because they insist it’s what WE DO!...............


19 posted on 12/18/2017 12:44:50 PM PST by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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To: Red Badger

lol

Some idiot councilwoman (but I repeat myself) once claimed LaRaza was “a mainstream group”.

Stupidity - it burns


20 posted on 12/18/2017 12:45:09 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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