we had an election that was stolen from us. Some of the biggest peddlers of the conspiracy theory that Trump didn’t lose the election, including the president himself, have been purged from major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Since last week’s insurrection, the president’s Twitter account has been suspended, but they and their followers have been finding new homes online platforms like parlor and messaging, app, telegram that have few rules and where hate and misinformation fester. I’m moving from Twitter to parlor. I’m moving to parlor are moving to parlor. I have a parlor account. When people push disinformation or conspiracy theories, those conspiracy theories, they’re just further reinforced. There’s no counter rebuttal like there might be on Facebook or Twitter, where you have fact checkers and people who have different views that offers a civic debate. Weeks ago, we spoke to parlor users who explained why they preferred it. What is something you could stay on parlor, that you wouldn’t be able to stay on Facebook, that that the coronavirus is not as deadly as everybody says it is, and you could literally post that on Twitter and get in Twitter jail for that. But you could posted on parlor. Yes, no problem. Financially backed by prominent conservative donor Rebecca Mercer, Parlor is a social media app with an interface similar to Twitter. It was increasingly popular and reached number one on the Apple store for a time before being taken offline overnight Sunday after Amazon, which hosted the site, pulled support for it. Parlor is suing the tech giant in a bid to get back up and running. But Parlor did at least removed this post from Trump supporter attorney Lin Wood, which seemed to call for vice President Mike Pence to be executed by firing squad. The would later told CNN he made no threats and believes in the rule of law. The controversial far right group, The Proud Boys, is urging followers to welcome new users to the telegram app where it’s channel has seen a surge in new followers over the past few days. We found this post on a telegram channel summing up the potential influx of users Parlor being shut down has sent tens of thousands or more of people to telegram. Now is our opportunity to grab them by the hand and lead them toward ideological truth, the further migration towards more secure fringe platforms is going to create a bigger blind spot for researchers in law enforcement. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his company’s ban of President Donald Trump in a philosophical Twitter thread that is his first public statement on the subject.When Trump incited his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol last week, then continued to tweet potentially ominous messages, Dorsey said the resulting risk to public safety created an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” for the company. Having already briefly suspended Trump’s account the day of the Capitol riot, Twitter on Friday banned Trump entirely, then smacked down the president’s attempts to tweet using other accounts.“I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter,“ Dorsey wrote. But he added: ”I believe this was the right decision for Twitter.”Dorsey acknowledged that shows of strength like the Trump ban could set dangerous precedents, even calling them a sign of “failure.” Although not in so many words, Dorsey suggested that Twitter needs to find ways to avoid having to make such decisions in the first place. Exactly how that would work isn’t clear, although it could range from earlier and more effective moderation to a fundamental restructuring of social networks.In Dorsey-speak, that means Twitter needs to work harder to “promote healthy conversation.”Extreme measures such as banning Trump also highlight the extraordinary power that Twitter and other Big Tech companies can wield without accountability or recourse, Dorsey wrote.While Twitter was grappling with the problem of Trump, for instance, Apple, Google and Amazon were effectively shutting down the right-wing site Parler by denying it access to app stores and cloud-hosting services. The companies charged that Parler wasn’t aggressive enough about removing calls to violence, which Parler has denied.Dorsey declined to criticize his Big Tech counterparts directly, even noting that “this moment in time might call for this dynamic.” Over the long term, however, he suggested that aggressive and domineering behavior could threaten the “noble purpose and ideals” of the open internet by entrenching the power of a few organizations over a commons that should be accessible to everyone.The Twitter co-founder, however, had little specific to say about how his platform or other Big Tech companies could avoid such choices in the future. Instead, he touched on an idea that, taken literally, sounds a bit like the end of Twitter itself — a long-term project to develop a technological “standard” that could liberate social networks from centralized control by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.But for the moment, Dorsey wrote, Twitter’s goal “is to disarm as much as we can, and ensure we are all building towards a greater common understanding, and a more peaceful existence on earth.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his company’s ban of President Donald Trump in a philosophical Twitter thread that is his first public statement on the subject.
When Trump incited his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol last week, then continued to tweet potentially ominous messages, Dorsey said the resulting risk to public safety created an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” for the company. Having already briefly suspended Trump’s account the day of the Capitol riot, Twitter on Friday banned Trump entirely, then smacked down the president’s attempts to tweet using other accounts.
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“I do not celebrate or feel pride in our having to ban @realDonaldTrump from Twitter,“ Dorsey wrote. But he added: ”I believe this was the right decision for Twitter.”
Dorsey acknowledged that shows of strength like the Trump ban could set dangerous precedents, even calling them a sign of “failure.” Although not in so many words, Dorsey suggested that Twitter needs to find ways to avoid having to make such decisions in the first place. Exactly how that would work isn’t clear, although it could range from earlier and more effective moderation to a fundamental restructuring of social networks.
In Dorsey-speak, that means Twitter needs to work harder to “promote healthy conversation.”
Extreme measures such as banning Trump also highlight the extraordinary power that Twitter and other Big Tech companies can wield without accountability or recourse, Dorsey wrote.
While Twitter was grappling with the problem of Trump, for instance, Apple, Google and Amazon were effectively shutting down the right-wing site Parler by denying it access to app stores and cloud-hosting services. The companies charged that Parler wasn’t aggressive enough about removing calls to violence, which Parler has denied.
Dorsey declined to criticize his Big Tech counterparts directly, even noting that “this moment in time might call for this dynamic.” Over the long term, however, he suggested that aggressive and domineering behavior could threaten the “noble purpose and ideals” of the open internet by entrenching the power of a few organizations over a commons that should be accessible to everyone.
The Twitter co-founder, however, had little specific to say about how his platform or other Big Tech companies could avoid such choices in the future. Instead, he touched on an idea that, taken literally, sounds a bit like the end of Twitter itself — a long-term project to develop a technological “standard” that could liberate social networks from centralized control by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
But for the moment, Dorsey wrote, Twitter’s goal “is to disarm as much as we can, and ensure we are all building towards a greater common understanding, and a more peaceful existence on earth.”
