Preface: I am a writer and have been for over thirty years. I do believe in monitoring some speech that incites violence, targets groups of humans, is graphic in nature, or is a lie attempting to persuade an individual to change their mind (dictatorial propaganda). There are other areas as well, but I’ll refrain with a boring bullet point list. If one follows simple logic, then you can deduce most areas of concern.
On August 25, 2020, after four years on Twitter, I was suspended for a reply. You may think it was vulgar, it attacked someone, or it tagged someone. Well, neither of those happened. I’ve included the screenshots showing the tweet, as well as the replied-to account. Feel free to look them up at your leisure and chase the timestamp.
That evening I was replying to multiple accounts during the Mr. Orange Clown Convention. In a creative swirl, I came up with a hashtag for the convention, which can be considered blurring comedy with reality. The suspense, if there is any must be bothering you by now unless you looked at the pics already ( see bottom of article). The hashtag was #hookersandblow. The first few replies including the #hookersandblow received barely any attention. Some liked it, some laughed, and some retweeted. Then, as the evening progressed I noticed something changed. I replied to a tweet and noticed an autofill option after I typed in a few letters. The hashtag became #HookersandBlow with capitalized letters. This meant the hashtag had gained momentum because autofill doesn’t kick in otherwise. I went to bed and woke up to a suspension. The bots, which Jack Dorsey and Twitter supposedly keep at bay, had reported en masse in order to guarantee the suspension.
It gets better. Twitter allows an appeal process, which is more like an extortion process (see pics). Twitter says you can delete said innocuous tweet, but we may still suspend you or you can file an appeal. Two problems with their suspension practice. If a tweet doesn’t specifically name someone, promote violence or hatred, etcetera (see Twitter violation rules), then why is there a suspension in the first place? Second issue is the appeal process. Twitter says if you delete the tweet, then we’ll let you on our platform. The actual meaning is a threat by Digital force; either do it our way or you receive nothing forever, including implied deactivation. I’m 72 hours into my appeal and still no word from Twitter. I refuse to bend and delete a tweet for an inoffensive reply. Note: My tweet also doesn’t project any implication towards an individual, group, party affiliation, etcetera.
The ultimate issue with the suspension and appeal is the vulgarity associated with Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and Mr. Orange. Mr. Orange has violated multiple Twitter rules and should’ve been banned years ago from targeting groups through to voter suppression, but Jack Dorsey doesn’t see it that way. There’s one logical for reason for Dorsey to do this, and it’s not money, because he’s uber rich. The reason can only be he is a silent supporter of Mr. Orange and wants to bring down democracy at his behest. There’s a slim chance Dorsey is being blackmailed, but considering his tech connections, he could probably devour Mr. Orange in a heartbeat.
Where does this leave us as a Society? Well, in a dangerous predicament. Forget the tiny positivity of such sites as Twitter and Facebook; liking things, sharing pics, and connections with those you haven’t seen in years, whom you never liked anyway. The perils begin with the Internet bullies and end when your voice is muted for harmless, colloquial replies or posts on either platform.
We must fight collectively for freedom of speech, freedom from oppression for all humans, freedom from maniacal demagogues, whether people like Mr. Orange or Internet tycoons like Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg. For fucks sake, Zuckerberg allowed Cambridge Analytica to manipulate thoughts and votes in 2016. Read the book or watch the documentary on Cambridge. I’m no one special speaking into an echo chamber, but if we unite, as a cornucopia of nobodies, we can equal the voice of billions of somebodies that can initiate change for ourselves and generations to come. We don’t want future generations to look at us and say we failed them and could’ve avoided it with simple unification. Share this article, write your own, tweet it or post it; use whatever means necessary to make your voice heard regardless of your initiative. The only option we have is to break the shackles binding us and take back what is ours. This can only be done through vocalism and nonviolent action. Stand Strong my fellow humans.
With Love, Gianni Franco
| Author Gianni Franco | 