With congressional investigators looking into how Russia’s role in meddling in the US Presidential election used social media (cnet.com) and the adverts and ad revenue that drives it to elect the maddest, toxically orange anti-progress chap in the room for the world to facepalm or laugh hysterically at, some may suggest that perhaps the sanctimonious indignation raison d’être and the attention it brings may be as much as part of the problem as anything else:
Picture: Getty Images
Twitter, what the hell with all the harassment? (cnet.com).
“So I decided to write this open letter to you, Jack Dorsey. I figure Twitter’s CEO and co-founder would be a good place to start. You’ve been making moves lately that just don’t make sense, and it’s becoming a problem. I’m not talking about questions of how you’ll turn a profit or convince more people to join today’s 328 million tweeters. And I’m certainly not worried how you’ll stay relevant because, thanks to President Donald Trump, Twitter has that written all over it every day and in headlines all around the world.”
Etc., etc., etc., with anything alt-right calling it—and anything “news”—TL;DR (urbandictionary.com) as soon as it hit 141 chars. But on the whole suggesting:
“Let’s be frank: You need to deal with harassment. The pervasive, nonstop, everyday, all-encompassing harassment some people have been subjected to on your platform. It’s the hate campaigns, the racism, the intimidation, the deadly assault and the Russian interference in the US election. All of it. … When Twitter met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week, those problems were on full display—though, not to the rest of us, since testimony was behind closed doors.”
The be-all-and-all of which was “‘deeply disappointing’ and ‘showed [an] enormous lack of understanding from the Twitter team of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and again begs many more questions than they offered.’ Ouch.”
Indeed, ouch, and perhaps making some wonder why it’s worth it; but back to that raison d’être:
“What’s the deal with Trump? I’m not criticizing the guy. I’m asking this because Twitter has clear guidelines that Trump has violated. And here’s where it gets rich: You acknowledged as much last week. But, you said, because of the ‘newsworthiness’ of Trump’s tweets, they’ll remain. Basically, you’ve created a two-tier system of ‘newsworthy’ people who can say and do whatever they want, and the rest of us have to follow the rules.”
The same “two-tier system of newsworthiness” that propelled his election—anything else being “fake”—his official “real” news 140 char. pre-runner of his own about as undoctored as that ginger syrup on his head Facebook news channel (thisisnocave.blogspot.co.uk, 9th Aug. 2017).
“Can I be a ‘newsworthy’ person? I do work for the world’s largest consumer tech site, and I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be an abusive troll. Or do I need to become president of the United States?”
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