Twitter Madness

 My goodness, it's been a long time.  I have been using Twitter for my rants.  Short and sweet.  Get's them off my mind.  However, on Jan. 30, 2022 I was permanently banned.  I was tweeting about the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and they claimed I was inciting violence.  This was really my second run-in with content moderation so I assumed there was a mistake.  I appealed the ban and assumed I would be reinstated.  But no.  Four subsequent efforts have all failed.  So I'm off.  

Let me explain: This is bigger than just losing my hobby.  There is no realistic appeal from these decisions.  I'm fortunate the it was just a hobby.  Can you imagine if you were dependent upon your access as part of your job.  This is the context.

I joined  twitter over 10 years ago.  I have sent and responded to thousands of tweets without complaint. I suddenly received a permanent suspension for a tweet i made.  I couldn’t imagine what was so bad. I assumed a mistake or misunderstanding.  I appealed but I then received a denial resulting in a PERMANENT suspension.  I still can’t believe it. This is the tweet. 

It was around the anniversary of the 1/6 attack and the discussion was about the threat to our democracy from the lies about the election and the people who attacked the Capitol.  I was pretending I was the former President tweeting Mike Pence on 1/6/21 over a year before the tweet.  I guess I should have used quotes or said satire or something.  I was definitely not responding to anyone named Mike or intentionally threatened anyone. I don't see how anyone would take this as a current threat to anyone or that it was inciting violence one year in the past.  Trump actually asked a SoS to find him votes to overturn his loss.  Trump actually implied a threat to Pence on Twitter while there was a mob attacking the Capitol chanting "Hang Mike Pence".  And all of this was a year in the past before I wrote this tweet.  I was responding in a thread to a Bill Kristol tweet, not to anyone named Mike.  

I thought explaining the context of the tweet would lift my suspension.  I would have deleted the tweet if they asked.  But no, this single tweet has permanently banned me from twitter.  I have asked for any explanation, but all I get it the same exact response. There is no discussion, there is no one to call, there is no one to complain to.  

I googled twitter suspension to see other's experience.  Unfortunately, the people complaining were about a person who apparently repeatedly called Covid a hoax and another person who was harassing a trans person on-line about not being a woman.  People I would rather not join forces with.  However, it got me thinking about larger issues of this content moderation.  Up to this, I thought it was to the good.  Hate speech, lies about Covid can get people killed.  But I've seen some really nasty language and what I would call threats directed at people on twitter just because they disagree politically and nothing apparently happens.  Others push the limits of the rules repeatedly before they are banned.  There doesn't appear to be any real appeal from such a permanent suspension.  If there is, I haven't found it.  It's as though there is a scarlet letter on my account and no one will read what I'm saying.  It's like an assembly line that just keeps punching button number 3 labeled "Denied violent threat".  

Before I switched almost completely to twitter, I would use this blog to empty some of the thoughts that kept me from sleeping or woke me at night.  Guess I'll have to come home again.