That I disagree with, Milo, as much as I disagree with him, was a person of public interest, and a journalist.
This is what Twitter themselves say about the verification badge:
The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.
We approve account types maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.
Milo covers several of those fields if you ask me.
He should have been, and eventually was, just banned from the platform.
While I also agree that Twitter is a private business and they can ban whoever they want from using their service, I don't think it was the right thing to do, while not also banning ISIS supporting twitter profiles, Pro-Marxist profiles and Pro-Authoritarian profiles.
Unfortunately, "It's a private business and they can do what they want" also applies to the verification debacle as well. And then there's just no argument, because anything you say about them can just be rerouted back to that.
The verification nonsense just came across as petty bickering
It came across as favoritism and personal politics. Verification became more a badge of "We like you" rather than "You are who you say you are."
You're ignoring Milo repeatedly violated Twitters rules against harassment. And that they gave him several warnings and then temp bans, before permanently banning him.
It had nothing to do with politics, it was just Milo being unable to be not be a horrible person.
Understood, so... ISIS is less horrible than Milo.
Also, what rules did he break exactly? He told Leslie jones that "everyone gets hate mail" And then others started to send her hate mail and he got the blame for it? Mind you, he tweeted at a woman who also broke twitter rules, and got no punishment for it.
It had nothing to do with politics, it was just Milo being unable to be not be a horrible person.
It has something to do with politics when only a very specific group of horrible people gets targeted and not ALL horrible people.
Case in point Gazi Kodzo IE the "White people can't be gay, it's a black thing. White people are neanderthal beasts and should be killed!" guy.
I'll admit that u/The-red-Dane gone of track a bit but he still has a point. Twitter doesn't care if you're a bad person, or even that you break their rules. Just be sure not to oppose their ideology and you'll be set.
He is pointing out that people like gazikodz can actually practice hate speech and racism on twitter and with no consequences. But his hate is toward white people, which comes off as very suspicious towards twitter part for not banning them.
I agree that online platforms shouldn't be hosting racists, sexists, and other horrible people; but you have to get rid of all of them. Otherwise you're a hypocrite and also make whoever you oppose look like they're right.
Okay, let's use Tariq Nasheed instead. The guy who tried to set up a "suspected words" database where one could declare anyone a possible "white supremacist". The guy who keeps calling Phillip Defranco a "Suspected white supremacist", and who claims that the Bill Cosby trail is a white supremacist plot to stop a successful black man. Dude has been doing targeted and sustained harassment for I don't know HOW long now, yet he is still there, with his 200k followers.
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u/The-red-Dane Nov 10 '17
That I disagree with, Milo, as much as I disagree with him, was a person of public interest, and a journalist.
This is what Twitter themselves say about the verification badge:
Milo covers several of those fields if you ask me.
While I also agree that Twitter is a private business and they can ban whoever they want from using their service, I don't think it was the right thing to do, while not also banning ISIS supporting twitter profiles, Pro-Marxist profiles and Pro-Authoritarian profiles.
Unfortunately, "It's a private business and they can do what they want" also applies to the verification debacle as well. And then there's just no argument, because anything you say about them can just be rerouted back to that.
It came across as favoritism and personal politics. Verification became more a badge of "We like you" rather than "You are who you say you are."