[Air-L] Twitter Journalist Suspensions

[Dr. Emma Briant]

I agree about organizing off the Internet too… I don’t actually think that
this infrastructure has as much potential for resistance as some want to
hope. This has been part of the problem, trying to raise a voice in an
online environment where you are always at a disadvantage. ‘The resistance’
are poorly organised right now and as ever too dependent on powerful
funders.

On Fri, 16 Dec 2022 at 05:59, Shulman, Stu <stu at texifter.com> wrote:

> Fight back, resist, and ask yourself this: What Would Howard Zinn do?
> Emma, the answer may be to read "A Peoples' History of the United States"
> then do what people have always done: protest, strategize, speak up, check
> your fears at the door, and put everything into bending the arc of history
> toward justice and away from white supremacists and other historical bigots
> of all varieties. No professor had a bigger impact on me, which is why I
> cannot remain silent in the face of simmering retrenchment of the minority
> rule thesis. Everything about this moment calls for collective action on
> and off the Internet.
>
> On Fri, Dec 16, 2022 at 5:48 AM Dr. Emma Briant <teflpolsoc at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I agree with you completely… but what do we doooo?
>>
>> On Fri, 16 Dec 2022 at 05:25, Shulman, Stu <stu at texifter.com> wrote:
>>
>>> For those of us building tools to study the impact of Twitter on
>>> politics, it was always a rocky ride watching bad actors skirt the best
>>> efforts to regulate them. Now that a single bad actor is the sole regulator
>>> of the Twitter architecture, we are in a scary place with the former head
>>> of Trust & Safety literally in hiding because of Elon's creepy QAnon style
>>> doxxing attack. An argument I put in a short animated video in 2016 about
>>> Lawrence Lessig and his brilliant book from 1999 remains relevant to the
>>> debate, but we may need to add a fifth regulator: the reckless American
>>> oligarch monarchist. Elon Musk now controls the Twitter architecture in
>>> ways that evolve dangerously daily and thumbs his nose at markets, norms,
>>> and what Lessig called east coast code; the law. The fifth regulator is
>>> power. Raw, almost unlimited, power to take over where Trump left off,
>>> making Twitter a weapon. For what end, only one man knows.
>>>
>>> https://vimeo.com/129423037
>>>
>>> On Thu, Dec 15, 2022 at 10:56 PM Dr. Emma Briant via Air-L <
>>> air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>>
>>>> I’m sure all will agree that the mass censorship of, I think now 11
>>>> journalists from major news organisations today by Elon Musk is
>>>> incredibly
>>>> disturbing. I am wondering how one deletes all one’s tweets? Anyone
>>>> know?
>>>> I’m considering doing this but leaving my account as a placeholder, so
>>>> I am
>>>> not leaving that data there, and removing myself at this point from the
>>>> platform. I was hoping not to do this, given that I network in Twitter
>>>> for
>>>> my research on propaganda and develop contacts. But this obviously
>>>> crosses
>>>> such a line. People need to push back somehow not just move to mastodon
>>>> ,
>>>> but I’m honestly not sure how. I’m trying to process the implications
>>>> and
>>>> wondered other’s thoughts on this latest development.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Emma
>>>> --
>>>> Dr Emma L Briant
>>>>
>>>> Owner: Maven of Persuasion LLC
>>>> Fellow at Central European University's Center for Media, Data and
>>>> Society
>>>> Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting &
>>>> Accountability
>>>> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant
>>>> Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk
>>>>
>>>> Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global
>>>> Change *from
>>>> Manchester University Press
>>>> Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr.
>>>> Pauline
>>>> Donald from Pluto Press.
>>>> Sign up for my Newsletter
>>>> <http://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/>!
>>>> Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant
>>>>
>>>> "I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it
>>>> turns
>>>> out today is." - Steve Martin
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Stuart W. Shulman
>>> Founder and CEO, Texifter
>>> Editor Emeritus, *Journal of Information Technology & Politics*
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>> Dr Emma L Briant
>>
>> Owner: Maven of Persuasion LLC
>> Fellow at Central European University's Center for Media, Data and Society
>> Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting &
>> Accountability
>> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant
>> Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk
>>
>> Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global
>> Change *from Manchester University Press
>> Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr.
>> Pauline Donald from Pluto Press.
>> Sign up for my Newsletter
>> <http://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/>!
>> Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant
>>
>> "I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it
>> turns out today is." - Steve Martin
>>
>
>>
>
> --
> Dr. Stuart W. Shulman
> Founder and CEO, Texifter
> Editor Emeritus, *Journal of Information Technology & Politics*
>
>
> --
Dr Emma L Briant

Owner: Maven of Persuasion LLC
Fellow at Central European University's Center for Media, Data and Society
Associate at University of Cambridge, Center for Financial Reporting &
Accountability
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/emmalbriant
Website: www.emma-briant.co.uk

Author of: *Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global
Change *from
Manchester University Press
Co-Author of: *Bad News for Refugees* with Prof. Greg Philo and Dr. Pauline
Donald from Pluto Press.
Sign up for my Newsletter
<http://emma-briant.co.uk/sign-up-for-important-updates/>!
Follow me on Twitter @emmalbriant

"I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns
out today is." - Steve Martin