[Air-L] Twitter Journalist Suspensions

[Shulman, Stu]

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.
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>
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> out today is." - Steve Martin
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-- 
Dr. Stuart W. Shulman
Founder and CEO, Texifter
Editor Emeritus, *Journal of Information Technology & Politics*