[Air-L] Twitter Journalist Suspensions

[Vivian Gerrand]

This is chilling, Rob.

Also interesting that he would bother. An indication of how much Musk feels threatened by the migration of Twitter users to Mastodon? Or (more likely) simply staking his claim as a warrior in a culture war?

Thanks for sharing.

Vivian

-----Original Message-----
From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> On Behalf Of Robert W Gehl via Air-L
Sent: Saturday, 17 December 2022 12:30 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Twitter Journalist Suspensions

In addition to the 11 journalists being booted from Twitter, a related
development: Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon and other fediverse sites. This morning, I attempted to post a link to my Mastodon profile (https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.social%2F%40robertwgehl&data=05%7C01%7Cvivian.gerrand%40deakin.edu.au%7C4575f88485b24b37ddfc08dadf6c8950%7Cd02378ec168846d585401c28b5f470f6%7C0%7C0%7C638067954504695876%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AR4inHa82YQoATcMJOcOwX%2FyBJ%2FOSbRCFTqr07HFedo%3D&reserved=0). It was blocked due to it being "harmful content."

In addition, Twitter has suspended @joinmastodon, the main Mastodon developers' account.

Perhaps this is an old fashioned capitalist attempt to crush the competition?

Or maybe not. As a test, I tried posting a link to the far-right site Gab.com, a social media site which harbors self-identified Nazis and was the social media of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. Gab styles itself as a free speech absolutist alternative to Twitter.

The Gab.com link was allowed.

- Rob

On 2022-12-15 22:47, Dr. Emma Briant via Air-L 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
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