Twitter Plans ‘Hate Speech’ Crackdown After Backlash From Upset Employees

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is poised to enact some new posting standards that crack down on what internal censors perceive as “hate speech.”

The new policy comes as some employees at Twitter have expressed unhappiness with posts that make them feel uncomfortable.

More censorship is on the way, it seems.

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Conservatives, be on the ready. The censors never seem to perceive posts from leftists as hate-filled or inappropriate.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation:

Twitter is planning to accelerate changes to the company’s speech policies after a backlash from its own employees who want the company to ban right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, responding to a critical tweet from a Twitter engineer, said Wednesday he is “not happy” with Twitter’s current policies, which he said need to “evolve.”

Twitter vice president Del Harvey also sent a company-wide email Wednesday pledging to accelerate Twitter’s efforts to crack down on “dehumanizing hate speech,” in the wake of internal “conversations” about Jones.

Harvey noted that Twitter also plans to evaluate whether the company needs to better police “off-platform behavior.”

Dorsey explained Tuesday why Twitter has yet to follow Facebook, Google and Apple’s lead by banning Jones: “he hasn’t violated our rules.”

“If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction,” Dorsey tweeted. “That’s not us.”

Dorsey’s explanation angered some of his employees, who demanded the CEO do more to regulate speech on the platform.

“There is no honor in resisting ‘outside pressure’, just to pat ourselves on the back for being ‘impartial,’” Twitter engineer Marina Zhao replied, adding: “Twitter does not exist in a vacuum, and it is wrong to ignore the serious real-world harm, and to equate that with political viewpoints.”

Engineer Kenneth Kufluk also stated his disagreement with his boss that Jones hadn’t violated any rules.

“I don’t agree with everything Twitter does or doesn’t do. If we can consistently enforce the policies and terms of service for the platform, that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t mean we should be satisfied with the policies we have,” another Twitter engineer, Mike Cvet, wrote in response to his boss.

“It is impossible to promote healthy dialog with bad-faith actors, who regularly produce toxic, dangerous and demonstrably false conspiracy theories; the objective of which is to mislead, radicalize, divide,” Cvet said.

“Our policies need to change, so that constructive discourse is not only possible, but commonplace. And so that our rules and the behavior they condone are something to be proud of,” he added.

“Definitely not happy with where our policies are. They need to constantly evolve,” Dorsey replied. “Doing that work. Thanks for the thoughtful tweets and push, Mike.”

A Twitter spokeswoman told the The Daily Caller News Foundation that Twitter’s policies are constantly evolving and pointed to Dorsey’s tweets and a Tuesday blog post for further information.

Jones has a long track record of spreading conspiracy theories, including falsely claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut was a hoax. But Jones’ sudden banning across social media platforms has led to concerns that mainstream conservatives will soon follow.

Washington Free Beacon editor Sonny Bunch wrote Wednesday that “those who refuse to see this as the first step toward a more aggressive campaign of de-platforming conservatives are being obtuse.”

“The math here is simple: There is a growing belief that speech can be considered violence, that racist speech is by definition violence and that conservative thought is inherently racist. I don’t need a whiteboard or lizard people to connect the dots,” Bunch wrote in an op-ed.

Twitter is already under scrutiny for censoring and suppressing conservatives on its platform.

The social media company suspended conservative activist Candace Owens Sunday, after she quoted a New York Times writer’s anti-white tweets but replaced the word “white” with “black” and “Jewish.” Following a backlash, Twitter reversed Owens’ suspension, which it claimed was done in error.

Twitter in July suppressed four Republican congressmen on the site due to an algorithm change meant to punish “bad-faith actors.” All four are members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Twitter later said the suppression wasn’t intentional and that the congressmen’s accounts were penalized for having the wrong followers.

That same month, Twitter suspended conservative commentator Kathleen McKinley for two tweets: one that opposed clearing self-identified transgender persons for military duty and one that tied “extreme Muslim beliefs” — rather than mainstream Muslim beliefs — to the practice of honor killings.

Twitter did not apologize to McKinley or say her suspension was in error.

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Suresh
Suresh
5 years ago

Free speech only for Left/lib/pro-jihadis and jihadis.

After facebook, twitter , even Google, youtube joins lslamofascist gang to support illegals and jihadis
suppress conservative free speech http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs

saudi/qatar/OIC own part of twitter, Fox Network, fund CNN, MSNBC , buy out politicians , bureaucrats in education dept to push islam in schools/ colleges.

Easiest way to brainwash and takeover country and shutdown free speech !

Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner
5 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Don’t forget Soros contributions. Corruption at work on all fronts.

motohooter
motohooter
5 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

We have to make all that crap illegal while still maintaining our freedoms

762x51FMJ
762x51FMJ
5 years ago

Twitter allows Marxist Leftists to say and do anything ranging from, organizing masked AntiFa mobs to attack free speech, burn flags and vandalize businesses… to organizing islamic mobs to burn down sections of entire European cities on murderous rampages.

But the words ” Thou shall not kill” is considered Christian hate speech and is a lifetime ban…

Dave
Dave
5 years ago

Hey Jack: In 2015 you became CEO of a headache. In ’16 it became a migraine. Keep screwing around with people’s freedom of speech and see where that gets you.
social media is popular, so was hitler. that doesn’t mean you aint going’ down!
we like you (and FB), that does not mean we need you. FLY RIGHT MR TWIT or you will go to washington.

santashandler
santashandler
5 years ago
Reply to  Dave

I hope he reads that.

santashandler
santashandler
5 years ago

“The new policy comes as some employees at Twitter have expressed unhappiness with posts that make them feel uncomfortable.” Gee, I hope Mr. Dorsey acts quickly to institute immediate reforms over there. He can start by issuing all employees security blankets and baba’s . Perhaps he can also extend employee lunch time by a couple of hours. You know, to make time for the guidance counselors to let employees ‘express their feelings.’ As an added relief, Mr. Dorsey can provide each employee with an effigy of his or her most hated conservative. So, in times when they are feeling especially ‘uncomfortable’ that employee can punch, kick and scream, even create a fake online profile of that person they can so sanctimoniously shut down later (during business hours, of course). And for those of us who dont work for Twitter,(for identification purposes) a sign can be erected on the roof and a fence around the building reading: “Twitter State Rehabilitation Hospital.” No need for taxpayer money. Theyd be self-funded.

Sarsour Cyanidal
Sarsour Cyanidal
5 years ago

Use it against them. Report every muslime post as hate speech.

motohooter
motohooter
5 years ago

Every one of the CEOs of the social medea needs to be grilled before some authority and be required to answer; when did you sell out to the Muslim Brotherhood, why did you sell out to the MB, how much did you get for the betrayal of your country? Maybe Suresh answered. This will not end well without a fight and I do not mean a loud argument

motohooter
motohooter
5 years ago

Every one of the CEOs of the social medea needs to be grilled before some authority and be required to answer; when did you sell out to the Muslim Brotherhood, why did you sell out to the MB, how much did you get for the betrayal of your country? Maybe Suresh answered. This will not end well without a fight and I do not mean a loud argument

motohooter
motohooter
5 years ago

Every one of the CEOs of the social medea needs to be grilled before some authority and be required to answer; when did you sell out to the Muslim Brotherhood, why did you sell out to the MB, how much did you get for the betrayal of your country? Maybe Suresh answered. This will not end well without a fight and I do not mean a loud argument

chris VN
chris VN
5 years ago

Sounds like another swamp that needs draining??

az
az
5 years ago

Hive of muslim slaves, sniffing each other butts, showing with their arrogance, how nice they think they are.
At the end of the day, they’re just a bunch of ignorant self righteous leftard pricks.

762x51FMJ
762x51FMJ
5 years ago

A capitalistic entrepreneur
Has placed vinyl trump stars
Over leftist celebritity stars.

Making a killing renting pick axes to tourists….
.

Lydia Church
Lydia Church
5 years ago

The censorship agenda is moving ahead in different forums. The tyranny against freedom of speech and the press is gaining momentum. Be prepared for the shut down and black out of real news and conservative voices.

Zamio
Zamio
5 years ago

The scariest part of Jack’s b.s. is when he says the policies are “evolving,” e.g., if he can get away with the current level of censorship w/o too much media outcry, he’ll go on the the next phase. I mean, Welcome to North Korea!

I’ve been shadowbanned for MONTHS for no conceivable reason. I defy Jack & Co. to find one tweet of mine that violated their TOS. I am not a racist, I believe in “live and let live” as far as gays, transgenders, etc., I don’t give a damn what ethnicity someone is (as long as they are here legally). I support the President and am in favor of low taxes, strong military, fewer regulations, control of borders, etc. So I guess that makes me persona non grata on Twitter.

Jack is lying through his teeth when he says he doesn’t shadowban people based on their political views. He absolutely does. There is a shadowban testing site, and when I tested the first 30 of my (mostly Trump-supporting) followers against this site, I found that 28/30 of them were QFD banned or WORSE! I have yet to find a single liberal who is QFD banned. This is being discussed all over Twitter, but the media isn’t reporting how widespread this is. Either that, or they are just too lazy to do some basic journalistic investigation. Don’t make it easy for them, because with no pushback, it will only get worse.

1concerned_canadian
1concerned_canadian
5 years ago

MILLENNIAL SNOWFLAKES ARE HATEFUL DICTATORIAL TYRANTS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE THOSE THEY DISAGREE WITH HAVE ANY RIGHTS, FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES.

MILLENNIAL SNOWFLAKES CANNOT HANDLE THE UNPLEASANT TRUTHS OF THIS WORLD.

SO THEY DO ALL THEY CAN TO SUPPRESS UNPLEASANT TRUTHS THEY DISAGREE WITH AND THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH OF THOSE WHO DARE SPEAK THE TRUTH.

THEY ARE A HATEFUL MISERABLE BUNCH OF HATERS.

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