Posted on by

Twitter’s Toxicity Stems from Alex Jones and Jack Dorsey

Reading Time: 4 minutes.
Twitter logo giving Nazi salute.

Twitter is rife with hate. It has become a home to nazis, alt-right, and other trash. That’s ok with Twitter.

There are three main reasons for using prison as a punishment for crimes. First, it separates a threat to public safety from the populace. Second, it gives the person a chance to become a productive member of society. Third, well, prison isn’t pleasant. That punishment serves as a deterrent to more crime. It shows other would-be criminals that they can be caught, and being caught is awful.

A ban on Twitter splits off a threat to Twitter’s users, either from harassment or hate speech. It also gives the abuser time to reflect, perhaps realize that harassing people, spreading hurtful conspiracy theories, and hate speech are not okay. I am not talking about our president, the person I had in mind was Alex Jones. He’s back on Twitter, after only one week, and you can bet he’s learned nothing. However Twitter users learned a lot, like the rules don’t matter and hate speech, hurtful conspiracy theories, fake news, and harassment is perfectly okay on Twitter.

And Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, is pleased.

Alex Jones’ Ban

Alex Jones, host of conspiracy theory network, InfoWars

It was the last straw. Alex Jones had been spreading right-wing conspiracy theories for years. He claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, giving his followers reason to harass the parents who lost children. They call those parents “crisis actors.” He has also denied the Las Vegas shooting that left hundreds dead. Jones even perpetuated Pizzagate, which lead to a shooting that, fortunately, had no victims. Pizzagate, if you don’t know, was a conspiracy theory about a specific pizzeria. The claim was that it was a front for a child sex ring, with connections to Hillary Clinton. I’d say you can’t make this stuff up, but, well, someone did.

After a shooter nearly got people killed, you’d think Alex Jones would have learned his lesson. Surely he wouldn’t spout any more conspiracy theories that could lead to violence, right? Wrong. He actually asked his followers to take up arms, grab their “battle rifles,” and go to war against the media and other groups. Again, I’d say you can’t make this stuff up, but, it’s 2018, and people follow Jones as though he’s a cult leader.

Twitter thought this very real threat of violence only warranted a 7 day ban. Alex Jones and Infowars are back on Twitter, free to spread hate and dangerous conspiracy theories once again.

Removing Hate Speech and Harassment

Social networks should look out for their users. Someone shouldn’t be able to use Twitter to harass someone. This drives contributing users off the site to be replaced by users who only want to make other people miserable. That’s not a social network, it’s a troll farm.

“Permitting abuse under the guise of ‘free speech’ actually dismantles free speech by allowing perpetrators to bully victims into silence until they retreat. From these apps. From their causes. From their beliefs.”

– Josh Constine, TechCrunch

Hate speech is vile in so many ways. It leads to actual hate crimes and contributes to far more systematic oppression and violence than we thought possible. “Free speech” supporters are quick to call “censorship” on these decisions. However, hate speech and harassment drive those contributing members off the platform, silencing them. By allowing hate speech, you silence the marginalized. You silence meaningful, impactful content. Instead, you support inflamatory hate speech, with the sole goal of dehumanization.  By allowing hate speech, a platform platform like Twitter crowns hate speech the winner. They define themselves by the company they keep.

Deterring Trolls

When you ban a troll like Alex Jones, you send a message to all other would-be harassers: you are not welcome here. They realize that, if they’re spreading hate speech, harassing people, or spreading dangerous conspiracy theories, Twitter will ban them. Instead, they spend time on other platforms, or create and engage in more constructive discussion. In that way, they can continue to be a part of the debate, without threatening, harassing, or dehumanizing the other side. But that doesn’t work when a ban is a short temporary reprieve.

Illustration: angry faces shouting free speech over victims

Silenced by free speech, via TechCrunch

Twitter usually sides with the troll. They’re quick to ban those who speak out against harassment and hate speech, but will tell victims of harassment that the offending tweets don’t violate Twitter’s rules of conduct. Often, those spreading hate speech end up in a retweet tug of war. If the victim of harassment is able to take a screenshot and get more retweets than the troll has followers, Twitter will revise their decision. This is a surprisingly common occurrence. Often, harassers only get banned after many complaints or someone popular enough retweeting the offensive material, calling Twitter out for ignoring harassment.

Twitter only cares about the opinions of advertisers. Are there enough users to make an ad profitable? Then anything is acceptable. Are they starting rallies, riots, and hurting people? Who cares? They’re looking at ads, aren’t they?

Twitter’s Decision

“From a simple business perspective and to serve the public, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform.”

– Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO

Twitter allowed Alex Jones and Infowars back on Twitter. They refused to take action when Donald Trump threatened violence. They ban trans people for speaking out against TERFs, and #MeToo women for criticizing the platform. Twitter knows exactly what they want. They want a high number of users to show off with their shareholders. If they’re all bots and trolls, who cares? As long as they can continue to profit off of the two, why bother changing?

https://twitter.com/sadydoyle/status/876130803591368709

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, has, according to a Wall Stree Journal report, personally stepped in to defend right-wing rule breakers, though Twitter’s lawyers deny this. Richard Spencer, known white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer, received Jack’s blessing, and had his account reinstated. Though Spencer broke Twitter’s rules, and Twitter staff banned him, Jack stepped in to save his account. He apparently did the same for Alex Jones, so he could continue to spread his filth. Why? Because, while vile, these people have many followers, and Jack believes you’ll keep using Twitter, even if they’re present. But, if he bans them, all the Nazis leave. Right now, he’s content making money off of them, helping them organize and spread their message, and hoping you don’t do anything about it. Twitter won’t change until all the decent people leave it, and by then, it’ll be too late.

Sources:

,