History repeats itself. In September 1939, Hitler launched World War II by blocking Poland on Twitter. In December 1941, the United States entered into the war after Japan subtweeted the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.
This past Friday, according to Breitbart, Twitter “declar[ed] war on conservative media” by taking away the little blue checkmark that used to run next to Breitbart “journalist” Milo Yiannopoulos’ name on Twitter, verifying that he is indeed the real Milo Yiannopoulos.
No, really. Here’s the headline of the piece that ran in Breitbart’s tech section on the terrible injustice done to young Mr. Yiannopoulos, who coincidentally just happens to run Breitbart’s tech section.
Now, Milo hasn’t actually been banned from Twitter. Twitter simply informed him that “due to [his] recent violations of the Twitter Rules” — he’s a bit of a bully — they were taking away his little blue checkmark. So now he has to navigate Twitter without a little blue checkmark, like the overwhelming majority of Twitter users.
Naturally, Milo’s army of fans has responded to this terrible tragedy with wisdom and restraint.
JUST KIDDING! They’re crying bloody murder on Twitter and harassing anyone they can blame for Milo’s de-checkmarking.
Referencing a slogan formerly used to honor journalists and others literally murdered by terrorists, Milo’s Twitter fans launched the hashtag #JeSuisMilo. It was ugly
Here are some scenes from the ongoing debacle that is that hashtag.
https://twitter.com/TheAmazingPleb/status/685651751685341184
https://twitter.com/rstafford9/status/685635514481786880
https://twitter.com/AlHolmes66/status/685863515916115969
https://twitter.com/GBedecker/status/686036916744097796
#JeSuisMilo
SJWs suck TwatLord anus at Twitter.— Rapier Half-Witt (@br549q) January 9, 2016
Naturally, there were rape jokes.
#jesuismilo Haters are going to hate, Salt is going to flow, Spread your butt cheeks darling and prepare for Milo
— Tengu Manz (@Tengumanz) January 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/MikeRotondo86/status/685666046443823104
In a variation on the old “I’m Spartacus” ploy, many of Milo’s fans pretended to be him. (The real Milo posts as @Nero)
https://twitter.com/MiloYiannopoul2/status/685699475290091520
#JeSuisMilo suck it, bitches.
— Ryuuko Matoi 🇷🇺 (@dustinherrick1) January 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/Nuclearcherries/status/685698288864079873
https://twitter.com/dunnolol4/status/685735953072193536
It didn’t take long for the Milovians to find women to blame for Milo’s plight. Many — including some of the fake Milos — went after Huffington Post writer Jessie Thompson, who wrote a piece defending Twitter’s actions. Many of her, er, critics seem to be big fans of the c-word.
https://twitter.com/QuintusMetellus/status/685867151060766722
https://twitter.com/PillboxHill/status/685927247581085696
https://twitter.com/JRocca26/status/685916008561963008
https://twitter.com/Jew_Banker/status/685901724180037636
https://twitter.com/goodboygreg/status/685845870336708608
https://twitter.com/herpefeminist/status/685849987230597121
But she wasn’t the only woman to draw the fire of the Milovians. Some used the hashtag as an excuse to attack familiar #GamerGate targets.
#JeSuisMilo Randi Harper is a fat wanna be whore who can get a man. She is repulsive and ugly.
— Evandros Vanderbilt Kensington (@evandrus33) January 9, 2016
@m55244084 Whores get paid though… Zoe does it for free .. sex I mean, She plays victim for Money though #JeSuisMilo
— The King of Worms Mannimarco (@AKingOfWorms) January 9, 2016
Others — again, including some fake Milos — used the hashtag to promote their own agendas — some silly, some horrific, some a mixture of the two.
#rape #meninism #feminismiscancer #jesuismilo #financialrape #misandry pic.twitter.com/h3gKvnRTgn
— a boy has no soul (@saumyajit_) January 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/fiendeJ/status/685643144076083201
https://twitter.com/Qildaen/status/685938406929481728
https://twitter.com/gazetchic/status/686237395893776386
#JeSuisMilo Asia for the Asians, Africa for the Africans, White nations for EVERYONE! It's #WhiteGenocide.
— ProWhitesUnite (@prowhitesunite) January 9, 2016
#MisceGenocide is genocidal, so promoting it is racist & offensive. #WhiteGenocide #Trump2016 #JeSuisMilo #tcot https://t.co/Ct2vusC8oK
— Ben L. ن⚡️🐸👌🏻 🙏🏻 RIP Ashli Babbitt 🙏🏻 (@BNLieb) January 9, 2016
@AntiMarxistMilo #JeSuisMilo #CulturalMarxism pic.twitter.com/A8l8Iisyv8
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@AntiMarxistMilo) January 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/_simpa_/status/685993767007088640
One fellow thought he knew the real reason feminists hate Milo.
#JeSuisMilo @Nero You know what? Every feminist should admit one thing: They are crazy about you. And you are unattainable. That hurts them.
— Jeff Goldblum FAN (@Super_Slav_KEK) January 9, 2016
A few even managed to work their “cuck” obsession into their Tweets.
First the Gamers rose up with #Gamergate
Now everyone that isn't an Beta cuck or Brainwashed Feminist is rising up with #JeSuisMilo— EVEILCHARM (@EveilCharm) January 9, 2016
In the news: Twitter went full cuck, Adolf Merkel gets more laws for something her immigrants did, and Milo reings supreme. #JeSuisMilo
— Jeff Goldblum FAN (@Super_Slav_KEK) January 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/Ideo_Vames/status/685659660104368129
You can tell something about writers by the fans they attract. Milo’ fans prove with every terrible tweet of their what a wretched bunch of bullies and bigots they are — and why Twitter needs to do more to crack down on the abuse that its platform enables.
Congratulations, Milo defenders, for own-goaling yourself so magnificently.
@ Ben
As any pub landlord will tell you “my gaff, my rules”
As a private enterprise Twitter can set out whatever sanctions they wish. It’s then up to the person deciding whether to use the service if this is something they’re content with. If not they’re under no obligation to sign up. It’s basic contract 101.
That’s not a false equivalence at all.
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/26000000/ziggy-stardust-ziggy-stardust-26038269-500-313.gif
Ben… The check is not an entitlement. Not everybody has one. The verification is also an endorsement from twitter about, not only identity, but your contribution to the twitter community. There are criteria for being “verified” beyond just being “real”. Also from twitter: ” We don’t accept verification requests from the general public, but we encourage you to continue using Twitter in a meaningful way, and you may be verified in the future. ” “We are constantly updating our requirements for verification.”.
Notice the language there? It’s not just about being the right person, but content. And Milo’s content violates the TOS. The problem is that the blue check is not what you think it is, nor what you want it to be. We are talking about reality, you are talking about your fantasies.
Seriously, Ben. You’re tedious.
If people want to bring their toys and play in the giant Twitter sandbox, they’re welcome to do so as long as they follow Twitter’s rules (the TOS). If they start throwing sand or smacking the other users with their toys, or they otherwise can’t play nice, then Twitter reserves the right to take away privileges in accordance with the rules that are broken. In Milo’s case, he couldn’t keep from making a royal ass of himself on Twitter, he broke the rules, and he has to suffer the consequences for it. Why is this so hard for you to parse?
He. Broke. The. Rules.
Breaking rules has consequences; this is something we’re all taught from a relatively young age. What you’re basically saying is you think he should have a pass on punishment because…why? He writes for some two-bit, hate filled website? So many people get upset because ‘notable’ figures get away with a slap on the wrist for behaving like total assholes. Why do you think Milo deserves a pass?
@Ben Cohen
Ben, I adore your Chubby Hubby ice cream. But since you and Jerry sold the biz, it seems as though you’ve lost your way.
Alan Robertshaw (an attorney — I’ll leave it to you to work out this commenter’s gender) has pointed out,
Alan and other commenters have summed it up: No one is being lynched, not even metaphorically.
Also, Clarence Thomas, the guy who pioneered this fake “I’m being lynched” argument, is not your friend.
Ben, you need to get better friends and a different hobby. And it’s not a coincidence that you also need to learn that not everybody who stands up for women is a woman.
Why, yes, I know what a strawman is.
I already know where this is going…
They did not call you a troll simply because they disagreed with you, they called you such because you are exhibiting that kind of behavior. They have explained this is great detail – of which you are either willfully ignoring or lack the reading comprehension to understand.
You are not the first person, nor will you be the last, to have come here and demanded some form of validation as if this is some kind of public forum. Guess what? Just like Twitter, it isn’t – there’s a code of etiquette we have here. So far, you haven’t been following them and thus you are getting this reaction from others.
People disagree with each other on here often, even between those who generally agree about everything, but we make it clear there are certain lines that are not to be crossed and crossing it is not suffered gladly.
Yes, I know what words mean. The problem is you define and redefine them at will to be convenient for you.
Calling you a troll, due to exhibiting such behavior, is not inherently anti-intellectual or bigoted. Except you won’t accept that…as long as it is inconvenient for you.
It’s absolutely amazing to me how things that are taken for granted at least 99.9% of the time suddenly become important, the moment they’re taken away or their existence is disputed – especially on the internet.
There isn’t a single person I know, online or off, who takes a great deal in verification status. Most of them can discern between a real account and a fake account, as described by other people in this thread and that you continually try to deflect in vain. I’ve always assumed it was just a premium but optional feature for certain accounts, as not every channel I subscribe to on YouTube has verification status. It isn’t something that has caused any issue with those channels or my viewing of them.
It’s also weird that, only now, does this verification status become important and due to Milo Yiannopoulos. I have a hard time believing that, were this to happen to anyone else, it wouldn’t just be business as usual.
You know what? I have no idea what Charlie Sheen’s twitter handle is either. Let me see.
http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s598/Paradoxys3DS/results_zpswmtjzhge.png
What do you know? Googling “Charlie Sheen Twitter” gave me the real account on the first fucking result.
It would take two fucking seconds to Google what Milo’s twitter is. We live in a world with Google. If anyone wants to know Milo’s fucking Twitter handle, they just have to Google it. It’s not hard.
It’s not just a very, very shorthanded way of “identity protection”, as so many people have pointed out. It’s also a bit of a Twitter endorsement. It grants you privileges on Twitter, so long as you play by the ToS.
Milo couldn’t do it, he got his special privileges taken away, and now he (and you apparently) are throwing a fucking tantrum over it.
If you can’t play by the rules, you can’t play with Twitter’s toys. They outline this and make it perfectly fucking clear in their ToS. Period. Dot. The fucking End.
Oh yeah, and you’re perfectly fucking rational Mr. I’m Just Going to Sit here and Repeat Myself Until You all Agree With Me.
This isn’t a “moral judgment”, This is Milo losing some Twitter privileges because he was being a jackass with them. It’s the equivalent of taking a child’s crayons away because they were using them to draw on your walls.
We think this is stupid. Milo lost a checkmark. Big whoop. He can still post on Twitter. This does nothing to him, but he’s acting like it’s the downfall of civilization. Just like a child would.
And as I pointed out: Google.
It’s not fucking hard. Ignorance is no excuse on the internet.
Except no one is saying that Milo’s identity shouldn’t be protected? We’re just saying that the little blue checkmark he’s losing his shit over isn’t a fucking protection, it’s a privilege. We can all still tell who Milo is on Twitter, even though he’s got all these people “impersonating” him now.
And again, all those people are fucking ON HIS SIDE, you daft radish. The thing you’re so fucking worried about isn’t happening.
@Paradoxical Intention
Careful. On some planets, calling someone a daft radish might equal lynching.
Tessa,
You and I could spot a badly constructed fake Charlie Sheen account with seven followers; I’m not sure I could spot a well done fake account with several hundred followers. Twitter instituted the blue tick for a reason, and it wasn’t to honor Milo or anyone else for being great people. They instituted the blue tick to protect the identity of notable people.
I also don’t get secret service protection. Celebrities are the target of all sorts of crap to a much greater degree than normal people, that is why twitter has this policy.
AlanRobertShaw, Cerulean,
The problem is, his name is in the Sandbox whether he wants it to be or not. I respect twitters right to set whatever TOS they choose, but they are also responsible for the content that gets posted on their website. If someone started posting child-porn on twitter, and twitter didn’t do anything, they would be in big, big, trouble.
Similar to child porn, libel is not protected speech.
Twitter initiated the blue tick policy to keep celebrity stalkers, trolls, and other weirdos from impersonating celebrities (or at least tamp down on it). They can’t do this for everyone, but they can do it for people who are likely to be targeted.
I don’t think Milo deserves a pass, but I also don’t believe that this is the right way to punish him. If he violated the terms of service he should be suspended from posting.
Ugh, he’s still here.
http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m239jq2Anw1qdovj9o6_500.gif
Hi guys! What the fuck’s been going on here while I’ve been asleep? :p
@Ben
“dhag” are my initials. By calling me “hag”, you’re literally saying “old timey male first name, very common Swedish last name, very common Spanish family name”. It doesn’t make me sad at all, sorry. :/
@Jackie & WWTH
Aww, that’s so sweet of you to remember. 🙂
There are no updates to this, but honestly any pronouns would be fine. I’ve never corrected online trolls who assume I’m a woman.
Child porn? What false equivalency is Ben going to draw next? Rape? Genocide?
http://45.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqd6sjeDR81qhgo6to1_500.gif
@Ben
I gather from your comments that you believe Milo should be suspended from Twitter. Instead of whining about his punishment here, why don’t you go whine at Twitter until they suspend him? That seems like the “intellectual” thing to do.
Also, do you realize that if Milo were to get suspended, his fans could (and would) still use his name? Your logic is broken again.
@Ben Cohen
You haven’t responded to my comment.
Plus I have a question:
You’re very eloquent — at great length — about the injustice that Twitter has done to Milo. What do you expect us to do about the fact that Twitter took away Milo’s blue checkmark?
Post more Bowie gifs, I hope. If he’s expecting anything else he’ll be disappointed.
http://i.imgur.com/p1iNhhn.gif
It’s no problem, dear. I won’t correct anyone who does that from now on then. If you ever change your pronouns or gender, just tell us, okay?
I’ve asked several times what he wants from us and have not been given a straight answer.
I know what I want. Other than being able to get to sleep, that is.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/706760/david-bowie-o.gif
I don’t have a twitter account, so I’ve learned a great deal about twitter today.
Too bad Ben hasn’t! Ben, how about you take your teal deer and go home, now?
Also, loving the Bowie gifs!
I adore it when this happens. They usually Gertrude about it too, which makes it funnier.
http://media.giphy.com/media/9Luay70JhI79C/giphy.gif
Nick,
I need to go to bed, so I will make this brief. Go back to page 2, in response to a perfectly reasonably and civil post “dhag” told me to leave, and another user called me a troll. If dhag and others aren’t going to be civil, I won’t be civil in return.
I will agree that this discussion has gone on way longer than I ever intended. I think you guys care more about taking the Blue tick away than I care about defending it.
Paradoxical Intention,
And this proves google is flawless? Then I guess nobody needs a blue-tick.
And what privileges does a verified account confer? If a verified account really were an endorsement from twitter than I would agree with you, but my understanding is that verified accounts are intended to protect the identities of notable people, in which case Milo does have a case.
Daft radish? When you say things like that it hurts my feelings…
If the blue check mark is simply a privilege than I would have no problem with twitter giving or taking them away for any reason whatsoever. But if the blue check mark is there to protect the identities of notable people, then I don’t think twitter should take that away for violating the T.O.S.
Good night, it’s bedtime.
-Ben
I wonder if our CONCERNED
sealionfriend was even half as CONCERNED when JB ‘shopped a bunch of tweets from Anita and Valenti in order to generate even more death threats against – ahahaha I can’t even finish that sentence.Isn’t that an exact (or almost-exact) quote from Esmay?
You’re right, because we live in an age full of social media, meaning you can find the offical Facebook or Tumblr or MySpace (idk) of any person and find all these other links to their other social media accounts, like Instagram, YouTube or Twitter.
It’s amazing how people are able to tell other people about what media they use through other means. No needing of a blue checkmark or anything.
No one is obligated to be civil with you either, especially when the sentiments you express are considered worthy of mockery. Your easily hurt feelings are not the end all and be all of a discussion – get over yourself.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
The only reason anyone here is still arguing is because you keep coming back and expecting everyone to just give into your arguments.
I said you were disingenuous before and, by God, this proves it – if you didn’t care about defending it, then why have you put so much effort into arguing why it is so important? You’re trying to backpedal and turn the tables with this gas-lighting bullshit, and it’s so transparent.
So, yeah, I’ll hop aboard the Bowie GIF band-wagon now…
http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/DB-Transformation-Colour.gif