So Twitter has finally given Milo Yiannopoulos the boot — apparently for good — after the Breitbart “journalist” gleefully participated in, and egged on, a vicious campaign of racist abuse directed at Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones on Twitter earlier this week.
This wasn’t the first time that Milo, formerly known as @Nero, used his Twitter platform — at the time of his suspension he had 338,000 followers — to attack and abuse a popular scapegoat (or someone who merely mocked him online). It wasn’t even the worst example of his bullying.
What made the difference this time? Leslie Jones, who has a bit of a Twitter following herself, refused to stay silent in the face of the abuse she was getting, a move that no doubt increased the amount of harassment sent her way, but one that also caught the attention of the media. And so Milo finally got the ban he has so long deserved.
But what about all those others who participated in the abuse? And the rest of those who’ve turned the Twitter platform into one of the Internet’s most effective enablers of bullying and abuse?
In a statement, Twitter said it was reacting to “an uptick in the number of accounts violating [Twitter’s] policies” on abuse. But as the folks who run Twitter know all too well, the campaign against Jones, as utterly vicious as it was, wasn’t some kind of weird aberration.
It’s the sort of thing that happens every single day on Twitter to countless non-famous people — with women, and people of color, and LGBT folks, and Jews, and Muslims (basically anyone who is not a cis, white, straight, non-Jewish, non-Muslim man) being favorite targets.
Twitter also says that it will try to do better when it comes to abuse. “We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior on Twitter,” the company said in its statement.
We agree. We are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to better allow us to identify and take faster action on abuse as it’s happening and prevent repeat offenders. We have been in the process of reviewing our hateful conduct policy to prohibit additional types of abusive behavior and allow more types of reporting, with the goal of reducing the burden on the person being targeted. We’ll provide more details on those changes in the coming weeks.
This is good news. At least if it’s something more than hot air. Twitter desperately needs better policies to deal with abuse. But better policies won’t mean much if they’re not enforced. Twitter already has rules that, if enforced, would go a long way towards dealing with the abuse on the platform. But they’re simply not enforced.
Right now I don’t even bother reporting Tweets like this, because Twitter typically does nothing about them.
https://twitter.com/Bobcat665/status/735282887965085697
And even when someone does get booted off Twitter for abuse, they often return under a new name — and though this is in direct violation of Twitter’s rules, the ban evaders are so seldom punished for this violation that most don’t even bother to pretend to be anyone other than they are.
Longtime readers here will remember the saga of @JudgyBitch1 and her adventures in ban evasion.
Meanwhile, babyfaced white supremacist Matt Forney’s original account (@realMattForney) was banned some time ago; he returned as @basedMattForney. When this ban evading account was also banned, he got around this ban by starting up yet another ban evading account, under the name @oneMattForney, and did his best to round up as many of his old followers as possible.
https://twitter.com/onemattforney/status/753087810006085634
A few days later, Twitter unbanned his @basedMattForney account.
And here’s yet another banned Twitterer boasting about their success in ban evasion from a new account:
https://twitter.com/_AltRight_Anew/status/755643864036339716
And then there are all the accounts set up for no other reason than to abuse people. Like this person, who set up a new account just so they could post a single rude Tweet to me:
In case you’re wondering, the one person this Twitter account follows is, yes Donald Trump.
And then there’s this guy, also with an egg avatar, and a whopping three followers, who has spewed forth hundreds of nasty tweets directed mostly at feminists.
Here are several he sent to me, which I’ve lightly censored:
And some he’s sent to others.
So, yeah. Twitter is rotten with accounts like these, set up to do little more than harass. And if they ever get banned, it only takes a few minutes to set up another one.
Milo used his vast number of Twitter followers as a personal army. But you don’t need a lot of followers to do a lot of damage on Twitter. All you really need is an email address and a willingness to do harm.
It’s good that Twitter took down one of the platforms most vicious ringleaders of abuse. But unless Twitter can deal with the small-time goons, with their anime avatars and egg accounts, as well, it will remain one of the Internet’s most effective tools for harassment and abuse.
The one fancy herb for salad I like is dandelion.
@Scildfreja they’re also commonly found in “mixed greens” bags in the states 🙂 (the pretentious ones normally)
@ Tessa
Sorry. Have a Ghosbusters pic by way of apology.
(Weirdly that came up when I was searching for a suitable ‘Sorry for ruining’ card, but it’s a cool pic anyway)
http://nerdreactor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Ghostbuster-Lady-Thumb.jpg
Rocket is overplayed in London nowadays, but lamb’s lettuce still maintains its chic. Eating it might be enough to get you not thrown out of Hackney.
(For the non-Londoners: Hackney is a very hipster place. It’s where they moved to when Shoreditch got too gentrified and expensive.)
Both are delicious, especially when combined with good dressing, like that sammich has.
Radicchio is pretty good but I probably wouldn’t promise my unborn child to a stranger in exchange for it.
“Rockets” are also known as arugula. Unlike iceberg lettuce, arugula actually has a taste, and thus is not entirely useless.
Fun fact: In the past, arugula used to be known in Sweden as “senapskål”, which literally translates to “mustard cabbage”. People weren’t very interested in mustard cabbage, so we just stopped growing it. Later, it came back to the country with the introduction of Italian cuisine, but under the name “ruccola”. Ruccola sounds exotic and tasty, and it’s now a popular and common vegetable. That’s why branding is so important. :p
@ EJ
When I lived in Hoxton I saw a great t-shirt.
On the front it reproduced the A to Z map of Shorditch with a big arrow saying “You are here”
On the back it said “Now fuck off back to Shepherd’s Bush”
@ Alan
That’s a cool Ghostbusters pic, I like it. But why do the name tags show the names of the actresses and not their characters’ names? Hmmm mysteries of the universe.
Also, lol @ that t-shirt. I don’t think I understand (those place names mean nothing to me) but I like the joke behind it.
Right? And, like, ok, dude was trespassing, but a child seems like a pretty uneven exchange.
I’ve heard of arugula. Might have even had it. 🙂 I get the spring mix from Aldi.
My son is “eyesdropping” (eavesdropping but with his eyes on my screen) and he and I thought similar things; “Hoxton” to me (and him) is a character in a videogame. I’m vaguely aware that that’s his nickname based on where he comes from, but that’s still my first association.
So, apparently the Hitler Youth have been given their marching orders on how to spin this one, and it’s a real doozy: They’re claiming it’s all made up, that Milo didn’t make any tweets and that this whole thing’s a CONSPIRACY!!! spearheaded by Anita from her underground volcano lair. Only the last five words of that were a joke.
SCREENSHOTS ARE A LIBERAL LIE!!!111one
http://i.imgur.com/4U6HF8L.png
More on “ally training camp”.
Imagine founding an image board called “SJWchan”. There could be boards devoted to different groups, an intersectional board, and a board for arguing where trolls could be allowed for practice. The very fact that it was an imageboard would be an attractor for trolls since such boards are predominantly used by people in the dominant culture (or at least that is the social impression since minorities tend to hide their identity).
Such a thing would have a unique cultural position and if planned out appropriately in advance with enough people involved in making it happen it could work well. Instead of going to them, they can be encouraged to come to us. “Lewis’s Law” is a thing for a reason, they might see the existence of such a place as a social challenge.
@ phryne
Hoxton is a funny old place. It used to have a bit of a reputation. Lots of famous ‘villains’ (like the Kray twins) were from there. I really liked it though. Everyone was really friendly. There was a bit of nostalgia for the gangster days. The landlord of my local pub was really proud that the Brinks Mat robbery had been planned there.
I moved there because it was the cheapest place I could find a flat in central London; then all of a sudden it became the most fashionable place on the planet (I like to think there’s a causal link 🙂 )
Goddammit, that one guy, the whole “________ says ‘what'” thing doesn’t work in text. And I’m not sure how you can be a nationalist if you think “statist” is an insult. Nationalism kinda relies on the existence of a state.
Phyrne,
If you want a nice misandric protein for that sandwich, go with something like seared ahi tuna. Lots of men, particularly dude bro types hate tuna. Maybe because kitties love it?
My husband just doesn’t care for seafood, not nearly so much as I do.
That said, I keep thinking the sweetness of the fig relish would actually go well with a beef burger patty… the misandry would just have to be me being a fat middle-aged woman eating it and not giving a shit about what the bros think.
@mackroth
That sandwich looks great, but I went off rocket for a bit when I was told that ladybirds lay their eggs on it. Now it’s a joke that whenever I have rocket I ask for extra ladybird eggs. 🙂
@alan
Ventnor has a blue plaque for Karl Marx interestingly enough. The house, in St Boniface Road, is up for sale again, (£225k) I keep joking we should buy it for our HQ, I don’t know if that’s cool or just a ‘commodity fetish’. 😉 Ho hum.
Marx described the island as ‘a little paradise’.
Wonder what he’d make of it now, after the Torys have had their grubby hands on it?!!
http://www.isle-of-wight-memorials.org.uk/images/ven/img_3662.jpg
@Virgin Mary:
Considering that he lived in the nineteenth century, he’d probably recognise the place all too vividly.
@ Virgin Mary
I once had to write a piece of coursework that featured Marxism a bit; so to get inspiration I wrote it in the pub where Marx is reputed to have spent most of his time. (The ‘Red Lion’ appropriately enough)
Actually, I suspect that Marx’s first words might be “what’s this internet thing that everybody’s tapping away on? And why are women allowed to use it without their husbands’ permission?”
Technological change is a terrifying thing, but social change is probably a bigger one in the long term.
A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of ethics in games journalism.
@EJ
That’s why I can’t answer the ‘which historical figure’ question. As soon as the time machine brought them to my place, it’d be like:
1)Where am I?
2)When am I?
3)Wait. Forget all that! Who are you, and isn’t there cotton you should be attending to?
And now I gotta explain the last 200 years of social progress to somebody. Somebody who’s too busy spouting racial epithets and walking out into traffic in shock and awe of the amazing iron carriages to listen anyway -_-
My time range is a few decades at most. Doesn’t exactly make for the most scintillating conversation. Or I guess it does, but in a different kinda way…
Off topic, but this is an active thread and there hasn’t been an Open Thread in a while, I have set up a GoFundMe to help defray the costs of hubby and I’s impending move. We have a lead on a place that’s only a little more expensive that what we pay now, but we’re living on a total shoestring. Please share the link anywhere you think is appropriate.
@EJ : do he had an history of misogyny ? While social change is terrifiying for some people, there is also a lot who just follow the new conventions.
Unrelated : I seek some feminist criticism for the wargame called warmachine/Horde. My current opinion is that their authors are well meaning but somewhat clumsy, and that a combination of laziness and ignorance mean that it’s a bit cringy on some point, while being quite good on other. But I tend to be on the forgiving / fan side, so I don’t criticize well.
Still, it’s one of the few game where a woman (Makeda) :
* is a strong armored warrior with an undisputable track record in swordmanship, and a charismatic troop leader
* is a successful politician who unite an empire without relying on treachery nor seduction
* isn’t conventionally attractive and have a real, protective-looking armor.
* rely on sheer endurance and willpower, and not on trickery and speed.
* is not contested by anyone on basis of her sex.
I love that, despite the very real problem the designer added silly boob plates to her armor. It’s like playing the role of that chinese empress who ruled with an iron fist China for like 20 years before being removed from all archive by her successors.
@alan
Which Red Lion was that? There are so many.
The pub in Ryde he used to drink at was the Solent Inn.
It’s a shame it’s going to be turned into flats, used to be a great live music venue. 🙁