Back To The Beginning 8: Social Media

 And the day ended with me getting ANOTHER seven day ban, for calling a fascist on Twitter a cunt. Naughty words alert the algorithm instantly. None of this is decided by people. I have a huge problem with this. Social media, in this lockdown period, is vital, more so than ever. That's a sad state of affairs perhaps, but we're indoors. We can't socialise, and, while Twitter can be a giant cesspool whose moderators allow big names to say whatever they like because of the ad revenue (capitalism!), it is also an outlet. Now that has been removed for seven days while I sit on the naughty step. While I think there are (obvious) behavioral restrictions that are necessary, the power this corporate behemoth wields is excessive and frightening. There needs to be a better way to provide social media in an age where social media is, essentially and hopefully not hyperbolically, vital.

Now we can have a conversation about what is acceptable behaviour, however I do not consider the deploying of, admittedly strident, public shaming to be unacceptable. It is a necessary and acceptable consequence in a free society to behaviour we don't approve of. It is not the curtailing of free speech because free speech doesn't mean free from consequence. If you use social media to advocate fascism, which Twitter seems to have no problem with, then being called out on that is not only perfectly reasonable, it is healthy. It's what should happen. Particularly if Twitter, a vastly powerful private corporation, takes no responsibility for what happens on its platform. It doesn't, by the way. Banning me for a period for calling a fascist a cunt is just an example of their inconsistency. It's also not why they banned me because they claimed doing so was threatening someone, even though it wasn't in a tweet that was directed at the person, instead in response to another comment about the person. Thus all I had said was "I think this person is a cunt". That isn't a threat. It might not be a nice thing to say, and it's not meant to be, that's the point, but it isn't a threat. So Twitter are not just inconsistent, but they muddy the waters to problematic levels.

The real issue however is the power entities like Twitter hold. Whether we like it or not, this is the age of social media. We live our lives online, particularly during a pandemic. This isn't about popularity or ratings either, it's about an unequal power relationship. These services need to be publicly owned. By all means maintain standards as the need for them isn't going away anytime soon, but do not make my case depend on a powerful unaccountable profit machine, and do not be inconsistent. This the biggest problem with social media; if you have rules against posting certain things then, while obviously those rules should be sensible and reasonable (no hardcore porn, for example), apply them consistently. The failure to do so is what gives right wing con artists and outrage peddlers, like Laurence Fox, the in they need to the discourse when otherwise they'd be laughed out of the room.