Twitter Faces Backlash After Banning Conservative Pundit Jesse Kelly
Kelly wrote: “Censorship is a horrible thing, but it has one fatal flaw: It doesn’t work. Voices break out. They cannot be contained. Twitter banning me from their platform only hurts them in the long run.”
A lot us, like me, took the majority of Thanksgiving weekend off of social media and away from the news. It shocked me to wake up Monday morning to discover that Twitter banned Jesse Kelly and no one seems to know why.
In response to the latest attack on conservatives, popular blogger Instapundit deactivated his account.
Twitter’s Slippery Slope
This didn’t age well. https://t.co/fRznfhHx7d
— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) November 26, 2018
Twitter kicked off Laura Loomer. Then the company banned Meghan Murphy. Now they have silenced Jesse Kelly.
Twitter never gave Kelly an explanation even though the website clearly states that when the company permanently suspends an account, they “notify people that they have been suspended for abuse violations, and explain which policy or policies they have violated and which content was in violation.”
Wow. @JesseKellyDC was permanently banned per his message to me just now. #FreeJesseKelly pic.twitter.com/4jPLbC7HHq
— Ben (@BenHowe) November 26, 2018
Kelly wrote about the banishment at The Federalist:
Censorship is a horrible thing, but it has one fatal flaw: It doesn’t work. Voices break out. They cannot be contained. Twitter banning me from their platform only hurts them in the long run. They’ll continue to marginalize themselves, and I will continue to grow.
I enjoy talking politics, and I enjoy entertaining people. I don’t need Twitter to do it. I’ve a got a successful radio show. I’m blessed to have a network of friends who share and promote each other’s ideas.
But the bigger questions are: Where does it end? How do we accommodate dissent? Is silencing the voices we don’t like likely to lead to a better society? What happens to the voices that are silenced? Are we doing ourselves a favor by forcing conformity to doctrines that are antithetical to the core values of many Americans?
We’ll figure out the answers to these questions. We’ll solve these problems. We’ll learn to disagree agreeably, and to give voice to those with whom we vehemently disagree. Twitter won’t. But America is better than Twitter. Always has been.
Thing is, Twitter is a private company. They can do what they want, but my best friend Michelle Ray (@GaltsGirl) provided this valuable point:
Therein lies the real issue: Twitter can ban whomever they want, but they really ought to just come out and say which ideas they do not want expressed on their platform and get it over with.
— Michelle Ray (@GaltsGirl) November 26, 2018
The banning of Jesse Kelly has turned me into a true believer that there is an anti-conservative bias at Twitter. I have found myself biting my tongue before I tweet something because who knows what would happen. I love to spar with my brother @GayPatriot, but we have to take it easy in case the right person takes our jokes seriously and reports us.
Ricochet editor Jon Gabriel described Twitter as “mostly dumb people yelling at each other and self-appointed hall monitors trying to shut down accounts they don’t follow.”
The more accounts like Jesse that Twitter shuts down, Gabriel said “Twitter gets a little less interesting.” Considering the fact that Twitter has been in a downward spiral since 2012, “that’s something CEO Jack Dorsey can little afford.”
Kelly wrote about Twitter’s banning of Alex Jones, which warned people it’s a slippery slope:
Many on the left and the right gave a loud cheer last week when Alex Jones was banished from Facebook. Twitter later suspended him. While it is not surprising to see the jackals on the left cheer at the burning of books, one would hope folks on the right would look in the mirror and realize their time is coming soon. The leftists will not stop (and did not stop) at nutty Alex Jones, because they do not think you are much different from him. You rightly think your belief in immigration enforcement is much different than his disgusting conspiracy theory about Sandy Hook. But you must understand the left thinks you are both equally vile. They just knew Jones was the weak member of the herd. They could pick him off as a test run. Next they’re coming for you.
But we didn’t get a unified message of support from the pinky-out people on the right. We were scolded for defending Jones. They sang so sweetly into the left’s ears: “Alex Jones is icky. And there is no slippery slope. And you should frankly be censored anyway, if you don’t at least have a Master’s degree.”
“They’re coming for you and me next” – what Jesse Kelly told Tucker Carlson about Silicon Valley just a couple months back.https://t.co/NlvdaAybfZ
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) November 26, 2018
Reactions
This isn’t the first time Twitter has gone after conservatives while allowing crazy leftists like Louis Farrakhan to stay put to spew his hatred and racism. Twitter banned @GayPatriot and only recently gave him back his account.
But this is the final straw for popular blogger Glenn Reynolds, who went by @instapundit. He wrote:
TWITTER’S GONE CRAZY BANNING PEOPLE ON THE RIGHT, so I’ve deactivated my Twitter account.
Flashback: Despite Twitter’s Protests, The Stifling of Conservative Speech On The Platform Is Real.
UPDATE: People seem to want more, and although there’s nothing duller than posting a screed on why you’re quitting a platform, here’s the gist: I’ve never liked Twitter even though I’ve used it. I was a late adopter, and with good reason. It’s the crystal meth of social media — addictive and destructive, yet simultaneously unsatisfying. When I’m off it I’m happier than when I’m on it. That it’s also being run by crappy SJW types who break their promises, to users, shareholders, and the government, of free speech is just the final reason. Why should I provide free content to people I don’t like, who hate me? I’m currently working on a book on social media, and I keep coming back to the point that Twitter is far and away the most socially destructive of the various platforms. So I decided to suspend them, as they are suspending others. At least I’m giving my reasons, which is more than they’ve done usually.
Conservative consultant Chris Barron is correct:
The worst thing about Twitter targeting conservatives is that they don’t care when we call them out and they don’t have to. The truth is for many of us in the political, media, PR world there is no alternative to Twitter. We are stuck here and they know it.
— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) November 26, 2018
Jesse Kelly got banned but this kind of rhetoric from the blue check mark left is allowed every single day. If it weren’t for double standards, Twitter would’ve have any standards. https://t.co/7g5RYawUxc
— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) November 26, 2018
Jesse Kelly banned, but this guy still exists on Twitter. https://t.co/cgU2QHdfiA
— ????Merry Ginger ☃️ (@mchastain81) November 26, 2018
I think that people on the Right who are cheering, or snarking with approval, over the banning of Jesse Kelly are engaging in deeply shortsighted behavior, and that the people who got him banned would just as soon put them up against the wall in a heartbeat too.
— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) November 26, 2018
Jesse Kelly is one of the greatest American patriots I have ever met in my life. He risked his life to serve the country he loves.
I could not be prouder to call both Jesse and his wife Aubrey dear real-life friends.#JeSuisJesseKelly #FreeJesseKelly https://t.co/r8nxo9obpN
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) November 26, 2018
The ppl who decided to ban Jesse Kelly and the ppl who are cheering his ban are not only unfair, tyrannical, and lame, they are also pitifully humorless.
— Rebeccah Heinrichs (@RLHeinrichs) November 26, 2018
Hey @jack your site banned a former Marine @JesseKellyDC. A good guy who had my back on this site whenever I was attacked by the scum you allow to remain. And meanwhile all day my DMs & mentions have been filled with vile shit like this. Please explain your vetting process. pic.twitter.com/W6KIBAEaP6
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) November 26, 2018
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
I would have to reactivate my account so I could deactivate it in protest. Do you notice that the left no longer uses the word “tolerance?”
Maybe they got a dictionary and learned what the word really means? 😉
They found out it didn’t mean, “Bash the Fash!” The little darlings were so disappointed.
I have never used Twitter and never will. I just don’t see the attraction. But I am on the inside of one of the Silicon Valley behemoths that we all love to hate, and this is what I see:
1) Most people are apolitical and just want to do their jobs.
2) Being apolitical, they tend to accept the narrative uncritically about “hate speech is not free speech”, ” rights are human rights”, etc., etc. You can hardly blame them: so does Mitt Romney. This is what it means to lose the culture war.
3) This leaves them very susceptible to pressure from the lefty mob I’d guess that all of the banned conservatives were denounced from the outside (and not at random).
4) A sizable minority of SJW employees are enthusiastic about banning everything that they deem “offensive,” but overall there is no anti-conservative fervor. On the contrary, you often hear people urging caution because some action would reinforce the public perception that Behemoth Corp. is left-leaning.
Suppose that you were CEO and you had an endless succession of “outraged” mobs outside your doors attacking you for condoning “hate.” The media is lending its full-throated support and the board is nervously asking you how you plan to deal with the bad
publicity. What would you do? It is easy to say that you would tell them to go pound sand, but that is not your job. You have to protect the company. Throw a few “controversial” users overboard and the problem goes away (at least until next time). If Twitter starts experiencing real costs for these actions, they will stop, but until then, look for more of the same (and worse).
The sad thing is, while they protest in mobs, they are a small part of the population. It is bullying, tactics which work on small or frightened individuals, but bullies usually get put in their places when they finally pick on the wrong one.
I have some twitter account. I used it once. I saw zero reason to bother with it from then on. I think it’s a poor concept and with their censoring voices due to right leaning politics it will end up failing at some point.
It is a longer lived fad than I gave it credit for, but my kids who have used it fairly regularly in the past don’t use it anymore. I get sent emails with my “twitter updates”, it keeps sending me tweets from my kids from year ago. The same ones.
I just would like to see an unbiased, unpolitical group come up with something similar. If they did it could wipe out the politically motivated idiots.
You are describing people who don’t understand that they will be made to care. They are guilty of acting like fools. Like irresponsible children.
These are the same people who vainly clung to hope while Eastern European secret police rounded them up.
All the signs are there, plain to see. I have no sympathy for people who refuse to see what’s right in front of them.
If what you wish to post is Anti-White, Anti-Christian, Anti-2nd Amendment, Anti-Border, Anti-America, Anti-Free Speech, then you can post all you want…..I highly recommend people do their own research and find out how “History” has been controlled since around 1777….This is all not an accident.
Just get off twitter, and let it die on the vine.
Trump should simply ‘tweet’ on the White House website.
I believe there are other “tweet” style providers like GAB?
If so, if Trump switched over, Twitter would be broke in 60 Seconds and GAB would be the next Trillion Dollar Company…(I just hope I know when he is going to do this so I can front-run the market.)
What I am saying is, are there not rich people out there, rich Constitutional minded people, who can start their own Facebook, etc? With computer gear being so cheap, and so many who have the knowledge, why would it not be easy?
Start up a Freebook social site, or a 1st Amendment Chat?
Why are we channeling Twitter so much. If I wanted to know what is going on at Twitter, I would go to Twitter. I want to know what is going on at LI. Twitter outrage is turning this site into Twitter mini.
Ignore them. Leftists playing with leftists.
Better still, you could go to Twitchy, which finds the best of Twitter and brings it to you so you don’t have to wade through the muck looking for it.
You need a good name to challenge/replace Facebook. Zuckerberg just lucked into picking almost the perfect name for a social-media site for the kind of things Facebook offers. Same thing with Google. I’ve been trying to come up with good, competitive names, and I haven’t been able to so far. Here, how about “LifeScroll” (“scroll” being a reference to writing on a scroll [a precursor to books], and also a reference to scrolling through things online)? The logo could be a partially unfilled double-scroll, with photos and articles showing instead of handwritten text.
“unfurled”, not “unfilled”
And as for Google, how about a search engine simply called, “Seek”, or “Find”?
For the religious, and rhymers — “SoulScroll”.
Yup. Alex Jones is like the burning of the American flag. Canary in a coal mine.
Who is next?
And are conservatives merely going to document all the unpersons? How come Twitter Nazi Staff allowed to eat in peace?
If Twitter wants to censor their political enemies, they shouldn’t cry foul when hackers silence Twitter.
My better half chimed into to advise this may be one of those instances where its better to do nothing.
The Left was blindsided by Trump because they were cocooned in echo chambers. Let them have Moar Trump.
Seriously, Twitter is good for nothing more than reading the comments and trolling people. it’s horrible, and that’s how I treat it.
Twitter is the crack Cocain of social media platforms, the best designed for trolls and stream of consciousness diarrhea folks.
But I’m tired of repeatedly hearing that social media sites are private companies therefore their censorship is not “censorship” censorship.
A private company may build and run a toll road (in fact many early toll roads were) but that doesn’t excuse them from being required to be reasonable in restricting access to same. All the most popular SM sites SAY they have standards you must follow, but they make the standards obscure and subjective enuf that they are not standards as most might understand the term. Add to that the “no take backs” rule they all seem to follow where there is no explanation of specific violations and no standard procedure to ask for review of bans.
SM sites are like phone networks, in that their value lies in their universality, and once they are universal similar startups are effectively killed by their monopoly status.
At what point does such a monopoly become a public conveyance that is required to act reasonably in granting or denying access? The “its a private company” defense becomes weak sauce when it’s the only game in town and its universality hinders upstart competition.