Twitter recently came out with its updated user guidelines and its intention to form a “Trust and Safety Council.” According to Twitter, the council would serve as “a new and foundational part of our strategy to ensure that people feel safe expressing themselves on Twitter.”
I expressed my own concerns about the news, including the council’s potential for becoming a way for Twitter to police the expression of conservative thought.
As much of the conservative blogosphere suspected, our concerns were proven valid on Friday when the Twitter account of conservative blogger Stacy McCain was permanently banned from the platform. McCain, who runs The Other McCain, has been extremely active on Twitter for a number of years. A well-known critic of feminism, McCain has written books and countless articles on feminism, the so-called patriarchy, and on feminism in liberal academia.
In an email, McCain was notified that his account was permanently suspended “because it was found to be violating the Twitter Rules, specifically [its] rules around participating in target abuse.”
And now McCain’s other account, @SexTroubleBook, is suspended too. $TWTR digging deeper. #FreeStacy
— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) February 22, 2016
In response, conservatives took to Twitter to plead for the Trust and Safety Council to undo the deed, using the hashtag #FreeStacy to help spread the word. Even a simple hashtag, however, wasn’t immune to the wrath of The Council.
The #FreeStacy tag would be in the US top 10 now, but Twitter has scrubbed it. No autocomplete. #TrustAndSafety. https://t.co/kgZW6mHcV0
— Popehat (@Popehat) February 20, 2016
McCain’s presence on Twitter will certainly be missed, but the banning of his account has a far greater consequences. Prof. William Jacobson explains the importance Twitter plays to many conservatives.
From Legal Insurrection:
“Along the way Twitter changed how conservatives interacted. Who needed mass emails when we could send a tweet and be seen by other conservatives? That ease of interaction and ability to mobilize people had a downside. I credit/blame Twitter for the demise of most smaller conservative websites.”
Because Twitter is a private company, Jacobson explains, Twitter has the right to do whatever it wants with the content that users post on its platform. He problem, he says, is that conservatives currently have no viable alternative.
“The sheer breadth of membership and ease of use is not available elsewhere. Facebook is not a substitute, with its islands of pages and likes.
That’s a problem. A big problem.
Sure, you can quit Twitter, but good luck getting your message out without it, or hearing the messages of other conservatives. Twitter is the modern phone wire system, without which individual phones are isolated and irrelevant.”
Twitter certainly is the modern phone wire system, as journalists and the media has learned over time. It is where news breaks and it is where new thoughts break.
It’s past time that conservatives find a plan B, but where?
