Like Tears. In Rain

Posted on by Jaime JessopIn Uncategorized3 Minutes Read

On the eighth day of the first month in the Year of Our Brexit 2019, Jack excised me from the internet. Seven years, 50,000 tweets. Gone. Instant Silicon Valley Death Syndrome. Twitter killed @balinteractive. All those Twitter moments lost. Forever.

To what did I owe this sudden harsh bout of ignominy, deprived even of refreshing infamy? Ostensibly, ‘hateful conduct’. In reality, the social/climate justice keyboard warriors policing Twitternet have decided that I have spoken the truth too often, too clearly, too concisely, far too many times during my tenure on ‘their’ social media platform, that it was time to erase me completely. They just needed my final ‘offensive’ tweet as a convenient excuse to do so. So, anti-truthers, anti-democrats, corrupt politicians, activist climate scientists, loony lefties, progressives, Green blobbists etc. can breathe a sigh of relief; @balinteractive, for one, shall never more interrupt their purveyance of misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, lies, half truths, and complete and utter bullshit.

Apparently, ‘hateful conduct’ on Twitter amounts to suggesting that a certain ‘man’ should be terminated. A ‘man’ who entices two stray pups to him by seeming to be friendly and petting them, who then suddenly pulls out a knife and stabs one of those pups, returning calmly to his seat, laughing while said poor animal screams in pain and eventually dies. This is social justice on Jack’s social media platform. Such peoples’ feelings are now protected from my hurty words – but not from the hurty words of numerous others who went into far more graphic detail about what they would like to do to this particular piece of human excrement.

As I say, it was but a convenient excuse to bump off a moderately inconvenient (4500 followers is not massive, but enough to make a ripple) truth-teller whose political views and opinions on life in general were way too conservative.  But it does highlight where Twitter’s moral compass is at, which must be drifting even further away from true north than the actual planet’s magnetic north right now. Alas, it does also mean I can no longer join in the climate debate in real time, where it is happening, or keep up to date with the latest news, which is a shame, but I’m sure a few characters and dodgy organisations will be somewhat pleased that is now the case. Another denier silenced on social media.

 

Update: Proof That Twitter Is Permanently Censoring Political ‘Undesirables’

I appealed, as suggested, against my permanent Twitter ban for suggesting that a ‘man’ should be exterminated for viciously stabbing a defenceless little dog just looking for some affection, filming it, and putting it on social media.

This was the text of my appeal:

You have permanently banned me for advising people not to watch a video of extreme animal cruelty, suggesting that the perpetrator should be exterminated. The ‘man’ involved enticed two stray pups to him by pretending to be friendly and by petting them, then he viciously stabbed one pup, leaving it screaming in agony and sat down calmly laughing, whilst it died. I had expected to watch a ‘feel good’ animal video and was unprepared to see such horror, hence my emotional outburst. I might add that other people were even more graphic about the harm they would inflict on this sad excuse for a human being. Have you banned them too? I have been on Twitter for 7 years and only very recently have you decided that my tweets violate the Twitter rules (I was suspended a few weeks ago). Now you have banned me permanently for an emotional outburst which I think you will find is very typical of any animal lover subjected to witnessing such horrifying cruelty upon a defenceless little dog. Please reinstate my account and I will control my emotive responses in future.

This was their response:

Your account has been suspended and will not be restored because it was found to be violating Twitter’s Terms of Service, specifically the Twitter Rules against hateful conduct.

It is against our rules to promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

Additionally, if we determine that the primary purpose of an account is to incite harm towards others on the basis of these categories, that account may be suspended without prior warning.

You can learn more about our policy against hateful conduct here: https://help.twitter.com/rules-and-policies/hateful-conduct-policy.

The sharp-witted reader will note that I did not promote violence against the perpetrator of this act based upon “race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease”, but based solely upon my emotional reaction to his vile act of animal cruelty. Enough said. Twitter was looking for an excuse to ban me because of my truth-telling and political views. Any excuse. They found it.

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39 Comments

  1. If it’s any condensation, Steve McIntyre has also been suspended from Twitter.

    You’ll have to explain how it works to us non-tweeters, since as far as I know I’m not signed in to them, but I receive regular mails about tweets from Jonathan Jones, McIntyre, José Duarte and Bishop Hill, whom I must have “followed” at some time, plus other messages about hundreds of other people I’ve never heard of. And how do you find time to discuss with four thousand followers? Even Brian never had that many in his famous “Life” of the same name.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Steve Mc was reinstated, as explained in this Twitter thread.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Jaime,

    I think it is worth trying to get reinstated. There are a few reasons.

    Firstly, every person that is reinstated is one less ‘victory’ for those trying to silence the truth. It may also cause them irritation or embarrassment if they have been advertising their success.

    Secondly, the more times a red flag is raised inappropriately, the less credibility the initiator will have and in the end, they could be seen as just “crying wolf”, or the bias noted.

    Thirdly, it might make the moderators think and question what is going on, at least in their minds. They may even go as far changing the algorithms if the problem lies there, or changing the thresholds.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I would like to hear more details. I hope you’re appealing this. You’re an important voice on the climate issue. It’d be an outrage to see your work disappeared.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. This is simply part of the spectrum of suppression/censorship tactics being deployed.
    Consider the coordinated ignoring of the brave yellow vests in France. How the execerable Macron Antoinette has reduced half of the nation he doesn’t even believe should exist as a country into teo dimensional parodies of bad guys. How he has deprived his nation of its freedom, liberty, and treasure for their crimes against the climate.
    You got off light, compared to what may be coming.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. I haven’t appealed as yet. I suspect it will be a waste of time. I’ve been permanently banned. They suspended me a few weeks back for a week, now this. It may of course be the case that somebody has been stalking my account, looking for tweets to complain about.

    Like

  11. Appeal with examples of more “hateful” speech which didn’t get suspended or banned. I want to see whether hypocrisy is a feature or an exploitable bug.

    It’s funny it should come to this. Years ago these companies were complaining they couldn’t possibly police free speech because it would be unethical etc etc so they shouldn’t be held liable for publishing defamatory etc stuff. Now it appears they’ve got the best of both words. They pick and choose what can and can’t be published but hold no liability for it.

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  13. I thought you were ‘doing a meanie’ and taking a break. I’ll be surprised and disappointed if you’re not reinstated. I’ve expressed similar feelings to you in the past, but usually accompanied by the word ‘exterminate’. It seems you can get away with all sort of things if you’re a Dalek.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Howard, my actual suggestion was that he needs exterminating, after advising people not to watch the video, which I viewed, unsuspectingly, by mistake. So not all Daleks are equal!

    Like

  15. On a related note, Ken Rice and/or willard have taken to deleting my comments at And Then There’s Physics. I have appended a remark threatening retaliatory action on Rice’s latest comment here. Shall we begin a trade war?

    Liked by 1 person

  16. That’s rich, considering the grief Ben got for deleting and altering vexatious, time-wasting comments here, which I’m pretty sure Tom’s over at ATTP were nothing of the sort.

    Like

  18. Jaime, loads of people with still-active Twitter accounts tweeted in support of killing that arsehole, so you must be right that this is some sort of vendetta.

    A neighbour boasts that she tips maggots through the letterboxes of people who are cruel to dogs. Until now I thought these boasts proved that she is a dangerous maniac but I confess that I might flick the odd maggot through the letterbox of someone who stabbed a puppy like that.

    Good luck with your appeal.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I don’t know the details, but could this possibly be a mistake? Could an angry Twitter employee have hastily thought that the word exterminate was meant for the puppy instead of the miscreant?

    Like

  21. There seem to be quite a few “mistakes” happening, Canman, with a huge upsurge in occurrence after 2016.

    An appeal is quite useful because it helps determine whether this banning was at the instigation of Twitter ie he won’t be reinstated and the selective banning is a feature used against “undesirables”. Or he was merely reported to Twitter by a “horrified bystander” and an overworked employee didn’t bother with context, in which case he will probably be reinstated. In this case, Twitter’s desire to “vanillify” social interaction is a highly exploitable “bug”. I suppose the third, but highly unlikely, situation is that all the other people promoting “hate speech” also get suspensions.

    Like

  22. Jaime, just to say I really hope you do get your account back and this was the sort of unintentional action on the part of Twitter that others have suggested above.

    However, like you I can’t help wondering whether this is yet another instance of the “ratchet” in action, where an ever-widening spectrum of views are being restricted (e.g., shadowbanned) or silenced online, said views (in your case, the contradiction of climate alarmism) being ones that are not directly aligned with the approved narrative.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Create a U-Tube channel instead. Take care, don’t give anyone an excuse for another ban 0:
    ( I realise that may be very difficult in the fraught minefield of what’s allowed or not!)

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Jaime,

    I have not seen the video clip, nor have I read any of your tweets (I’m just not into Twitter) and so I should be reserved with my comments. However, I will say this: Inciting acts of violence towards those who engage in heinous, violent crime is not considered illegal or even immoral in many US states – they just call it capital punishment. Secondly, remarks such as ‘hanging is too good for them’, ‘they should be castrated’, ‘I think they should be exterminated’, and similar, is an idiomatic hyperbole of the English language. The day when literal truth is assumed to lie behind such utterances will be a sad and dangerous day indeed. And you are quite right, the basis of the rejection of your appeal was clearly irrelevant. Even so, I would still suspect that you are on the receiving end of moronic PC sentiment rather than something more ulterior. There again, I have to repeat that I am commenting from a distance.

    The main thing as far as I am concerned is that it doesn’t look as though the quality of your posts on this website will be suffering as a result of your Twitter demise.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Thanks John. You’re probably better off never knowing what it’s like to be a Twitterer to be honest!

    Paul, it seems they might have their hooks in Steve McIntyre too. He’s way too conservative and far too logical and analytical for Twitter. I do hope he is not permanently banned though.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. John wrote “The day when literal truth is assumed to lie behind such utterances will be a sad and dangerous day indeed.”

    Those days do appear to be upon us, John. “Hate speech” is a censorship gold mine, for even questioning your “betters” could be considered a form of hate and big social media companies seem to be going all out on it. The application of the “rules” do not appear to be uniformly applied, however, for if they were, I doubt social media companies would have many customers left.

    The Met police in the UK define a “hate crime” as ‘Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice… etc etc”

    The “victim”, or even a third person, determines whether a “hate crime” has taken place. That can’t possibly be used to create mischief.

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  31. Jaime, if you’re going to stop being nice you’ll probably need some Willy Worms. £8.50 for four pints.

    If you want to be more scientific, you could pay 14p per maggot.

    (I once paid 23p, so that’s quite a good price if you’re feeling sciencey.)

    Like

  32. DaveJR,

    I am reminded of employment law within the UK and its stance regarding bullying in the workplace. It was explained to me in an employment law workshop that if you feel bullied, then are bullied. You don’t have to demonstrate that the individual intended to bully you! Snowflakes’ charter, or what?

    God help us all.

    Like

  33. Hi Vinny, your links don’t work unfortunately, but I get the idea. I’m casting out the bait but thinking maybe a rowing boat and a few sticks of dynamite might be a better policy! 😉

    Like

  34. Steve Mc is back. The earlier parts of the thread are well worth reading.

    Like

  35. And the Climategate emails haven’t been entirely forgotten …

    Like

  36. The Mexican authorities have appealed to the US to help trace this brutal dog killer after he apparently crossed the border into Texas. Psychopaths like this rarely stop at killing animals – they move on to people. Twitter banned me for suggesting he face the death penalty, falsely claiming that I was promoting violence against an individual based upon race. Yeah, right, he was Mexican, so what. I despise all animal abusers equally. Nobody is allowed to take aim at Mexicans it seems, even if they are sadistic murdering scum.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6598775/Mexican-authorities-seek-man-crossed-Texas-savagely-stabbing-dog-death.html?fbclid=IwAR0fwGlXirjHF3AEDDLEPQEKPCEIcZIf_VPgMaqD_sug4TFQdVcl5NRscOg

    Like

  37. With local people vandalizing his house and making death threats, he might have a legitimate case for claiming asylum.

    Like

  39. Wow, check out the replies on this post. A lot more graphic than the tweet I got banned for. Just shows that animal cruelty elicits very strong feelings in people.

    Like

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