Bonum Certa Men Certa

Social Control Media: Naming the Author Who Smeared Wikileaks (Using a Past Identity) is 'Hateful Conduct' (Updatedx3)

Locked by Twitter



Summary: Twitter continues to demonstrate intolerance towards free speech; it's not possible to point out that a particular person used to publish under a different name

THIS I could not believe! Though I didn't think it was a joke, either.



The above tweet gave me trouble some minutes ago. The tweet is very, very old. Hundreds of thousands of tweets ago.

My question is this: how are people supposed to know about the prior publications if the name changed? The past publications are very much relevant to this. Because this person used to support Wikileaks and then opportunistically started to attack Wikileaks (to promote MuckRock).

Is pointing out the connection between the two (same person) "hateful"?

What is this, a joke?

"Is pointing out the connection between the two (same person) "hateful"?"I did not even mention gender at all (only names, both factually associated with the same person).

Journalists covering Wikileaks have lately been claiming that Twitter was hiding their tweets from followers, especially those that concern Wikileaks.

The above smacks of some sort of "right to be forgotten" (RtbF) thing, where one can change name and then flag as hateful any mention of past writings. As if it's not legal to link one's current actions to past writings.

This, I think, should be scandalous! How is it a policy violation to merely point it out?

"This is a very serious threat to free speech."I will ask my online friends who are trans if this is considered -- in their eyes -- sufficient grounds for such an action because, assuming it has something to do with LGBT rights, this paints their cause in a bad light -- one detrimental to journalism.

Imagine Wikileaks referring to Chelsea Manning as "formerly Bradley Manning" (as it has sometimes done, e.g. when linking to old articles that say "Bradley") and then getting banned from Twitter for it.

This is a very serious threat to free speech. This is why I took this screenshot. This is the first time Twitter does this kind of thing to me.

"I don't even know who reported this to Twitter. A slippery slope for sure."If someone called George changes his name to John or Jane becomes Shiela, does that too make it "hateful"?

There's not enough clarity in the Twitter message to say why it was deemed "hateful". It's very vague, very opaque.

Anyway, a few clicks later, the tweet was deleted (by them, by Twitter) and they let me back into my account with over 750,000 tweets in it.

What next? Will somebody else try to flag something and reach three strikes? Based on this sort of threshold for "hate", how many other tweets can be flagged "offensive" or whatnot? I don't even know who reported this to Twitter. A slippery slope for sure. Online lynch mobs trying to 'cancel' people or de-platforming them isn't a new thing; did I get a target on my behind? Cherry-picking things I typed in a hurry several years ago?

Unlocked by Twitter



Update: WOW! They've just done that again. Similar thing. Here we go:

Locked again



Update #2: And now Techrights is under DDOS attack. Curious timing.

Update #3: I have also just discovered, 6 hours late, that at the same time Twitter suspended the Tux Machines account, which is totally unrelated, citing "suspicious activity" (very vague) and requiring a phone number and long recovery process to get the account back. This happened around the very same hour as the above process. It's not likely that the overlap is a coincidence. In a decade of Twitter this never happened to Tux Machines. Is there a coordinated attempt to suppress speech?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October