from the column:
Twitter target
On Saturday I tweeted, as usual, a link to my Times column, a defence of Martina Navratilova who believes it unfair for biologically male trans athletes to compete in women’s sports. On Monday an email arrived from Twitter. It had received complaints about this tweet, “investigated the reported content”, but decided “we have not taken any action at this time”.
Several things concern me. First that, following their success in having feminist Twitter accounts suspended merely for stating that biological sex exists, trans activists are now seeking to shut down debate in national newspapers. Second, the dangling threat implicit in “at this time”. If a complaint is nonsense, why even inform me, except to ensure I feel nervous of entering this controversial territory again; to urge me to self-censor.
Twitter’s adjudication of “hate speech” complaints is far from transparent. It is not even clear whether breaches are judged by a human or by an algorithm that may automatically suspend an account if it is targeted with a barrage of complaints. I certainly feel warned."
Miranda Yardley article, 'Why I Am Permanently Banned From Twitter And Why This Should Make You Worry'
POSTED ON 24TH MAY 2018
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
attributed to George Orwell
I have been permanently banned from Twitter. The reason for this ban is given as follows:
Violating our rules against hateful conduct.
You may not promote violence against, threaten or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or serious disease.
(continues with details of the specific tweet which was mass reported and led to Miranda Yardley, a transsexual being banned from Twitter. These details also can't be included here due to likely reporting and risk of infringement of interpretation of current MN FWR guidelines)
"According to the rules of Twitter, it is now ‘hateful conduct’ to call someone who is a man, a man. The implication of this is that the concept of proscribed speech, things we are now not allowed to say, now extends to the truth. This is fundamentally illiberal.
“To tell the truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary act.”
Unsigned, written by Antonio Gramsci in collaboration with Palmiro Togliatti, L’Ordine Nuovo, 21 June 1919.
It’s interesting the rules about what is hateful appear not to extend to one glaringly obvious category – biological sex. And it is this that reveals the real agenda that lies behind this curtailment of freedom of speech and the ability to state the truth:
This is not about me. This is part of a much larger, broader attack on the rights of women.
If women are now no longer able to publicly acknowledge that an adult human male is a man, this takes away from women the ability to describe their own lived lives: they can no longer use meaningful language to describe their interactions with members of the dominant sex class:
Women lose the language and ability to differentiate between themselves and the dominant sex class;
Women lose the language and ability to describe themselves even as women;
Women lose the language, right and ability to describe the perpetrators and acts of sexual violence;
Women lose the right to challenge the sexual enslavement and exploitation of members of their own sex class.
We are in a world of proscribed truth and compelled thought. Whatever your political stance, this should should strike you cold with terror." (continues)
mirandayardley.com/en/i-permanently-banned-twitter-make-worry/