My Twitter account is locked. I locked it after seeing
the correspondence from Imran Ahmed to ‘Katy’, (I assume representing Twitter)
and acknowledging a meeting on Tuesday. Time stamped Wed 29 Jan 2020 08:52, the email says:
“Given the positive nature of the talks, we hope to see
the following in the coming weeks:
1) A commitment to not just
bring back the import/export facilities for blocklists but a commitment to work
with CCDH on a new initiative to make it far easier for people to more easily
share their blocklists so we can start to harness social power to collectively exclude
hate actors from public discourse.
2) The banning of hate actors
as we discussed in the meeting, including [redacted] and the people in the attached
document.
3) A full review of both George
Galloway and Katie Hopkins’ ability to use your platform to spread hate and a
commitment to publicly publish the full decision with reasoning by March 13th
(six weeks’ time) so that our society can have a constructive and evidenced
debate on Twitter’s merits as a place for people to communicate, build
relationships and find new information.
Could we schedule to reconnect on progress w/c March 9th?
In the meantime, I will be on email and phone although some hours behind you in
the States.
We think these are reasonable and constructive requests.
We hope you agree.
Best wishes,
Imran Ahmed”
CCDH stands for the Center[sic] for Countering
Digital Hate. Now, my opinion of hate is that is a visceral, primitive emotion
which has little place in cool adult discourse. It is a word used by truculent
children to hurt their parents. It is a word uttered in anger and frustration
by those with no vocabulary to distinguish between dislike, antipathy,
aversion, loathing or even simple preference. Increasingly it is used against
people with a different opinion to the hate-detector, for this is what CCDH
really is. Clearly of the left, this is an organisation with one purpose; to
de-platform those with whom they disagree.
In setting themselves up as arbiters of what hate is they
also get to impose rules about what kind of hate is permissible. For, make no
mistake, the suspension of Katie Hopkins is motivated by the pure leftist hatred
for anybody who gets in their way. If the fascists – limitation of free speech is
an instrument of fascism – of CCDH get their way, Twitter will become a thought-free
bubble of ideological consensus which uses the acquiescence of useful idiots to
further an agenda as insidious as any they loudly proclaim to oppose.
I hear through the grapevine that my blog has restricted
access under certain ‘safeguarding’ processes of the ISPs. I regularly see
Tweeters I follow complaining that their reach has been limited, their tweets
rendered invisible and their ability to follow others curtailed. I hear of
shadow-banning and other practices which reduce the ‘volume’ of their voices.
And I see, daily, members returning after short suspensions for the most innocuous
of expressed sentiment, where clearly no ‘crime’ was committed.
They are of one mind, the banners, the mass blockers, the
deniers of others’ freedoms. And they have one aim which is to create a sanitised
‘safe space’ where only the approved opinions may be promulgated. This is an
extension of state education, where teachers quietly reinforce the ‘correct’
modes of thought and turn their charges against the politics of their parents.
They speak of harm, where no harm exists. They pretend to openness and diversity,
but brook no diversity of thought.
As with school, so with Twitter
Tonight, when we symbolically part company with a
supranational exercise in restricting independent freedoms, I will unlock my
Twitter account again; It is far too restrictive to remain behind self-imposed
bars. How long I survive this hostile environment is going to be a matter of
chance; no doubt I am already on a number of blocklists and if Ahmed and his brownshirts
get their way that will be all they need to remove me from the platform
altogether. Be careful what you wish for, you who see hate in every
disagreement; be very careful indeed, for you may be next.
(If you have got this far and you agree, endorse, or just want to share, there is a link below which you can use to spread the word. Many thanks in anticipation.)
(If you have got this far and you agree, endorse, or just want to share, there is a link below which you can use to spread the word. Many thanks in anticipation.)