Hacker News Reader

Comment by TearsInTheRain | Hacker News Reader

Was twitter shutting down BLM or Antifa accounts during their riots this summer?

Can you direct me to the manager of Antifa so I can tweet @jack and tell him to ban them?

I am not sure what’s the point of this snarky comment. Are you implying that antifa and similar so-called far-left movements are incapable of organizing?

This seems evidently false. Some examples of such organizations are By Any Means Necessary and Refuse Fascism. Both are formed by various anarchists, Trotskyists and other radical (in the sense of wanting to radically change the current organization of society) leftists. Both fight against Trump administration and for LBTGQA+ rights and various forms of socialism.

Twitter regularly locks the accounts of people that violate their policies. So probably, if they were violating Twitter policy with their tweets.

Given the large numbers of people involved you can probably find a Tweet that somebody twote that was a policy violation and didn't result in a lock.

What about that?

Can you cite any BLM or Antifa accounts that were posting tweets instigating violence (and which weren't shut down)?

Not BLM/Antifa but Lijian Zhao (Chinese diplomat) posted a doctored image of a soldier holding a knife to a child’s throat with the message: “Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, &call for holding them accountable.” (https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1333214766806888448). Twitter didn’t even bother to post a disclaimer (like they do with Trump’s tweets) and ignored the request of Australia’s PM to delete the tweet.

An image that is obviously not a photo. The dude is literally standing on a large puzzle board. It's a reference to something that actually happened, and clear it's not an actual photo... Should political cartoons also be removed in your opinion?

I don’t think it’s obvious at all, especially when you view it on a mobile. You can also see the words Morrison used to describe the post: “truly repugnant, deeply offensive, utterly outrageous. The Chinese government should be totally ashamed of this post. It diminishes them in the world’s eyes. It is a false image and a terrible slur on our defense forces.”

As for whether the post should be removed.. well, I’m personally against censorship, but if you’re going to remove Trump’s posts then I similarly think this post ought to be removed as well.

That tweet was perpetuating slander but was not instigating violence...

The current bar is someone fanning the flames but then gives a concessionary call for peace. It should be easier to find than people explicitly instigating violence.

no but then again ANTIFA and BLM have code for all their rhetoric. Violent activity is just referred to as "direct action".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com