Twitter either needs to use verified status for its intended purpose, or get rid of it. I am not aware of anyone who thought that verified status was an endorsement from Twitter.
This is just an insane level of censorship, I don't care if they are literally for-real Nazis. It's not the place of corporations to pick and choose who should have Freedom of Speech.
I see a lot of people arguing about free speech and censorship here.<p>I'm not sure how anybody is being censored here -- given that we are only debating verification. People are not deprived off their speech.
Second, for instance in the cases of people penalized after this new policy, some of them (Jason Kessler for instance) were responsible for real world violence.<p>I personally think that this was a long overdue move for twitter. We've fought long and hard to discredit neo-Nazi ideas and ideals and to welcome them back in the town square as if anything they have to say is worth listening to is just absurd.<p>I think Sartre said it best:<p><pre><code> "Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of
the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks
are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing
themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use
words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-
Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with
discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit
the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in
acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by
sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you
press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent,
loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument
is past."</code></pre>
So puzzle me this - Twitter, FB, etc. are profitable because of user's data. Flexing power beyond the normal, even beyond government for that matter, to impose "morality" on users & the content they generate, which, mind you, is the source of their income, and existence is insanity.<p>That said, we need to take back control from the big platforms & corporations - dominant channels of public discourse shouldn't be subject to random whims & fancies, regardless of public/private ownership. You don't want to see Nazi content on Twitter, don't follow Nazis. Or, request a content filter from Twitter, though that still doesn't eliminate Nazis from the world - it just puts you deeper in your echo chamber. But punitive action against people you disagree with is simply unacceptable!
If they used the "verified user" for it's intended purpose "This account/person is who they claim to be" then I'm fine with Neo-Nazis getting the verified user checkmark.<p>The problem is Twitter doesn't "verify" people equally. There should be a process that is the same for "Donald Trump," "Kim Kardassian West," and "My child's fifth grade teacher."<p>Since they can't or won't do that, becoming verified also involves a bit of Wikipedia's Notable policy. Except that it seems to favor high-traffic accounts. (So no checkmark for my kid's teacher, but yes checkmark for neo-Nazis.)<p>So now they aren't really "verfiying" users, they're just rewarding high-traffic users that are notable.
They're just testing the waters to see if they can eventually turn "verified users" into literal corporate drones without being questioned by the majority of their users.
just cut the crap and call it "endorsed users" . otherwise they you're implying they are some sort of demented people who are "no longer themselves"
Watch as losing or not being able to attain a verified badge becomes a mark of distinction for those attacking cultural norms. I also predict that some individuals will work to become verified only to perform actions that force Twitter's hand in de-verifing them in order to provide further evidence that Twitter punishes users for participating in 'wrong-think'.
I think this is wrong. There should be a divide between what you do online, and what you do offline, because that power to judge a person and deprive them of something is too easily abused
Surprisingly, they’re not the first. I believe both Sony and Microsoft reserve the right to ban you from their online gaming networks for behavior out-of-network.