Twitter exploits farfetched reasoning to ban prominent gun crimes statistician
ANDREW WEST
FREEDOMOUTPOST.COM
AUGUST 16, 2019
Information is not only a right, but a necessity here in the United States, especially as we tackle the litany of issues that have befallen society in the 21st century.
America has long been researching ways in which we can mitigate mass shootings, which seem to be increasing in frequency as of late. These horrific and terrifying acts of violence are both vicious and mentally unnerving, which has put a distinct emphasis on discovering a solution that both addresses the issue and continues to promote the rights of our citizens.
This hasn’t been easy, of course, and the social media landscape has made discussing possible paths to peace nearly impossible.
One of the nation’s foremost experts on gun violence, Dr. John Lott, found this out the hard way after Twitter locked his account by exploiting an arbitrary rule of the platform. Lott lashed out at the social media giant in an op-ed for New York Daily News.
I am the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, whose account Twitter locked because it tweeted a link to a Daily News article that I wrote about Twitter locking my personalaccount. Twitter informs me that the account was locked because the News article contains quotes from the New Zealand mass killer, and New Zealand and Australia have laws against sharing the manifestos of shooters.
As a Twitter representative emailed me: “Due to the safety of Twitter users and regulations abroad, Twitter does not allow linking to content that includes excerpts of manifestos of mass shooters.” Earlier automated responses from Twitter had offered no such information, with the explanation field left blank. I was able to use a connection to ask what was happening, but other victims of Twitter’s censorship may not even get an explanation.
The Rest…HERE
