{"id":23527,"date":"2022-09-12T12:25:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T19:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23527"},"modified":"2022-09-12T12:25:22","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T19:25:22","slug":"twitter-censored-professors-post-for-abusive-behaviour-toward-the-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/09\/12\/twitter-censored-professors-post-for-abusive-behaviour-toward-the-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"TWITTER CENSORED PROFESSOR\u2019S POST FOR \u201cABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR\u201d TOWARD THE QUEEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

BECOME A MEMBER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on May 28, 2020.\u00a0Photo: Winni Wintermeyer\/Washington Post<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policy was invoked to protect the world\u2019s longest-reigning monarch, who died that day, from being silenced.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sam Biddle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 9 2022, 3:17\u00a0p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A TWITTER SPOKESPERSON said the social media giant deleted a Carnegie Mellon University professor\u2019s controversial tweet<\/a> condemning Queen Elizabeth II on the grounds that it was \u201cabusive.\u201d The company defines<\/a> abusive behavior as \u201can attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else\u2019s voice\u201d \u2014 in this case the voice of the world\u2019s longest-reigning monarch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a banner day for posting. As soon as news of the queen\u2019s impending death hit Twitter, the platform was quickly dominated by a global outpouring of both grief and glee, a heated mixture of paeans to the queen\u2019s 70-year tenure and angry denunciations of the British monarchy\u2019s legacy of colonial violence and exploitation. Among the latter was Carnegie Mellon\u2019s Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition. \u201cI heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,\u201d Anya tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sam Biddle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe took enforcement action on the account you referenced for violating the Twitter Rules on abusive behaviour,\u201d Twitter spokesperson Lauren Myers-Cavanagh, using the British spelling of \u201cbehavior,\u201d wrote to The Intercept in response to a query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does highlight the power imbalances that can often exist in the way these platforms treat powerful figures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The removal of the post illustrates how criticisms of powerful people, however distasteful, can be disappeared from social media sites for murky reasons. \u201cIt does highlight the power imbalances that can often exist in the way these platforms treat powerful figures,\u201d Evelyn Douek, an assistant professor at Stanford Law School and scholar of content moderation policies, told The Intercept. \u201cOften people in power get allowances because it\u2019s in the public interest but people don\u2019t for criticizing them, even though that\u2019s often clearly in the public interest too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anya\u2019s tweet immediately attracted widespread attention and criticism, not least because it was reproachfully quote-tweeted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. \u201cThis is someone supposedly working to make the world better?\u201d the second-richest American tweeted. \u201cI don\u2019t think so. Wow.\u201d Twitter users were quick to point out that Anya had recently tweeted approvingly<\/a> of Chris Smalls, a rising labor leader instrumental in efforts to unionize Amazon warehouses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the criticisms came pouring in, Anya, who was born in Nigeria, tweeted in defense of her remarks: \u201cIf anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.\u201d (Anya did not immediately respond to The Intercept\u2019s request for comment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/o.prod.theintercept.com\/checkout\/template\/cacheableShow?aid=hsZyoAWmIE&templateId=OTEXERHVRCE9&templateVariantId=OTVEIU52VT7IF&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EX3LBE28N473&iframeId=offer_d95877cf7d9b23ea09ec-0&displayMode=inline&pianoIdUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fid.tinypass.com%2Fid%2F&widget=template&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the tweet was no doubt offensive to many fans of the crown in wishing suffering upon Elizabeth, the specific rule cited by Myers-Cavanagh justifying the censorship isn\u2019t typically deployed in defense of royalty. The company claims that its ban on abusive remarks is designed to protect speech rather than delete it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to facilitate healthy dialogue on the platform, and empower individuals to express diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that harasses or intimidates, or is otherwise intended to shame or degrade others,\u201d Twitter\u2019s online help center says<\/a>. \u201cWe consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such speech is deleted to shield vulnerable voices from suppression. \u201cOn Twitter, you should feel safe expressing your unique point of view,\u201d the policy reads. \u201cWe believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not clear how the queen of England could ever be meaningfully \u201csilenced\u201d or \u201cafraid to speak up\u201d because of an academic\u2019s tweet. Twitter did not respond in time for publication when asked whether the \u201cabusive behavior\u201d policy applies to the deceased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policy lays out a variety of \u201cabusive\u201d speech types, including \u201cviolent threats\u201d; \u201ccontent that wishes, hopes, promotes, incites, or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm or serious disease\u201d; and \u201cunwanted sexual advances.\u201d It\u2019s unclear which of these categories Anya\u2019s tweet, published when its subject was on the verge of death and most likely not checking Twitter, would fall under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The examples of abusive behavior that Twitter provides are of the more clear-cut \u201cI hope you get cancer and die\u201d variety, rather than an edge case hoping that someone already near death will experience greater suffering. The policy does note that in some cases offending tweets will be deleted while sparing the account from suspension, as was the case with Anya, when \u201cregarding certain individuals credibly accused of severe violence,\u201d an enforcement that would seem to implicitly agree with the professor\u2019s underlying argument against the crown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douek, the Stanford professor, said that it seemed like an odd enforcement of the rule given the vast gulf in power between a professor and a monarch. \u201cUnclear to me how the queen is going to be intimidated by that tweet,\u201d she told The Intercept. \u201cSurprised they stood by it, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sam Biddle<\/a>sam.biddle@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a>@samfbiddle<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BECOME A MEMBER The Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on May 28, 2020.\u00a0Photo: Winni Wintermeyer\/Washington Post The policy was invoked to protect the world\u2019s longest-reigning monarch, who died that day, from being silenced. Sam Biddle September 9 2022, 3:17\u00a0p.m. (TheIntercept.com) A TWITTER SPOKESPERSON said the social media giant deleted a Carnegie… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23527"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23528,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23527\/revisions\/23528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}