Caitlin Has Been Banned From Twitter - Updated X 2
Caitlin posted this 40 minutes ago.
Twitter Shut Down My Account For “Abusing” John McCain
I'm back! Thanks for making such a huge, powerful noise everyone! The suspension was lifted just after I hit publish on this one, so I've put an update on the beginning, but here's what happened:https://t.co/sIYY1KJ27L
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 17, 2018
UPDATE 2: Shortly after restoring my account, Twitter locked me out from using it for twelve hours with the notification below. This happened immediately after I had tagged Twitter in a post saying that their restoration was a tacit admission of wrongful suspension, which means smaller accounts without a large audience to advocate for them are surely silenced on a regular basis. So good way to cover your asses I guess, guys.
Original Essay
(I have updated this to add some more information and links. Best to read her essay because it shows how people reported her tweets)
Original post
Twitter Has Shut Down My Account For “Abusing” John McCain
Hello Caitlin Johnstone,
Your account, caitoz has been suspended for violating the Twitter Rules.
Specifically, for:Violating our rules against abusive behavior.
You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.Note that if you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts. If you wish to appeal this suspension, please contact our support team.
They’re calling it a “suspension”, but nobody can view my page and I can’t perform any activities on it, and it appears to be permanent unless I succeed in going through the anonymous and unaccountable appeals process. Now when people try to access my account, they get a screen that looks something like this depending on what device they’re using
I haven’t abused anybody, and I’ve been observing extreme caution with my language for the last few days ever since I made a political tweet about John McCain which drew the wrath of #Resistance Twitter. The offending tweet reads as follows:
I posted this four days ago when John McCain was trending because Donald Trump didn’t pay him any respect when signing the bloated NDAA military spending bill that was (appropriately) named after him. My reason for doing so was simple: the establishment pundits responsible for manipulating the way Americans think and vote have been aggressively promulgating the narrative that McCain is a hero and a saint, and I think it’s very important to disrupt that narrative.
....
Interestingly, I’ve been saying this exact same thing repeatedly for over a year. An article I wrote about McCain in July of last year titled “Please Just Fucking Die Already” received a far more widespread backlash than this one, with articles published about it by outlets like CNN, USA Today and the Washington Post. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar talked about me on The View. I was never once suspended or warned by any social media outlet or blogging platform at that time; it was treated as the political speech about a public figure that it clearly and undeniably is. The only thing that has changed since that time is the climate of internet censorship.
Caitlin posts some of her other tweets and the responses to them.
Here's an article I wrote about how good it would be if John McCain died.https://t.co/bsYXCOk5xN
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 16, 2018
Then a popular #Resist account condemned my post and was retweeted by Caroline Orr, a popular pundit with hundreds of thousands of followers who works with the David Brock propaganda firm Shareblue. Instantly, my Twitter notifications began filling up with comments like these:
So it looks like anyone who voices a political opinion that is deemed sufficiently offensive to Centrist Twitter can be purged in this way now. If you can get enough people reporting the same thing over and over again for a few days, one of those reports will eventually land in the lap of an admin whose personal bias allows them to squint just right at political speech about a public figure and see a violation of Twitter policy.
[video:https://youtu.be/jDlI-t25D7c]
Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. The only cracks in plutocratic narrative control have come in the form of alternative media outlets and social media, the access to which is unfortunately guarded by plutocrats with well-documented ties to secretive and unaccountable government agencies. The plutocratic alliance has successfully funneled online audiences into platforms that can be easily regulated, and now they are censoring those platforms.
Who else has Caitlin been talking about?
As Long As Assange Is Silenced, Claims Against Him Are Illegitimate
Caitlin has written many other essays about Assange since he was silenced.
Who's Next?
h/t moneysmith
edited
Comments
Fun fact: Hillary's pal David Brock and his troll army
ShareBlue, shut her down.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare
@moneysmith 5 Russians placing
5 Russians placing Facebook ads is an outrage, but a million-dollar troll army is just business as usual.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Exactly, CSMS!
Trump lies his ass off on Twitter, along with practically every politician in the country. Fox "News" is a steady stream of lies and misinformation. And then there's the RUSSIA!!! crowd. Why aren't they banned? (Rhetorical question
Someone at Caitlin's Fakebook page said Twitter is getting nervous because so many people are moving to Mastodon, Kim Dotcom's Twitter alternative. I don't know if that's true, so maybe I'm the one spreading fake news! But I kind of like the idea of Twitter as warehouse for Hillbots, while we have our own version. Dreaming, I know. But hey, a girl's gotta dream, right?
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare
I have heard something about Kim Dotcom building
a new site, but haven't been following it closely. I'll see if I can find more information about that and post a link.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
@moneysmith Hey, seriously?
Hey, seriously?
Not sure about whether or not I trust Kim Dotcom but I know for sure I don't trust Twitter, so...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Kim Dotcom is building a new social media platform
I did a search for it and just picked one site out of many.
New Social Media Platform On The Way From Kim Dotcom
Kim Dotcom Drops Bombshell on Twitter, Facebook: “Their Days Are Numbered;” Confirms He’s Now Building Rival ‘Free Speech’ Social Media Platform
Please hurry ....
ETA
Here's something about Mastodon
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
People weren't banned from Twitter after calling for Assange's
death now were they?
Assange Compiles Media Figures, Establishment Democrats Calling For His Death
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Reddit Forums Are All Over This Story
See this link from "Way of the Bern." It now has almost eighteen thousand readers -- https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/.
Many years ago when President Obama appointed former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to negotiate peace between Israelis and the Palestinians, he famously remarked, "The solution to failed diplomacy is more diplomacy." The same can be said about any kind of speech deemed to be offensive. The solution is not to restrict freedom of speech but to allow more speech as discussion can often lead to what is or isn't acceptable in political discourse. You know, the kind of approach that JtC and other moderators have taken on c99percent.
Bannings and suspensions can only lead to endless speculation and emergence of political conspiracies which, by definition, are never-ending in nature and satisfy no one.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
This is an excellent point
Look at what happened when they banned Jones. He got more 50,000 more people to download his app.
The went to the wotb from your link and read this comment there.
This is one of the gifts from Russia Gate. We knew this was coming after FB and Google changed their algorithms and alternative websites that refused to push their lies saw their traffic diminished.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
The Banning of Alex Jones IS a Conspiracy.
No theory about it. YouTwitFaceApp completely worked together to ban him.
It IS a conspiracy. Rolling down hill to Caitlin, TeleSUR, and more to come is also not a conspiracy theory.
There is a conspiracy to silence dissent and truth to power, and has been for a long time.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Jimmy raised hell
Good job, Jimmy!
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Jimmy was on fire
and even the dimwits who run twitter got the message.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Don't waste your time with Twiiter or Facebook
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Where has Jimmy been all this time? jagoff
thanks, I am vote number seven for your comment. WTF Jimmy it's good to know?
Then why did you sign up? They can do whatever the fuck they want, because you give them the profit they seek. You have made craven juvenile men stinking rich, and they've turned the Bay Area, the whole state, the country, the world, in to a private sewer hole with stupid robot programmers telling you what to think. You built that.
ker-plunk
@eyo Did Jimmy build that?
Did Jimmy build that?
I personally am waiting for the other shoe to drop re: Jimmy, and of course hoping it doesn't; I'd like to live in a world where not everybody famous is a Markos.
But I don't see how Jimmy Dore is responsible for building the social media empire. You say he's responsible because he's using it?
Hmm. I guess it depends on whether he has enough money and connections to produce an alternative dissemination network, and is failing to do so while continuing to support the status quo. If he doesn't, well, then condemning him for using Twitter is not unlike condemning environmentalists for getting on a plane.
Systemic change is required. Of course most people living within a corrupt system are going to use the paths created by that system, because they're inside it, and there's no immediately obvious way out. I, for instance, am an environmentalist, but I'm still going to get into a car to go to my mother's this morning. That means I'm supporting the auto industry and the oil barons. The car is a hybrid, but hybrids are still damaging--and what about the people who can't afford one? Are they all guilty?
IMO, guilt should follow power, like responsibility should. The more power you have to shape these machines we live in, the guiltier you are. Dore, despite his fame, is not very close to the headwaters.
He could do what we're doing, of course, but he would reach considerably fewer people. Is that a trade-off worth making? It is for me, but he's helping a lot more people than I am. Should he give that up?
That said, if he's successful enough, he may have amassed enough power to break free and create something new. I have no way of saying whether or not that's the case; if it is, and he's still using Twitter, then he's being a hypocritical dick. But people are not guilty simply because they are participants in a corrupt system. I buy groceries, and I know damned well there are people in the supply chain being treated like shit to pick those vegetables. Should I stop buying vegetables, or simply be damned grateful I still can? Does it make me guilty to buy broccoli? Lots of people would say yes, but...
they are still living in the assumptions of a republic with a rich and privileged white middle class. That ain't where we're living anymore.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
All users
thanks, those companies would not exist without users. Twitter users built twitter, facebook users built facebook, that's the system. If you don't like it, don't use it? They are not public utilities, they are not public squares for defending free speech. NOPE that's like saying the DNC is democratic, if you ask me. Actions have consequence?
I keep putting question marks 'cause when did I become the falwell? Where did people's conscience go? Out with a dopamine click, I guess.
You guys have no idea how tech profits have ruined San Francisco, et al, the Ds have turned it to shit, literally. But they don't have to step in it, their donors (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Netflix... ) are not progressive, or even humane to make billions and leave granny in the ditch. They are the corruption their users complain about, I don't buy it, but go on. That's they system.
And another thing! (friendly) I don't feel like defending CJ for making a disgusting comment wishing death upon John McCain for any reason. She has become what she abhors, and that's what "social media" does nowadays it seems. Everyone gets fifteen minutes of failure, before implosion. acK!
hairball peace
@eyo Of course, I know
Of course, I know that Silicon Valley is a bunch of bastards that have the same moral and economic effect as a plague of locusts.
That doesn't change the following fact:
If I want to connect with millions, hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, thousands, hundreds, or at this point even dozens of people, I have no alternative but to come online. Every bit of online is mired in both corporate power and a fascist police state, except perhaps for the dark web, which I know little about and would have no idea how to access.
I don't care if you like Jimmy Dore or not; that wouldn't be worth arguing about. However, the idea that using a corrupt mechanism when you're living inside a corrupt mechanism makes you guilty is essentially reactionary. The logical conclusion of that argument is that everyone who gets on a plane, gets in a car, comes online (except perhaps into the dark web), keeps money in a bank, buys anything from any corporation, or, in fact, pays their taxes to this shithole police state, is an accomplice of the evil fucks who run the system, or even is responsible for building the system, because they could...
never go anywhere that they couldn't ride a bike to or walk to, never talk to anyone other than their circle of personal acquaintance, keep their money stuffed in their mattress (not a bad idea, maybe) or eschew money altogether and grow their own food (on what land?), make their own clothes, live...somewhere that doesn't require you to pay, a car or a street grate or a homeless shelter, or, I don't know, if they're lucky maybe a tiny home parked...somewhere...(on what land?)
but even if they grow their own food and make their own clothes and never ride in anything that uses internal combustion and keep their money in their mattresses, if they have a job, well, most jobs are part of the same stinkhole shithole system we're all stuck in, so that would make them bad again. If they don't have a job, I guess we can hope that they're poor enough that maybe the IRS won't bother coming after them, but if the IRS does come after them, then they'll pay taxes, which would again make them part of that stinkhole shithole system, so that would make them bad again.
What this ends up as is a world where a tiny handful of people are good and credible and everybody else is part of a shithole system. That's fine for a religion, and basically useless for politics or history, unless you're advocating politics and history that exonerates the truly powerful, eliding the difference between them and people who consume their products and obey their laws. They are the ones who invent the economies, the currency, the laws, and the punishments for disobedience. If there's no difference between them and the people living under their rule, then...
Well, then there's not only no left wing in the English-speaking world, there's also no left wing conceivable. You can't have a left ideology that ignores the power difference between the wealthy and everyone else.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'd like to live a world where nobody is famous
thanks, I just read comments again.
I stopped thinking about Markos soon after leaving his blog, I wish everyone else would to. What is so hard about forgetting assholes that don't matter? There are plenty more assholes who do matter, do deserve more attention. lol
giddyup trigger
peace
@eyo I was using him as
I was using him as a convenient shorthand for:
Guy who pretends to be against the system to build up credibility and, after stockpiling credibility for a while, turns against everything he previously espoused. Connected to the practice of herding people who oppose the system into one place so you can abuse and demoralize them and turn them on each other. Often a guy who works for some ugly security firm or Stasi-like government agency.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I should float with Big Al on aisle self-c_ship
just looking up from hammock on the farm right now, weeping.
They're telling you what to think, and you're thinking it! No alternative? WTF? Is this the utopia that Caitlin Johnson is building? Because everyone has access to the internet? That's an awful small signal box to be trapped in, I'm sorry. Why in hell would anyone want to "connect with millions" ever? Those are not my people. The bigger, the dumber.
"I have wasted my life"
i wish you peace
good luck
It's like the cell phone.
When I tell people I don't have a cell phone they literally cannot believe it. They can't envision how someone can exist in this world at this point without a cell phone. That's how easily manipulated humans can be. Johnstone gets off on the rush of instant feedback and says what the center left wants to hear.
@Big Al I hate my
I hate my cell phone, and when I moved back down here from DC, I wanted to put mine in the driveway and run it over repeatedly. My partners were upset because I'd be "unsafe" and then my mom sealed the deal by telling me that if I didn't have a cell phone, I wouldn't know if she was dead. Great.
There's only so much guilt I can take, so I caved. I fucking hate the thing and still have fantasies of smashing it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I suppose it beats the pony express and smoke signals
but when cell phones actually became part of people's faces it went a little too far.
I used to have a smart phone
It was nice little camera/internet appliance. It was lousy at answering or making phone calls. So now I have a flip phone. It's handy for emergency use. The landline at home is gone too. I have a black box that connects to the cell carrier and the old standalone phones. Much cheaper because of competition instead of monopoly.
I think you meant smart phone when you say cell phone because there is no reason to stare at a flip phone. They are a nice evolution from the old Bell phone.
EDIT: I brought the smart phone (no service) to my grandson's recent wedding. It really is a very nice camera. I couldn't bring my fancy Canon because the bag won't fit under the seat and I'll be damned if I'll put it in checked baggage for gorillas to toss around and stomp.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
@Big Al No
No fucking kidding.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@eyo No, eyo, I'm
No, eyo, I'm telling the truth. My town is full of Clintonbots and a minority of Trump people, and anybody else who lives here ain't talking. How do I reach people? Stand on a street corner?
Even the "grassroots left" around here has fallen for this Poor Hillary/Russia OMG Trump crap. *That's* why the only way I can connect with people is online. MY FORMER REAL-LIFE NETWORK IS DOWN THE TOILET.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@eyo I don't want to
I don't want to be trapped in this box anymore than you do. I just recognize that I am.
How to fix it? I don't know, but I have to begin from where I am.
Or, what the hell, I'll run around town posting flyers that say SICK OF CLINTON AND TRUMP THEY'RE ALL ASSHOLES invite people to a meeting if they agree, and see how many people show up. Don't know of any space that will be willing to let me host a meeting without paying for it, given my politics, but I suppose with enough effort I could find one.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I use buddhist prayer flags and sidewalk chalk for peace
if we were in the same room I'd give a hug, 'cause I don't have the answer you seek.
Yep, that is how we rebuild "the commons", the place where everyone can stand on a soap box and speak freely to their community, no matter their device, race, class, or whatever.
Recently a person from Indiana told me they came here for "the openness, the freedom". I say every one who comes to California for "the freedom" should first think about staying home and creating freedom where they live, that's how it works. You have to create it, not just consume it.
The absentee landlord showed up here a couple weeks ago, I was stunned when he mentioned the peace sign I chalk at my front door. He said "I like it"! and if you knew my lord and master, your jaw would have hit the floor too. I mean, you just never know who the peace lovers are nowadays. too many screens
peace
@eyo I agree
I agree with you about the screens, though there are specific examples of screen life that arouse my particular suspicion. I think a really bad thing happened when screens became an extension of the human body, always there. I also think that the more recent "social media"-- FB, Twitter, etc.--are a definite downgrade from the blogosphere that preceded them. For one thing, blogging usually involved making arguments at some length, and having an actual conversation about them.
I haven't been on FB or Twitter for some time, but my memory of them is that they are not exactly set up to encourage going into depth on anything, and in fact, are not exactly set up to encourage conversation at all.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@eyo That person
That person from Indiana is outdated, sadly. I don't think CA is a bastion of freedom; it looks more like a colonized territory where cool things used to happen. One which is often on fire.
Your point about creation rather than consumption is well taken. We are in an era where only DIY politics will do. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles to taking that kind of action. I'm writing about that in my OT next week; hope you will stop by.
EDIT: That said, I will continue to make use of what comes my way that is useful. Jimmy Dore is often useful. I am, as I said at the beginning, still waiting for the shoe to drop as far as he's concerned, but so far he hasn't betrayed his principles, except in supporting those ridiculous Justice Democrats, which I assumed was the price of staying with TYT, since Cenk himself was involved with pushing the JDs. So I'm not assuming Jimmy Dore is trustworthy, but as long as he releases trustworthy material, I'm happy to make use of it, and glad it's there. The same is more or less true of Lee Camp and the few others who still have some degree of fame and are saying more or less the right things. That does not include politicians; there's not a single politician I'm willing to listen to for more than two minutes, at this point. Two minutes is enough time to figure out whether they are recycling the same old garbage talking points or not.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Ban the Bible
The threats of violence and eternal suffering is terroristic and designed to forment fear and loathing in otherwise healthy and happy people.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Notice anything familiar?
Roving bands of aggressive downraters gang up to get an heterodox writer banned from a social media platform in order to silence her message?
A technique incubated and perfected at a certain orange place over a decade ago.
Let's face it, we were all just guinea pigs in Kos' social media disruption experiments, the horrible soul sucking results of which are now metastasizing onto other platforms.
I wonder how much he is pulling down to advise Twitter, facebook and Google on their Internet censorship strategies. After all, the guy IS probably the foremost expert and active practitioner of political cyber bullying anywhere on the web.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Yep. Did you go to the article
and see how many people reported her tweet about McCain? I posted the same tweet twice and I'm updating this with the other one since wrote that was also reported.
This is just like the roving HR'd kos bots who met in private chats to decide who to HR'd. Silly children.
"Teacher. He hit me!"
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.