Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years

Re:Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years by abj on Friday January 18, 2019 @02:46PM (#18942312)

This advice works great if a person is in a majority. The problem happens when a person is in a minority.

Imagine if in America in the 1910's a person has a reasonable dissenting opinion like, "I think all citizens should have equal civil rights." If I was there I would be hesitant to attach to this opinion to my public identify. Especially if my employment relied on me voicing an opinion in agreement with the majority.

This seems to have a chilling effect that prevents anyone from voicing an opinion that is not already close to being in the majority.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years by dragonwriter on Friday January 18, 2019 @05:41PM (#18943814)

> This advice works great if a person is in a majority

I think you mean “group with dominant social power”; that's often confused with majority because of the predominant pattern of race/ethnic/religious (but not economic class) oppression in Western Europe and North America, but consider apartheid South Africa.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years by abj on Monday January 21, 2019 @10:43AM (#18961053)

That's a great point. It makes more sense to use "group with dominant social power" instead.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Twitter warns that private tweets were public for years by VikingCoder on Friday January 18, 2019 @09:52PM (#18945030)

I think everyone here is misinterpreting what I meant, and I take full responsibility for that.

I think we thought of computers and the internet as our allies in privacy. They are not. They are our enemies.

I think we should stop trusting computers, any computers, as much as we possibly can.

Especially if you're in a minority that your government may try to punish or control.

[ Parent | on HN ]