Wait, but the person panicking about this then goes onto tag a bunch of Antifa accounts. So there does appear to be a lot of Antifa accounts on that list, hence the panic.

Antifa literally go around punching people and destroying property, which is illegal. Their justification for violence is "my ideology is more important than yours", which is how any extremist group justify their violence. If they dig and find that they are conducting illegal activities using the Twitter platform (i.e. organising the events where such things occur), this is surely against Twitter's ToS, hence a ban.

Also I remember when the list of Parler users were shared around in much the same way after a hack. Then Parler got banned because January 6 was organized on Facebook and Twitter.

You're simplifying the opposition to fascism too much. For ex. when Antifa were destroying things in protest to police brutality against people of color. Many thought this was unjustified and wrong. Imagine your people were being killed unfairly; how would you react?. I'm not saying all the destruction is the best way, but they can't just be silent about it right. Ignoring the real cause for a protest is easy when it doesn't affect you.

> You're simplifying the opposition to fascism too much.

In much the same way that they simplify their opposition into a strawman. But you're not denying the violence and destruction.

> For ex. when Antifa were destroying things in protest to police brutality against people of color.

What did perceived injustices have to do with an anti-fascist group? I don't see how they have justified their involvement.

> Many thought this was unjustified and wrong.

It was. They were destroying the livelihoods of people in their local areas that had nothing to do with their current situation. If you want to believe the idea of racial based inherited guilt, it was the black people who captured and enslaved their own people and sold them to foreigners.

> Imagine your people were being killed unfairly; how would you react?

People get killed unfairly all of the time, my people included. There is only so much I can carry.

> I'm not saying all the destruction is the best way, but they can't just be silent about it right.

I don't at all expect silence. A peaceful protest would have been a good start. For example, 100k black people demanding to be heard at the capitol would have been a hell of a statement. Policing accountability would have been a great demand - how could anybody possibly disagree.

Instead we got destruction and violence, a few people kneeled who had nothing to do with slavery and the BLM organisation ran off with the money after successfully helping themselves.

> Ignoring the real cause for a protest is easy when it doesn't affect you.

It's unclear to me what the real reason for the protest was. That might be because there wasn't a single reason, and not all the reasons were good reasons.

In any case, my position doesn't change. The belief is still that some ideology is supreme, therefore violence is justified, is exactly how the thing they are opposed to is born.

Please explain how journalist Ben Collins, who they've been mass-targeting, is part of Antifa. There's a huge list of people that have been mass-reported who have nothing to do with Antifa. Anyone who crosses alt-right propagandist Andy Ngo has been subject to mass-reporting.

These people aren't operating in good faith.

Guess Sesame street should have thought twice before featuring the letters C, R, and T for today's lesson

I don't know Ben Collins or why he is on the list. My claim was that the panicked tagging of Antifa accounts would suggest that the list does contain Antifa members, or people associated, hence the panic. I don't imagine it can be taken at face value, but if the list is small it could be a starting point for an investigation.

Twitter is very clear about its policy of banning accounts that promote real world violence.

Please explain how journalist Ben Collins, who they've been mass-targeting, is part of Antifa. There's a huge list of people that have been mass-reported who have nothing to do with Antifa. Anyone who crosses alt-right propagandist Andy Ngo has been subject to mass-reporting.

These people aren't operating in good faith.

And yet, Ben Collins is not banned. It's almost as if a bunch of trolls can mass report people, and the company will handle the reports according to policy.

Next please.

My point wasn't that twitter was acquiescing to every mass-report attempt. My point is that the "free speech absolutist" line was always BS. They'll turn a dime to suppress any speech they don't like as soon as they get the chance.

Yes, agreed. Right wing internet trolls are full of shit. Your mistake lies in thinking that these are the only people who support Musk.

You're focusing on the absolute worst of the worst, ignoring the millions of people who genuinely support free speech. We're very happy with what has taken place at Twitter.

Read my comment again. I specifically said "a very vocal subset".

As someone who genuinely supports free speech, you should have a real problem with the troll army. Instead you immediately leapt to "well they weren't successful this time, so all is well". Harassment doesn't always have to result in an outright ban to still have a chilling effect.

Mass reporting is a problem on the internet and at Twitter that long predates Musk. This all comes down to your assessment that he's running Twitter poorly, and that this is therefore a new risk. I completely disagree, so I'm not worried about these people over the long term.

Furthermore, coordinated censorship by the platform itself is now over. Even if Ben Collins were accidentally, temporarily banned over mass reporting, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it. The status quo is better than the status quo ante.

Ideally, both cases are handled properly. I have faith Twitter will be able to achieve this.

> A very vocal subset of Elon's followers went from "free speech absolutists" to organized mass reporting their enemies in a matter of days. That has to be some kind of record.

Keep in mind "Elon's fans" is not one guy. It's different groups of people with different agenda. Many cheered for free speech when Elon proclaimed it so. Many of those were right-wing due to the perception (and reality) that Twitter's moderators are predominantly left-leaning, and Twitter has left-leaning culture.

Those in a hurry building hitlists are not the moderates cheering for Elon. They're opportunities on far right that are taking advantage of Elon, as he's easy to manipulate right now. He wants to be liked and he wants to "score a win" for Twitter. He falsely believes he's scoring wins for Twitter by appeasing the worst of the worst on right.

Sad to watch.

Elon has been interacting a lot with guys like Andy Ngo and Ian Miles Cheong. I refuse to believe he's unaware of who they are.

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1596344634443431937

I personally (second hand, from someone who worked in a prison) know of a man who was imprisoned because he had sex with his 17 year old GF when he was 19.

I've heard about teenagers being prosecuted for taking nude photos of themselves [1] or to share with other teenage friends [2].

If your worst charge against Ian Miles Cheong is that he correctly pointed out draconian enforcement of these laws, then you're on the wrong side of this. The US imprisons too many people in general and this is no exception.

He's also correct that the age of consent in almost all of Europe is 16 or under. The only exceptions I see are Turkey and Vatican City.[3] The same is true in Canada and most of North America. It's even true in 32 US states. I don't see why that Tweet was included in the screenshot, as if we should be offended by the truth.

The other Tweets are offensive, but sound like jokes. Without context it's impossible to tell. MeidasTouch is clearly trying to attack Ian Miles Cheong so there's no reason to assume good faith (like not misrepresenting jokes as serious).

1: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/20/teen-prosecu...

2: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sexting-leads-to-child-porn-cha...

3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe

It is bizarre when a law designed to protect you becomes so it extreme, it actually harms you. But it's true.

Another example is the insane ways in which "zero-COVID" policies are enforced in China, resulting in probably more deaths than if they were a lot more lenient (at this point).

Andy Ngo does nothing but post videos of innocent people being swarmed and attacked by violent mobs and tries to get them justice.

He is fighting against actual fascism.

He selectively edits his videos to make it look like one side starts the fighting, and only shows misbehavior by the anti-fascists, never the other side. He's a propagandist cosplaying as a journalist.