Sunday, February 19, 2017

leaving twitter

i wanted to point out that i am basically leaving twitter, though i am not deleting my account. i have some forwards from other sites that will automatically come to it, but i have ceased to be active on twitter. i'm the same way with facebook: no active participation, just forwards. i thought gab.ai could be a substitute, but it's not anywhere near as popular or useful.

twitter has become highly politicized, in a way that #freedomOfExpression has now become: you are free to express my opinion. 

which opinion they hold you can imagine, when they have a kashmiri separatist as their man in india, and the failing twitter is 10% owned by a saudi.

there is an account named @bhaktslayer which apparently has a direct line to twitter india. it consist entirely of tweets about how they have reported certain accounts to twitter, and lo and behold, 100% success: every such account is suspended, regardless of merit. 100% success is very unusual, except if you are, say, a dictator in kazhakstan or zimbabwe; it typically means there are other considerations.

the last straw has been the harassment of sonam mahajan, apparently a kashmiri pundit (who would thus have a grievance) who was posting aggressive but not severely offensive and objectionable content. twitter suspended her first account @asyounotwish, and then her new account @isonammahajan.

twitter obviously has the right to suspend or dismiss anybody (we signed an agreement saying they can do this when we signed up), but there has to be transparency and fairness. they do not say exactly what it is that they object to; nor do they act even-handedly in suspending those who are offensive on the other side. 

even though i like twitter as a newsfeed, there's no reason for me to enrich it with my time. it is anyway failing, which means that the #FoE that i once thought was possible through social media is no longer quite the case. i was once quite positive about it http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-india-is-finally-seeing-the-birth-of-alternative-journalism-1493314 (and amitabh bacchan, the great one himself, liked this piece too). 

but social media, in the hands of facebook and twitter, have gone the #DeepState way, as far as india is concerned. of course, @therealDonaldTrump is using it quite a lot, and it's his way of disrupting the existing system, and more power to him.

but as for me, i have ceased to spend time on twitter, which is probably good for my well-being as well as my time management.  

6 comments:

san said...

Whenever Modi makes noises, Zuckerberg comes running - and you remember how India arm-twisted Blackberry. Time for Modi & other Indians to arm-twist Twitter and show them who's boss.

Unknown said...

Im sorry to see you go, sir. Hope you continue writing articles!
Just pointing out an error: Sonam Mahajan is Dogra, not a Kashmiri Pandit.

nizhal yoddha said...

actually india needs a home-grown twitter-type social medium. of course, that will soon be taken over india's #deepstate types like burkha and this khursheed person.

san said...

Let me go one further - the pro-India side need their own cyber-hacktivists. I've seen numerous instances of Pak/jihadi cyber attacks on Indian, Israeli, American and other targets. DrNukr was one of the first prominent Pak cyber-attackers. Owning nukes or even guns may sound immoral, but when the other side is pointing them at you, then you have a responsibility to practice deterrence, or at least the threat of reciprocity. Maintaining a reciprocal capability for punitive purposes is the best way to deter abuse. When only one side is willing to show such aggressive tactics, while the rest of us try to remain squeaky-clean, it means they automatically win by default.

We are seeing an increasing corporatization of media which is taking power away from state govts. These are part of the tools that anti-nationals seek to hijack or subvert. But what's even easier for them to subvert at the numerous small internet forum sites, where they can create no-go bastions where opposing views are denied representation.

I noticed early on that environmental discussion websites, and even some entertainment discussion websites were being hijacked by Leftist anti-national types. If you were to try and post a contrary rebuttal to such opinions, you'd quickly find yourself banned or expelled from a forum.

Many of these smaller discussion boards, which are supposed to be themed on topics other than politics, are being subverted into the Left-wing political stream.

Indian patriots need an Anonymous, just like American patriots have.

http://www.vocativ.com/298731/anonymous-donald-trump/

https://www.facebook.com/AnonymousPatriots/

Hitanshu said...

The bhakts have gotten the bhaktslayer account suspended. Fresh in.

nizhal yoddha said...

isn't there sufficient critical mass to form an Anonymous that fights the lefties?

glad to see bhaktslayer has been suspended.

and thanks for the clarification that sonam mahajan is a dogra.