“Please don’t tell me the new boss is restoring free speech. He isn’t. He’s lying.”
“We Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who said it best: “Meet the new boss…..same as the old boss.”
That’s Twitter. New boss. Same as the old boss. Only far less competent at running things. Oh, and the new boss is a lunatic.
There’s been lots of discussion about Twitter lately and how things are changing on the platform. There’s even a widely popular belief that “free speech” is being restored. The new boss is a hero., allegedly the great protector of the open exchange of ideas.
I’ll let others debate the pros and cons of allowing things like disinformation, hate speech, personal attacks, vulgarities, and other previously objectionable content. Let’s agree the lines can be blurry as to where to draw them.
However, what has become abundantly clear is that Twitter and the new boss have NO intention to allow access to everyone. No, they are NOT restoring the accounts of those who violated so-called “wokeness,” whatever that means. Perhaps there’s a new politically-driven agenda in place; I don’t know. Unfortunately, I can’t draw any conclusions yet without more evidence. But the suggestion that Twitter and the new boss are protecting and promoting free speech is a myth. It’s a LIE.
Two years ago, I was banned permanently from Twitter. During a heated argument following the 2020 presidential election, I called a conservative talk show host a bad name. He reported me, and Twitter gave me the hatchet for violating their terms and conditions. In a millisecond, I lost about 12,000 followers. [But apparently, it’s quite okay to spread dangerous falsehoods about deadly pandemics and openly incite political insurrection since the conservative political commentator in question still has his active Twitter account].
Over time, I accepted their decision and even came to the realization that I was better off away from such a combustible platform. Getting banned from the circus of crackpots was probably a good thing.
But then Twitter had a new boss. He promised to restore free speech. Yeah, he sure talked a good game. All points of view were going to be heard again. Twitter even tried to monetize participation. The platform was to be a free exchange of ideas.
Curious to know if this was true, I recently filed an appeal. I said and did all the right things. I acknowledged my previous wrongdoing (even though it was ridiculously benign given all the usual toxicity posted on that platform). I was polite. I vowed to be more constructive with my comments in the future. Based on all the evidence, including thousands of Twitter posts from my account over ten years, this seemed to be a slam dunk so far as getting reinstatement. After all, I’d used Twitter for many years to announce new articles, share sports picks, link to funny videos, post restaurant and movie reviews — in short, all the things Twitter was ideally made for.
Twitter was restoring free speech, right?
Nope. Here’s the reply I received (see below). Appeal denied. The permanent ban remains in effect.
So, please don’t tell me the new boss is restoring free speech. He isn’t. He’s lying.
