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1 Jun, 2020 17:54

I’ve been ‘unpersonned’ by Twitter! I am apparently guilty of ‘wrongthink’ over the riots arising from George Floyd’s murder

I’ve been ‘unpersonned’ by Twitter! I am apparently guilty of ‘wrongthink’ over the riots arising from George Floyd’s murder

How very rude. I am now officially, according to the social media giant, unauthentic and not of interest. Somebody should tell Jack Dorsey that Orwell’s 1984 was science fiction, not an instruction manual.

No email, no explanation, no courtesy call or text. 

That’s what happens when your Twitter account is de-verified by the SJWs in Silicon Valley – as I discovered first-hand today. 

According to them (and for reasons unbeknown to me) I am no longer deemed to be a person who is “authentic” or “of public interest” – something, admittedly, my closest friends have been telling me for years. 

Still, like any good dictatorship, their decision remains a mystery. They’ve just ignored my requests for the reason. 

Perhaps it was my most recent tweet, which asked whether people looting Amazon Prime vans in Santa Monica can accurately be described as protestors – or whether the term “opportunistic thieves” is more fitting. 

Either way, I simply suggested they weren’t honoring George Floyd, whose tragic death has sparked race riots across the USA. 

Or maybe it was because I dared to tackle the perception of police violence.  My crime? Saying: “What happened to #GeorgeFloyd was appalling. But not all cops are bad. And not all bad cops are white. Just look at the killing of Justine Damond... by a Somali-American officer from the same Minnesota Police Force.” 

Damond – a 40 year-old white woman – was shot dead in 2017 after reporting an assault behind her home. 

Her brutal slaying was later ruled unlawful, yet there was little uproar from executives at Twitter. And certainly no looting of expensive Nike trainers from designer boutiques. Go figure! 

Also on rt.com Minnesota cop sentenced to 12+ years for killing unarmed woman who called 911

Then again, maybe my “unpersoning” was because I recently retweeted Elon Musk’s directive to “take the red pill” – a call to arms which would leave even the toughest millennial triggered. 

Whatever the cause, I’m in good company. Earlier this week, the site also took aim at the US President Donald Trump, tagging two of his tweets with fact-check warnings. 

He then retorted by signing an executive order which could strip social media giants of their “platform” privilege. 

If successful, the move could create an online revolution which hands power to Twitter and Facebook’s biggest competitors. 

Dave Rubin’s new site, Locals, is one of them. Devoid of “woke” moral codes which expel and censor, it has only one rule: as long as it doesn’t violate a copyright or is illegal, it’s allowed. 

“It’s an attempt to flip everything the internet is on its head, from the bottom-up, focused on creators first,” Rubin – author of Don’t Burn This Book – told Spectator US. “They will own the content, and set their own rules within the communities they build.” 

Sounds mighty promising, but its takeover can’t come soon enough. 

See, the interim period on Twitter doesn’t bode well for the future of free speech. As the likes of Rubin, Eric Weinstein and Douglas Murray have already warned in recent years, this sort of censorship will only get worse. 

It starts small, and perhaps with good intentions, but then goes on to control the Overton window – and, ultimately, our lives. Just like George Orwell predicted in his dystopian novel, 1984. 

Spoiler alert: that didn’t end well and neither will this. 

Not that Twitter verification alone matters, of course. Let’s face it, it has zero value in the real world, let alone the virtual one run by Jack Dorsey – a man who can’t even go on Joe Rogan without hiding behind his lawyer. 

In fact, de-verification by Twitter is almost flattering – a bit like being of no sexual interest to Harvey Weinstein. 

But I’ll still miss that little blue tick. Weirdly, I took a subversive pride in seeing it next to my name – I guess it made me feel distinguished from all the haters, cry-bullies and anonymous trolls who flood the site with their political agendas. 

Then I realized they run the damn thing...

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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