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by commenting 3499 days ago
Good riddance. Twitter shouldn't let itself be a recruiting platform for neo-Nazis and their ilk.

This is consistent with the ban on ISIS propaganda accounts, which was also a positive step towards combatting online extremism.

3 comments

Are the banned "alt-right" commentators commensurate with ISIS propagandists? If so, how much else ought to be banned? Black power groups? Anti-fascist groups? Many "social justice" accounts post anti-white, anti-male messages with impunity. Should we then paint all people concerned with social justice with the same brush?
This is a boring question. Reality is more complicated than drawing stark lines around everything. There may be some gray areas Twitter also has to deal with, but that's not a counter argument to the obviously positive move of removing abusive bigots.
"Boring question", yet you responded to it. Reality is "complicated", yet the move is "obviously positive". Others think it would be "obviously positive" for social justice accounts to be suspended. Many self-described social justice activists engage in racist and sexist rhetoric. Will you be just as enthusiastic to throw the label "bigot" on them? Will you be just as quick to lump them all in together?
We already know the atrocity of a region being ruled by ISIS - imagine a country run by alt-right types. We don't have to look very far back in history to see what that would be like. Twitter is acting appropriately here in not wanting to aid the rise of such a movement.
We don't have to look far back in history to see what it would be like to live under "communists", either.
Were the literal 1930s Nazis comparable to ISIS propagandists? If not, then why not? What about modern Neo-Nazis, are they really better? Why?
Ideologically, they're all extreme.

Practically, one of those three groups were widely successful among many millions of people. So you'll find a great sensitivity to that one.

The people that the left calls neo nazis would likely reject that label.

Just because you call a group you don't like a Nazi, doesn't make it true.

Doesn't make it false either. There is significant overlap between established neo-Nazi movements and the "alt-right", both in membership and rhetoric.
Where else are they going to go? There is a "significant overlap" between social justice and anti-white, anti-male, anti-cis propaganda. There's no convenient label to stick on that one just yet, but if you want to be consistent you're going to have to paint all social justice people with that brush.
>consistent with the ban on ISIS propaganda

Rejecting a culture seems a little different than wanting to kill people from a culture, but maybe in the social media age speaking out against something is as bad as physical violence, because of the hurt feelings.

So, you prefer it when they make their plans behind your back ?