Yesterday, Twitter inserted a “Get the Facts” link on mail-in voting at the end of a pair of Trump Tweets.
For details, please see Twitter Corrects a Trump Tweet With an Addendum
In a Tweetstorm followup today, Trump goes after Twitter again, threatening to shut it down.
Lead image from TechCrunch.
Shut Down Twitter Threat
Trump Threatens “Big Action”
Lecture on Free Speech
Blowhard Nonsense
- There is no legal means for Trump to shut down Twitter.
- Nor is there any means for Trump to interfere in state election procedures.
No Big Action Coming
Trump could propose election reform legislation, but it’s too late for that. Such legislation would never get through the House.
Trump could file a lawsuit against Twitter, however, the courts would reject it.
Some of Trump’s vote concerns may be valid or at least subject to reasonable debate.
Vote by Mail Irony
Please note Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail 11 times in 10 years
The Tampa native has voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, according to a Tampa Bay Times review of her voting history. Most recently, she voted by mail in the state’s March 2020 presidential primary, just as Trump did after he made Florida his new permanent home.
Last week, McEnany, 32, said vote-by-mail was OK for Trump because “the president is, after all, the president, which means he’s here in Washington. He’s unable to cast his vote down in Florida, his state of residence.”
Twitter Irony
There is no big action coming from Trump, just more big mouth.
An the second irony is Trump will use Twitter to get his message across.
Mish
Republicans are truly masters of self-ownership. In the pursuit of tactical advantage over their enemies, they always end up screwing themselves more.
In the early 2000s, they insisted that people who were concerned about the Patriot Act, NDAA and other orwellian laws were “helping the terrorists and hate America.” They laughed at Americans who warned that such powers get abused. Fast forward to 2016 and they were outraged that the NDAA powers were used against their own presidential candidate by the outgoing administration, just as civil libertarians warned could happen.
Now, this gambit is unlikely to succeed. It is likely a diversion designed to take attention away from the catastrophic incompetence of the administration in the face of COVID.
But let’s pretend it succeeds, and Trump successfully changes the enforcement of the law to remove all free speech and legal protections from any social media site that isn’t 100% unbiased.
Guess what happens to Fox Nation, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Free Republic and dozens of other Republican right wing sites? They all get destroyed, sued into oblivion after they are recategorized as publishers due to their political biases and become civilly liable for all the conspiracy theories, slander and libel in their message boards. The thought of the angry squealing that “this wasn’t supposed to happen to US” is, I will admit, a lovely thing.
All of them : Twitter , FB and YT. They censor as in the Soviet Russia .
Don’t forget Breitbart, Fox Nation, the Daily Caller, RedState.com, etc. They should all be shut down if they don’t allow full radical free expression by communists, Marxists, progressives, Democrats and Greens. They should be banned from banning any perspective, right?
Oh, only the sites you don’t like should be treated that way?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Equal Protection Clause.
The first social media to be targeted by this new law will be Republican sites after the new Biden administration takes office in January. You guys are providing him and his AG with all they’ll need to aggressively shut down your online communities and demand an end to “conservative only” digital spaces.
Talk about self-owning!
Mish needs think about all points before he posts such blogs.
The statement comes as the White House is preparing an executive order that would target social media companies for alleged bias in their content moderation strategies.
Good luck with that you fat orange ignorant pig. What you call bias is nothing more than an opinion you don’t like, and if anyone should be sued for bending the truth or outright lying it is your F’ed up administration.
It just does not matter what you call it, bias? Whatever, it is also called something in our constitution, FREEDOM OF SPEECH! Don’t like it? Boycott Twitter. Don’t like the New York Times or Washington Post? Don’t read it. But no president or any other person has the right to tell others what they can and cannot print. And social media is just one gigantic version of the local paper’s OpEd page. It does not have to be “fair” and the day we allow some crooked imbecile like Trump decide what is and is not fair is the day you lose the last of your rights. You will have turned over the interpretation of the Bill of Rights to a man that should be in a mental ward heavily medicated.
People like myself and others fought against the DMCA way back when because of this very thing.
But – Social Media sites have been enjoying exemption from the provisions of that act and other laws that affect publishers because they were a “free for all” forum where users posted what they want when they want.
However, once you start altering users posts, adding tags that challenge what someone says, or even worse deleting or otherwise doing things that cause that one person’s access to the system to be degraded in relation to other users – based on the content of their posts, you’re wandering into the territory of being a “publisher” and not a “platform” because you’re injecting yourself into the equation.
If you do that, you become subject to the same rules and regulations that any other publisher must abide by.
Lots of us tried to warn people the DMCA was a bad idea…
On the other hand, in order to post anything at any of these sites you have to affirm that you have read and understand the terms and conditions of the site, because they are private enterprise they have the right to restrict content and impose rules on posting behavior. Trump is not exempt from those rules just as you or I am not. If he violates the posting rules of the site he can and should be blocked, warned, booted. As long as the site is following it’s own stated guidelines then tough shit for Trump, he signed an agreement to abide by those standards and yet now claims the standards are biased against him because whah whah they have decided to enforce their policies and he is violating them.
Notice how sides are chosen on this issue by judging the issue on this one, single case?
Are you pro-Trump?
Yes: It’s an outrage!
No: The jerk had it coming!
Wait to see the mass side-switch when some nonsense AOC says generates a negative Twitter-corporate response.
Sorta reminds me of reactions to Facebook use by campaigns.
Obama team uses Facebook effectively: Wow. What a smart, tech-savvy, forward thinking candidate.
Trump team uses Facebook effectively: What a corrupt Nazi!
And vice versa if it’s coming from the other side.
The mass side-switch is like when one party takes over the House from the other. The two parties almost instantaneously switch attitudes on the deficit. It’s like watching a Buster Keaton short. Hilarious.
Oh it gets better.
If the Republicans are successful in getting this new standard passed, it will take effect in the first year of the incoming Biden administration.
That means that all the conservative social media sites that censor Democrats and others on the center and on the left — FoxNation, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Free Republic, NRA.com, and so on — will have to either shut down or open themselves up to anyone who wants to post.
Imagine Naomi Klein articles on Breitbart, or a Democratic Socialist forum on Fox Nation… plus lots of angry conservatives complaining that the law was only supposed to apply to the social sites they didn’t like.
Well, those sites don’t purport to be unedited, so there wouldn’t be any change there. But, yep, “free speech” is too often, “my speech, but not yours.”
The chump needs to be shown the exit in November.
Four more years. The Democratic Party is inherently corrupt.
“[Trump] IS government. If you support trump, you support government. If you support him censoring twitter, you support the government violating the first amendment.” This is as profound an insight as I’ve seen in a comment in a long time.
Just right on.
I think Twitter and Facebook have a policy to take down incorrect information about Covid19 and elections. I’ve seen a lot of reporting that mail in voting is important to the the Republican party in Florida. Something about their demographics make it important for Republicans?
If Americans don’t stop political censorship on such firms as Twitter , YT, FB and so on then some day we gonna wake up in the same shit as in Europe , in the world of neomarxists …
What was censored? What specific trump utterance did twitter hide, change or delete?
Nothing. Not a single character. Nothing was censored.
“….then some day we gonna wake up in the same shit as in Europe …”
Wake up.
So, suppose I scream nonsense or lies on every street corner, would it be acceptable for the city to voice-over and correct? I doubt it.
Then, shouldn’t Twitter be bound by the same conventions?
Conversely, if the president screamed nonsense or lies from megaphones in my city, then how would we react? I bet we would perceive that oppressive or propaganda.
Then again, relying on Twitter (or any other party at that) to actively censor or regulate our communications feels scary to say the least.
How do we, the people, are to balance all that?
The major flaw in your argument is in the first sentence — “…on every street corner,…”. You are describing a public area in which your right to express yourself is well protected. Twitter is not a street corner – no matter how much it looks and feels like one. It is a private area that is governed by their (Twitter’s) terms and conditions.
As to the statement about the president screaming nonsense in one city — well, he does this continually across the entire nation by using television and other media. I don’t know if people find it oppressive, but considering a vast majority don’t trust him compared to the doctors and other members of his pandemic response team, I would argue many find the message to be propaganda.
If Twitter cannot choose who posts what on its forum, neither can Fox, nor Breitbart, nor any conservative-leaning social site as well.
You’ll be singing a different tune when your favorite online space is flooded by trolls promoting communism or some other looney ideology with which you personally disagree.
tRump should stop whining: nobody is forcing him to stay on twitter, so why does not he just quit?
What, and read shampoo bottles during toilet time?
It should be obvious that these new “private” media platforms have long ago evolved into platforms /public square for public discourse. As such, the same rights should prevail as constitutionally enshrined. “Private” platforms should fall under the same restrictions as apply to publishers. This legal carve out for a new phenomena has applied for too long.
They published trump’s words, verbatim. trump is offended because they commented on his words. They said something he didn’t like, and now he wants them shut down for it.
We have an amendment about being able to say things that people don’t like. If you don’t recall, that amendment says saying things people don’t like is a right. Not a privilege. The amendment comes even before the one that says we have a right to take up arms against the government.
The president once again wants to violate the constitution, this time because his feelings were hurt. Full Stop.
trump IS government. If you support trump, you support government. If you support him censoring twitter, you support the government violating the first amendment.
“”Private” platforms should fall under the same restrictions as apply to publishers.”
Which, in anything even remotely resembling a free country, are exactly none at all.
A good part of why these newfangled “private” platforms are running circles around the various Pravdas in appealing to people, is specifically freedom of speech has been at least a tiny bit less curtailed on them. So you just about may chance upon something which is not 100% mindless pap cooked up by some propaganda ministry sycophant granted the privilege to insist his particular opinion is somehow that fashionably mythical thing the dunces are told is called “fact.”
The constitution, as written, and as “interpreted” by those who wrote it and those around those who wrote it, protected shouting “fire!” in a crowded theater. That was a feature. Not a bug.
Mish, I began reading your comments about 15 years ago. At that time you were one of the few voices that registered with the way I saw things. Like debt levels, mortgages,etc. You were right on then. I continued to read your column during the tragic illness of your late wife. I contributed 500 dollars to als in her memory. but what you have evolved into on this site with your crude minions and their ignorant comments is amazing from who you used to be. God bless. Moving on.
You just stole my comment. I started reading this blog aT very beginning. Never commented since English is not my first language. I’m totally agree with you. It is very very sad! Moving on!
I’m with Elvis. I’ve read Mish a long time, saw him at a Casey conference, and feel I know him some. It’s one thing to point out how politicians are not reliable or worse, but Mish has become a partisan who thinks he sees the forest. I don’t think he does. Adios, grocery bagger!
You can learn from those whom you disagree with. Don’t just read what you want to hear. I stuck with Mish when he supported Trump, although I vehemently disagreed, and I benefited by being challenged to reconsider or to refine aspects of my opposition to Trump. Engaging thoughtful views contrary to one’s priors are good for thinking and understanding, despite entailing some discomfort.
In other words, Mish is supposed to stop reporting on reality, facts, math and logic and instead report happy-happy partisan blather to make members of Trump’s personality cult feel happy about their decision to cede their mental faculties to a con artist.
drama queen
The President of the U.S. has a lot of power to use/abuse if he is unhappy. Look at how he managed to exert his influence to make Bezos feel pain. Possibly the worst thing that could happen to Twitter would be for the President to move to another social media platform (along with the 30% of the population who are core Trumpeters).
This assumes they can figure out how to install a new app on their phones. I bet he would lose at least half of them.
Twitter has a lot of bots… they can’t seem to get rid of them. Another good reason to get off Twitter.
here’s a rhetorical and ironic question based on “professionals telling people for whom to vote”
isn’t EVERY election RIGGED?
Not in the US. We are the bestest remember?
A nation of idiots will be led by The Idiot Whisperers
So much caterwauling out there over an election that doesn’t even matter. We have our bombastic reality show guy versus a senile status quo apparatchik. Future historians will treat us similarly to the USSR’s Brezhnev era, another empire in a state of advanced decay.
With the Fed running the show, we could elect a dog as POTUS and it wouldn’t make make any measurable difference in peoples’ lives.
Might as well get some satisfaction from ejecting incumbents, and chortling at their boo boo faces as they make their concession and or voter fraud accusation speeches.
The deep state will take care of things no matter who is elected. Also makes a good reality TV, so are you not entertained?
Big action? During his Twitter toilet time? Better call in the White House plumber!
DJT LOVES the stock markets … and KNOWS his words / actions can move them (in case of Twitter … DOWN) … surely he didn’t let his family / friends know beforehand …
Does “big action” include hooker and blow?
It’s a b—- when reality interferes with your fantasies.
The main way to be seen as grownup is to not act like a two-year-old.
If he didn’t act like a two year old, his target audience wouldn’t understand him.