Twitter's wrong response to trolls

Ever been ‘trolled’ on Twitter?  I guess I was last week. 

I replied to something that was retweeted to me and then boooom!  Within minutes my inbox started filling with messages from supporters of Donald Trump - my response, to a tweet about Trump’s economic competence, spoke to his experience with bankruptcies – kicked-off the process. 

The trolls themselves were not very imaginative.  One confidently stated that I obviously don’t earn more than $12 an hour and another that I have never held a senior position.  Those that know me, will be better aware of whether the work I have had in more than 20 countries, is senior or not.  For myself though, I find it illustrative that these Trump supporters think that only those in ‘senior’ employment and those on higher than minimum wage have views that are worthy of consideration.  I suppose that the whole attraction with Trump is his money.   It is his money that allows him the arrogance to push his shallow and ill-thought statements onto an increasingly polarised America and GOP.

It is this money and arrogance that gets him the media attention.  That, and in my view, the fact that the media see Trump as being the preferred GOP candidate.  My belief is that the MSM see Trump as being overwhelmingly unelectable among the general population.  He will turn-off conservatives and independents in great numbers.  The former because of his previous heavy support for Democrats, his close association with the Clintons and his flip-flopping support for all sorts of Democrat policies abortion and gun control.  The latter because his crass statements shame America.

But I digress.

AsI was being trolled, Twitter announced the formation of something called the Twitter Trust and Safety Council.  This seems to be something that has been set-up to protect people on Twitter, to stop ‘trolling’.

Apart from the Orwellian sounding name, this ‘safety council’ comprises a lot of organisations that seem to have associations with ‘Leftist’ and ultimately anti-free speech people.  It is well known that the Left invents all sorts of 'isms' to stifle debate.  Try to discuss immigration and you are accused of racism, try to criticise a female's politics and you are anti-feminism, etc., etc..  It is my view that this stifling of debate is actually fuelling the rise of extremism.

I don’t know about you but this 'safety council' seems to be completely against what Twitter was all about.  As said earlier, I was trolled and didn’t particularly enjoy the experience however, I didn’t need to resort to a ‘safety council’.  I used the tools that Twitter already provide.  I blocked the principal trolls!  Having done so, the trolling ceased.   The ‘block’ option worked entirely as intended.  No censorious ‘safety council’ was required.  No committee of ‘leftists’ were needed to review the matter and pass judgement.  I used common sense and made the decision, that I no longer wanted these trolls on my timeline, myself. 

Whatever the decision of the Twitter Trust and Safety Council would have been, I doubt I would have brought the matter before them.  They simply sound like a censor, the latest edition of the ‘thought police’. 

Business TV suggests that Twitter Inc is facing tough times.  The share price is being hammered and they had to bring back, Jack Dorsey, one of their founders, as CEO, to rescue the business.  It seems to me that the last thing Twitter should be doing is to introduce censorship, in any form.  Twitter needs to stay true to its principles of freedom – Twitter will be lost if it starts down the road of censorship.  It’s current differentiation comes from its openness – that is now in danger.

So Jack, if you read this, abandon this sinister Trust and Safety Council and keep Twitter true to its origins.  We’re grown-ups and can choose to Block or leave.  We can protect ourselves, trust us.