Twitter complained of "inaccuracies in the details and unfair portrayals"
in an article which described their service as "a honeypot for _ _ _holes."
Buzzfeed interviewed 10 "high-level" former employees who
detailed a company "Fenced in by an abiding commitment to free speech above all else
and a unique product that makes moderation difficult and trolling
almost effortless."
An anonymous Slashdot reader summarizes their
report:
Twitter's commitment to free speech can be traced to employees at
Google's Blogger platform who all went on to work at Twitter.
They'd
successfully fought for a company policy that "We don't get involved in
adjudicating whether something is libel or slander...
We'll do it if we
believe we are required to by law."
One former Twitter employee says
"The Blogger brain trust's thinking was set in stone by the time they
became Twitter Inc."
Twitter was praised for providing an uncensored voice during 2009 elections in Iran and the Arab Spring, and fought the secrecy of a government subpoena for information on their WikiLeaks account.
Twitter was praised for providing an uncensored voice during 2009 elections in Iran and the Arab Spring, and fought the secrecy of a government subpoena for information on their WikiLeaks account.
The former of head of news
at Twitter says "The whole 'free speech wing of the free speech party'
thing -- that's not a slogan.
That's deeply, deeply embedded in the DNA
of the company... [Twitter executives] understand that this toxicity can
kill them, but how do you draw the line?
Where do you draw the line?
I
would actually challenge anyone to identify a perfect solution.
But it
feels to a certain extent that it's led to paralysis.
While Twitter now says they are working on the problem, Buzzfeed argues this "maximalist approach to free speech was integral to Twitter's rise, but quickly created the conditions for abuse...
Twitter has made an
ideology out of protecting its most objectionable users.
That ethos also
made it a beacon for the internet's most vitriolic personalities, who
take particular delight in abusing those who use Twitter for their
jobs."
***
“Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? … You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.”
Jesus Christ
Matthew7:3, 5
There are several things to note here:
The first is Jesus’ wry
observation about perspective.
The closer an object gets to the eye, the
larger it appears—a splinter from afar is log-sized if it’s in one’s
eye.
So a fault in one’s own life is a far greater problem than the same
fault in another’s life—the opposite of how we tend to think.
But the
point of the passage is to shut up only until one corrects one’s own life.
And, contrary to much subsequent Christian theological development, the
Matthean Jesus actually expects that a person can do so, ultimately
living in a righteous manner.
This would often be labeled
“self-righteousness” today, though it is simply called “righteousness”
in Matthew.
The second thing worthy of note is Jesus point that only after
correcting one’s own behavior will one see clearly enough to make
adequate judgments and help anyone else correct his/her own behavior.
This is a recognition of the human tendency to judge based on our own
heart; that is, we tend to see ourselves in others.
(The postmodern
recognition of essential subjectivity is closely related to this
concept.)
Just like a man with a splinter in his eye, we see that
splinter (only much larger than it really is—as a beam) everywhere we
look.
If we are arrogant, we tend to see arrogance in other people.
If
we are cruel, we tend to suspect cruelty in others.
If we are lecherous
(an outstanding and underused word—isn’t that a great word, “lecherous?”
Even better is the noun, “lecher,” as in “you filthy lecher!”), we tend
to suspect sexual motives, desires, or behaviors in others.
It is
extraordinarily hard for us to break out of ourselves enough to truly
empathize, seeing from another’s viewpoint, and Jesus makes the case
that it is far harder—perhaps impossible—to do so when we are not pure
hearted ourselves.
As long as we hold to our own faults, we will see
them in everyone else.
But, as Titus 1:15 says, “to the pure everything
is pure.”
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