The latest grand plan from the Alt Right was to show Twitter engages in hypocrisy when it comes to suspending users and removing their verified status [1]; see the image below showing questionable tweets from verified users. To try to prove their point, various Alt Right adherents filed complaints over a 2011 tweet from Katie Notopoulos of Buzzfeed.

Their complaints got her account suspended for 10 days. They set out to show that Twitter has a double standard, but "proved" the opposite.

It's questionable whether they changed any minds and whether what they did will have any impact on Twitter censorship. They probably did the opposite: Twitter defenders can now point to Notopoulos as an example of how Twitter applies its rules regardless of whether someone is on the same political side as Twitter executives. The Alt Right has also made bogus abuse reports more likely, rather than opposing them.

Notopoulos's offending tweet was "Kill All White People" and she says it was ironic. Twitter demanded she delete it and some other tweets to get her access restored.

It should be clear that tweets that contain entirely personal, private information such as home addresses or social security numbers should be deleted unless the public has a very compelling interest in that information. Even in the exceedingly rare very compelling cases, as much of the information as possible should be censored. Tweets that contain death threats against specific people should be dealt with by law enforcement and those making the threats should have their accounts permanently suspended.

However, it's less clear if a "Kill All White People" tweet - whether meant ironically or seriously - should be deleted. Will deleting it make the thinking behind the tweet go away? Why should someone be given the chance to cover up for posting such things? Shouldn't such tweets be kept around to help discredit the users?

Twitter is frantically covering up for their platform's role in Donald Trump's election by deleting accounts run by those controlled by Vladimir Putin. Wouldn't it be much better to see what "PutinBots" are saying, especially since there are probably large numbers of such bots that are under much deeper cover?

Notopoulos certainly hasn't learned whatever lesson Alt Right thought they were delivering; she wrote about this incident at Buzzfeed [2] and tweeted [3]:

My Twitter was locked for 10 days after the alt right found an "anti-white" tweet I made in 2011. I had ~a lot of time~ to think about what it means for Twitter that trolls are able to efficiently exploit the rules for bad faith brigading.

Some Alt Right accounts reply, inadvertently admitting they were ineffective: "Oh wow! She needs more time to understand her own ignorance", 'Alternate headline: "I don't like that my racism had consequences!"', and "... and yet, you learned nothing..."

Notopoulos and those like her would have learned something if the Alt Right had done things using PORS principles. See this list of smart ways to fight Twitter censorship. Over a year later, despite sending that to many, I haven't received any help with that. Instead, those likely to be affected by that censorship do things like the above or threaten fantastical lawsuits that never materialize.

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[1] Twitter was concerned that some took verified status to be an endorsement. Did they simply repeat over and over that verification isn't endorsement? No, they made verification tantamount to an endorsement by removing verified status from some accounts they disagree with.

[2] buzzfeed · com/katienotopoulos/how-trolls-locked-my-twitter-account-for-10-days-and-welp

[3] twitter · com/katienotopoulos/status/937070422612463616