Twitter is the 'porn hub' of social media.
Shockingly, despite Indian laws & Twitter’s own policies, even child p0rn & r@pe videos are freely available.
Worse, Twitter’s lax policy has allowed a massive psy-war targeting communal harmony.
a thread:
thedisinfolab.org/twitter-hub/
Twitter, US based for-profit company, seems obliged to follow only US’ laws, while showing complete dis-regard to India’s IT Rules, which prohibits adult content on social media. Twitter doesn't even make any attempt to implement the laws, doable with basic location filter.
2/n
Contrast it with other social media platforms which do far better content management, & continue to strive to keep social media space clean.
Shockingly, Twitter seems blind to even most obscene contents including child p*rn despite a ‘child sexual exploitation policy’ (sic)
3/n
Twitter claims a ‘zero tolerance’ policy to child p0rngraphy – and yet seems to make zero efforts to counter this menace. Important to remember that this content is available to even under age users, as Twitter doesn't filter ‘sensitive content’ to even young users.
4/n
Equally shocking is freely available ‘r@pe videos’ on Twitter - which is prohibited even under Twitter’s policy of ‘gory content’ Even those video posts, which have words that could trigger filter mechanism are freely available including the gang r@pe video of a young girl!
5/n
Twitter has also miserably failed to filter obscene content for young users. Even a minor user on Twitter can access most obscene content if they wish to. Worth noting that Twitter could easily filter particular kind of content on age & location restriction, if it wished to.
6/n
To access Twitter Hub, one need not even own a Twitter account. An open Google search could land anyone, even a minor, to most gory and vulgar contents available on Twitter with just a click on ‘view sensitive content’. Seems #Google also need to take measures to control it.
7/n
From videos to live-webcam:
Twitter has a full-fledged p0rn industry – from live web cam to other ‘off-line services’. Numerous NSFW content selling websites openly advertise themselves on Twitter, including those who show their registration in India.
8/n
#Indian Cam Girl- a Case Study
These activities are not run in hiding but in broad day light, advertising with hashtags! Live p0rn is openly sold on Twitter using #IndianCamGirl hashtag involving a nexus of ‘service providers’.
9/n
The fact that the hashtag started in 2017, involves several Influencers, and is used regularly is a testament to Twitter’s unwillingness to address these concerns.
10/n
Enabling Crimes - from online to offline
In the garb of such ‘services’ personal data of users is being mined, to be used for criminal activities from ‘sextortion’ to r@pe, to sexual exploitation of minors, leading to grave consequences including $uicides.
11/n
Weaponizing P0rn - a tool for Psy-war
anti-social/ anti-India elements are taking advantage of this ‘free p0rn’ environment of Twitter, weaponizing the content. An elaborate psy-war is being wages to damage India’s communal harmony, particularly between Hindus and Muslims.
12/n
#mstud & #hstud: a case study
Hundreds of fake handles running coordinated campaigns, dehumanizing the women of both religions. These handles pretend to be Hindus (#hstuds) when demeaning Muslim girls (#mslut); and Muslim (#mstud), while demeaning Hindu girls (#hslut).
13/n
The behavior pattern of these handles – creation date, activity, location & hashtag – clearly establishes an organized campaigns designed to harm social harmony. Surprisingly, despite obvious Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) Twitter doesn't seem to take any actions.
14/n
How damaging are such psy-war?
Remember #SulliDeals? Despite no details about actual ppl & intent, the incident not only deepened communal hatred between 2 communities, but was also used by several news media, peddling narrative of ‘increasing bigotry in India’.
15/n
Conclusion:
Obvious CIBs & clear signature (hashtags/ group of handles) -yet Twitter doesn’t notice, let alone act. Whether this incompetence, negligence or willful ignorance is hard to say.
What is clear is the damages it causes to society and India’s image.
#TwitterHub
16/n
An appeal:
the only antidote to psy-war is awareness.
Its important to keep an open eye & open mind while using social media, specially Twitter which is vague in policies, lax in implementations & erratic in responses - w/o accountability to the law & to its users.
17/n
You can also read the article on our other social media handles.
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18/18
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