Thread by @glukianoff

Before starting this thread, I’ve really noticed a big uptick in people struggling in terms of mental health this month. Here is the thread with my best advice of what to do if you’re feeling depressed: 0/24

https://twitter.com/glukianoff/status/1088849852904148992?s=20

THREAD: @RynoWeiss & I wrote how Twitter’s enormous gaffe w/r/t banning the Biden @nypost article demonstrates 3 important concepts for understanding censorship: The Streisand Effect, Censorship Envy, & the Slippery Slope Tendency. 1/24

thefire.org/the-nypost-twi…

#NYPost published an article about docs given to them by @RudyGiuliani, allegedly scraped from a laptop owned by Joe Biden’s son.
FB & Twitter took steps to “limit its spread.” Twitter took the possibly unprecedented step of blocking the article from being tweeted or DMed. 2/24

Voices across the political spectrum, (even those who praised FB’s response) condemned Twitter’s heavy-handed approach. You couldn’t even share the article, quote from its sections, or screenshot them even if your goal was to critique them. 3/24

The criticism pointed to how Twitter’s ban not only didn’t help, but was actually counterproductive to stop the article’s spread.

I.e. The Streisand Effect, coined by @mmasnick — the tendency for suppression of information to ensure that way more people end up seeing it. 4/24

When you tell someone they can’t share a piece of information, you activate some lizard part of their brain that says, “No, screw you!” & motivates them to spread it as far & as wide as possible. 5/24

In most cases, this motivation to spread information is orders of magnitude larger than the motivation warranted by the information itself. (Who ACTUALLY cares about Barbra Streisand’s house?) 6/24

That’s probably the case here. Twitter & FB forbidding this information ensured all outlets covered a story that would have just circulated in conservative media for a couple days.
FB & Twitter could scarcely have done a worse job “limiting the spread.” 7/24

Free speech advocates are often accused of employing the “slippery slope fallacy,” meaning that the damage done tomorrow exists only in our heads, & that some censorship now doesn’t actually mean more censorship tomorrow. 8/24

When it comes to censorship, the slope is in fact quite slick & at least in regards to free speech, & you have what I’d call a “slippery slope tendency.”

Twitter is a pretty excellent study in the slippery slope tendency. 9/24

8 years ago, Twitter’s executives described themselves as the “free speech wing of the free speech party” when resisting calls from the United Kingdom government to censor more speech.

A couple years later, they backed down & began to censor content in other countries. 10/24

Later, they implemented policies banning hate speech based on race & gender, then began banning speech that wasn’t hateful but was “dehumanizing.”

Eventually they grew the categories to include that which dehumanizes on the basis of religion, & then on the basis of age. 11/24

At this point, Twitter represents the censorship wing of the panicked appeasement party.

Facebook similarly evolved from a defender of free speech to employing literally the most censors the world has ever seen. 12/24

The slippery slope tendency doesn’t just apply to categories of banned speech — the tactics of the bans tend to slip as well, until you get to the point where Twitter won’t even let you link to something forbidden, even to criticize it. 13/24

So what drives the slide? What greases the slope? In part, it’s Censorship Envy.

Censorship Envy, as defined by @VolokhC “The common reaction that, ‘If my neighbor gets to ban speech he reviles, why shouldn’t I get to do the same?’” 14/24

washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-co…

Hating unfairness is human nature, felt in early childhood when one sees another child get a toy we really want for ourselves (Rom the Space Knight in my case)

It’s not even just HUMAN nature—even monkeys feel affronted when given unequal rewards. 15/24

npr.org/sections/healt…

We feel envy & acute unfairness when we see another group receiving privileges or treatment that we feel we deserve as well. 16/24

When a hypothetical Muslim sees FB ban hate against black Americans, they may demand FB censor the next anti-Muslim post. When a hypothetical Christian sees Twitter censoring anti-Muslim speech, they might demand they censor the next post hating on Christianity. 17/24

When I, a hypothetical old man (extremely hypothetical), see that posts are banned for insulting Christians, I would demand that they delete the next whippersnapper that asks me for a Werther’s Original. 18/24

Our sense of fairness practically demands that the circle of proscribed speech gets larger over time & almost never shrinks.

The censorship cat is very hard to put back in the bag. I don’t have a clear answer for how to stop this cycle, other than not to start it. 19/24

One important caveat I want to make clear: Misinformation is a tough issue. There are already stories suggesting that this information given to the Post is Russian disinformation.

Do I believe this could be true? Of course I do, & you should too. 20/24

businessinsider.com/us-intelligenc…

My family on my dad's side is Russian from close to the Ukraine border.

My dad consumes a lot of Russian media, & I argue with him when it seems that he’s consuming Russia’s state-controlled news without enough skepticism. I can forgive him that because he's 94. 21/24

As a general rule, if information comes out about politics in Ukraine, always remind yourself that Russia has an intense interest in what happens there & in undermining US-Ukraine relations.

Be skeptical of news that advances the interest of global powers, even the US 22/24

Disinformation is a major challenge for #freespeech. Still, I believe that Twitter has made a big mistake that will haunt them.

At the same time, I’m very curious to find out what investigations into whether this information is true, & how it was obtained, will reveal. 23/24

BONUS: If you’d like to learn about another key concept for free speech, check out my thread on the “Bedrock principle” 24/24

https://twitter.com/glukianoff/status/1305975589896159236