Thread by @dropmonad

Here's a short and incomplete summary of the lead-up to Anima Anandkumar's cancellation list. Focusing mostly on the time since she started to go after Pedro Domingos since it's most recent and illustrative. 1/n

There is too much to cover and many of the original conversations have been deleted. I was able to recover a few through archive.org and a couple from earlier screenshots, which is why the styling of the screenshots is a bit random. 2/n

The point of this thread is to give some context for the lead-up, as well as illustrate some of the tactics used by Anima and her supporters. Tactics that follow a pretty standard playbook that many in ML will have seen in action before. 3/n

This particular episode started in the middle of the outrage after Timnit Gebru left google. Pedro and Anima had clashed a few times and Anima was on a bit of a public shaming roll already (e.g. going after Nando de Freitas for this tweet) 4/n

https://twitter.com/NandoDF/status/1335883290142781441?s=20

At some point, Pedro posts a critique of the way ethics reviews block papers for far-fetched "potential harm" reasons.

https://twitter.com/pmddomingos/status/1336187141366317056?s=20

5/n

Anima saw this and disagreed. And then she decided she was going to take him down. She starts setting the stage for her campaign. He's not just wrong, he's a misogynist and a racist who makes his students uncomfortable.

She also loops in UW and NeurIPS to cancel him. 6/n


Note how the accusations are extremely strong, there is a demand for ousting him from his university and conferences, but the only fact claim made (without source) is ... that he is "a fan of Damore and believes DEI is against men"? 7/n

So what can the victim do? The most common response is to apologize, self-flagellate a bit, and pledge allegiance to the mob. Bonus if you can show that you are actually marginalized.

See Nando apology 1:

https://twitter.com/NandoDF/status/1336023305405554689

Nando apology 2:

https://twitter.com/NandoDF/status/1337322285456355328

8/n

Since Pedro didn’t immediately back down, she and her followers started making the rounds, shaming and threatening people that didn’t unequivocally denounce him. Silence is endorsement, apparently. 9/n

"Silence is endorsement" is another common tactic - it pairs well with the tendency to catastrophize and exaggerate accusations. If the primary victim is accused of racism and you don't denounce them, you are also a racist.

10/n

This tactic was of course applied to @uwcse which caved almost immediately and denounced Pedro. Of course, this is not enough for Anima. She wants them to make sure they leave no ambiguity about whose side they're on.

11/n

Up until now there's been a frustrating lack of substance to their accusations. They just had the few tweets where he said things they disagreed with, a few where he trolls back at Anima, and some old emails they found.

Let's see what they make of it.

12/n

The most reusable type of accusation is that his words cause “harm”. Note that no justification was given for why his action might be trigger, but the beauty of this tactic is that it is self-reinforcing. Once everyone thinks he hates women, of course that is triggering.

13/n

Jeremy Howard shares an article which claims Pedro is Racist and Sexist. Oh dear! Has he done something we’re not aware of?

Ah, no. It turns out the title is a little exaggerated - it's just a blog post with the old emails where he talks about free speech. Good enough!

14/n

Time to work on the accusations of sexism. Pedro is disagreeing with a woman, so this is a good opportunity to paint him as a mansplainer or a pig. Note the quote-tweet — this is directed at his followers, despite the wording. 15/n

Another general purpose tactic is to cast everyone who agrees with Pedro as alt-right bots he controls (?). This serves to dehumanise his supporters and prime mob participants to not to let themselves be tricked by "fake" people. 16/n

Until now everything has been by the book. But Anima decides to try something new.

The following tweets listed roughly 150 people she claims have liked, retweeted, or followed the wrong things. Among others, the list seemed to contain employees at her own company.

17/n

If there was doubt in anyone's mind, Anima tells us what she wants her followers to do with the list.

Try to change their minds. If that doesn't work, #cancel.

18/n

Not long after she releases the cancel list, NVIDIA chimes in. Has she finally gone too far?

Ah, maybe not.

19/n

In fairly rapid succession, she then deletes the list, followed by her twitter account. To this date, there has been no denouncement of her actions by NVIDIA or any of her supporters.

And as we've all learned, silence is endorsement.

20/n

Update: Anima Anandkumar has apologized. 21/n

animakumar.wpcomstaging.com/2020/12/16/my-…

https://twitter.com/pmddomingos/status/1339417827942359040

Rather than embrace the apology and disarm, Timnit Gebru decides it's time to pivot. She repeats the accusations of racism, sexism, and botting, but note that the target has shifted to unspecified attacks, "not only on reddit". 22/n

https://twitter.com/timnitGebru/status/1339345941086806020?s=20

Note that people who disagree with her are still bots and "fake accounts" (meaning Pedro?). This would be easier if you just showed me who you are and where you work! 23/n

Every tactic we have seen so far builds on the same victim narrative. Their methods are always justified, because they have no power. NVIDIA's director of AI research canceling 150 random people for liking the wrong tweets is punching *up*. 24/n

https://twitter.com/timnitGebru/status/1339345949223772160?s=20