Thread by @owenblacker

Next at #ORGcon: @glinner and @helenlewis. Are we building a utopian dream or a dystopian nightmare?

Graham Linehan has left @Twitter cos their terms of service are clearly meaningless if not applied to @realDonaldTrump, @Cernovich #ORGcon

The free speech of people monetising hate is limiting the free speech of disadvantaged groups. Both speakers talk abt 45's erosion > #ORGcon

< of democratic norms. And enrichment of people who literally started a Patreon morning before disrupting a play they perceive as anti-trump

Fox "News" reported as fact that today will be an antifa uprising, based on an obvious joke tweet. People will die from that lie #ORGcon

Glinner says must stop pretending this is normal. There's not a debate about punching Nazis—they want to eradicate is. Punch Nazis #ORGcon

Helen Lewis asks: what responsibility do platforms have here? Glinner: Enforce the damn ToS. Trump should be at least be suspended> #ORGcon

< for threatening to kill an entire nation of people! Twitter created this space they have to accept some moral leadership for how it's used

Glinner: apparently @jack only cares about verified accounts. On the plus side, Twitter does reveal arsehole nature of, eg, Milo & Assange

Helen: how much does very white (and Asian) middle class nature of Silicon Valley distort things? #ORGcon

I can't do justice to Glinner's amusing description of wow what a fucked up person Peter Thiel is #ORGcon

Helen: Boy emperor complex. No sense of moral social contract, of that they're "taking goods to market on a road we all built" #ORGcon

Helen talks abt Twitter avoiding doing simple things to reduce pollution of their space, like requiring a 1p fee on 10th profile created now

Helen talks about realisation that targetting ads by proxies for gender, race and social class is not a neutral tech #ORGcon

And now Zuck is running for election to President. Or possibly to God-Emperor of the world. #ORGcon

Glinner: we need to move past some of the noisy antagonism and start dealing with Climate Change. Just so damn urgent #ORGcon

That said, #metoo, #BlackLivesMatter and #repealthe8th are in front of people on a way they wouldn't have been without social media #ORGcon

These things could effect real change. But then we also seem to be seeing a reactionary reassertion of traditional gender values #ORGcon

Glinner: adolescent misogyny that young angry birds usually grow past is being incubated by places like 4chan and people like Milo #ORGcon

Milo—who belittled gamers previously—told angry teen boys and told them that feeling is the real them; that they should fight back against >

< "those bitches" and blame political correctness for all their problems. That's the specific harm he's done #ORGcon

Questions: A writer for "alt-media" suggests that BBC lies about Iraq war are more relevant than people with tiki torches.

Glinner clarifies that "all media should have the same standards of truth". If @Cernovich lies about Pizzagate he shld be shut down #ORGcon

Another questioner: is it more harmful to challenge Katie Hopkins and give her attention. Helen: focus on their enablers. Mercer no longer>

< wants anything to do with Milo, for example. Hopkins would prolly be a Bolshevik in 1917 Russia asa means of getting attention #ORGcon

Audience: Do we just need more utopian art? ☺️
Audience journalist: internet allowing more diverse voices is a good. Worrying that >

Charlottesville being blamed on memes, just as Marilyn Manson blamed for Columbine. We need to look more deeply that blaming art #ORGcon

Glinner: Twitter at its best is the great American novel & everyone's writing it. But you couldn't write a comedy about Trump—too ridiculous

A good story allows you to consider to conflicting opinions at the same time. Twitter or news articles can't do that. #ORGcon

(I've done a terrible job at summarising that session. Sorry for anyone not here, you didn't get the half of it!)

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