Twitchy regular Michael Ian Black isn’t happy that white nationalist Jason Kessler — the guy who organized the Charlottesville protest that left one dead — earned a coveted blue check from Twitter and issued this ultimatum to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey:
Hey @jack: very active user, 2.1M followers here: this is disgusting. Verifying white supremacists reinforces the increasing belief that your site is a platform for hate speech. I don't want to give up Twitter, but I may have to. Who do you value more, users like me or him? https://t.co/5ymcNfFvH0
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 9, 2017
So @Jack is going to give his celebrity users a veto power over who gets verified or not? Black went on to argue that he’s not for censoring speech:
I'm not asking them to censor speech. I'm asking them to remove the tacit endorsement a checkmark confers. Endorsement may not be their intention, but it's the effect. https://t.co/kF31DzYgdX
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 9, 2017
Exactly. my numbers matter. Users like me matter. I'm asking @jack to choose: me or a white supremacist. Would hope others like me do the same, but it's a personal decision. https://t.co/k6x5zASBbr
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 9, 2017
Black only wants the checkmark removed:
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This is how I'm using it for good. @jack can choose Nazis or he can choose me. Only asking for the checkmark to be removed. https://t.co/oQDTUNMsvH
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 9, 2017
And he gave Julian Assange as an example:
Why isn't Julian Assange verified? Once they took that stand, they essentially decided that some users' views were too odious for verification. I'm only asking the same for Nazis. https://t.co/h4oAUghjmK
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 9, 2017
But that might not be the best example. The purpose of the blue check, as Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown points out, is to verify who someone is, not that it’s a “seal of approval”:
Twitter verification is to ensure some ppl here are who they say they are. It's not a seal of approval or ticket to the cool lunch table…
— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) November 9, 2017
Not sure why everyone's all shocked and dismayed that some bad guy got verified
— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) November 9, 2017
Over to you, @Jack. Are you going to cave to a comedian or go down this slippery-slope?
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