As our late-night-owl readers know, after Twitter reinstated conservative activist Chris Loesch’s account in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning, the progressive flag-spam lynch mob — a vicious group of free speech-squelching Twitter users who trigger automatic suspensions by falsely “mass reporting” conservatives as “spammers” — took him down again and again.
Hat tip to @Ed:
https://twitter.com/#!/stopthemadness8/status/196789497223069696
https://twitter.com/#!/jbouie/status/196801602559029248
He is not alone.
And you will not be surprised to learn that at least one of the Twitter libs identified as a flag-spam ringleader also happens to be spearheading a Stop Rush Limbaugh effort online.
While Twitter executives sleep on the job, conservatives online are battling not only Loesch’s suspension, but the suspension of more than a dozen — and possibly dozens, if not hundreds more — innocent conservative social-media users who appear to have been maliciously targeted by Twitter abusers. The system is obviously broken and being exploited by vigilantes who oppose everything the engagement-enhancing ethos of Twitter stands for (or is supposed to stand for, anyway).
The targets are not big-time conservative celebs with large followings (which seems to be why Chris Loesch was targeted instead of his fellow conservative activist wife — Breitbart.com editor/CNN contributor Dana Loesch — whose high-follower Twitter account may be more immune to flag-spam attacks).
The progressives never expect pushback. But with the back-to-back suspensions of @freemarket_us and @chrisloesch, the conservative activist community online is banding together to Flag the Flag-Spammers for Twitter to see all in one place — no, not by abusing the flag-spam system, but by naming names and showing Twitter the extent of the problem.
Shane Wright, who himself was the victim of a temporary suspension, has compiled a list of conservatives suspended at some point on Twitter.
He explained to Twitchy how he came about identifying targets (and is working with Ben Howe to spread the word):
I was suspended 20 minutes after I was done debating a few liberals. Twitter’s suspension message to me stated that I had used “Abusive Language” I never cursed, threatened or belittled anyone. I am continuing to fighting with twitter as they have yet to identify which tweet contained abusive language. This incident was the catalyst for me to spend my Sunday looking into this issue.
I stumbled upon a few tweets between the liberals I was debating, discussing getting groups together to block conservative twitter accounts in mass. I am certain that @OccupiedMuslim got her entire OWS rally in NYC to report me for spam. I wish I would have taken a screen shot because those tweets were deleted as soon as I started making noise about it. (rookie mistake I know)
I then began to google and ask my followers to see if this was an isolated incident, The list above are the accounts that I uncovered today alone. This is clearly a tactic being used by the left and Twitter is either ignorant or allowing it to occur.
In addition to Shane’s list, Twitchy is including a running list of tweets here from other users who are stepping forward with evidence and first-hand knowledge of the progressive flag-spam abusers. We hope Twitter’s alogrithm experts and engineers and Twitter’s government/news/social innovation team will use the information gathered here, investigate, and act.
And we encourage you to help us add to the list and RT it far and wide until they finally fix the problem. In case it needs to spelled out:
https://twitter.com/#!/CnservativePunk/status/196834062286073856
Solutions? Try this, for starters:
https://twitter.com/#!/2012Pineapple/status/196815721202851842
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Flag-spam targets suspended at some point by Twitter because of false flag-spam attacks, per Shane Wright:
@EmpowerTexans
@mqsullivan
@DustinMatocha
@agendawise
@Daniel_Greer
@RightSideAustin
@Grob59
@ConservaSlacker
@denise_loveall
@bustedflush3
@gingertreshall
@EdgeofAnarchy83
@kurtismarsh
@Polliwogette2
@Karap37
More:
https://twitter.com/#!/SMjaniczek/status/196815064685223937
https://twitter.com/#!/Sphincterphobia/status/196798019419635713
Tweets from victims who’ve been targeted in the past and reinstated (some with the flag-spam abuser identified):
https://twitter.com/#!/spacegh0st1/status/196801956470202368
https://twitter.com/#!/i8bugs1/status/196809975010574336
https://twitter.com/#!/BRTT01/status/196815452566061058
https://twitter.com/#!/sistertoldjah/status/196815726777081858
https://twitter.com/#!/sistertoldjah/status/196833781418704896
https://twitter.com/#!/CBlackTX/status/196825023401570304
One of the Twitter users linked to flag-spam attacks by the above victims is a “StopRush” ringleader. Try to act surprised:
https://twitter.com/#!/subculturestuff/status/196798190748573698
https://twitter.com/#!/subculturestuff/status/196685017961873409
The wife of another suspended Twitter conservative rallies activists:
https://twitter.com/#!/Sowceboss/status/196836248718032896
https://twitter.com/#!/Sowceboss/status/196839489740603393
https://twitter.com/#!/Sowceboss/status/196840224737857536
And from reader Jaime Blakely in comments below:
Since @jaimec25 is still suspended this is only way I have to communicate this. Feminists have organized Spam Reporting of conservatives. So far they are the ones I know about. Specifically after those UAWOW rallies, I got hateful messages and then was blocked. Also if you follow Sistertoldjah they will Spam/Block you. If you “invade” their hashtag they get angry and call it spam and report you. If you RT one of their tweets, they call it spam and report you. If you forward their conservative hit list, they report you. Lower profile conservatives are hardest hit because the blocks and spams hit us hardest.
The radical Left’s strategy has always been to squelch conservative dissent — from Rush Limbaugh to ALEC to Americans for Prosperity to Free Market America. And now, from ordinary Twitter conservative activists en masse.
In the past, establishment conservatives have abandoned the battlefield and sought to create conservative “alternatives” to mainstream spaces when push comes to shove. No longer.
The answer to left-wing lynch mobs isn’t to run away from them, but to expose them and beat them back.
Social media cheerleaders, take note: The platform made famous for allowing dissident voices to organize and communicate in Arab dictatorships is now being used domestically to squelch the Right online.
It’s not just a mathematical engineering problem involving neutral algorithms.
It’s a political and public relations problem.
Fix it, Twitter. Please.
***
An interesting suggestion from an Instapundit reader:
UPDATE: On Facebook, Alex Pournelle has a suggestion:
Business plan! Escrow accounts for your Twitter followers. When your account gets suspended, and they blink, and reinstate you, it auto-adds your followers back.
Permissions based, and allows you to watch for slamming, spoofing, and abuse.
Michelle Malkin should get working on this ASAP.
Well, she should.
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Twitter user @JoeDunn8 has been suspended tonight after actively engaging liberal followers over #freechrisloesch.
https://twitter.com/#!/ChuckBaker/status/196860284391002112
Joe emails a screenshot of his final activity online before suspension. His exchange with the liberal user gloating about Chris Loesch’s suspension is not “spam:”
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The flag-spam abusers are completely open about what they are doing:
https://twitter.com/#!/utaustinliberal/status/196823089798062080
https://twitter.com/#!/utaustinliberal/status/196819063803097088
https://twitter.com/#!/utaustinliberal/status/196819649130803201
https://twitter.com/#!/allanbrauer/status/196819038498848769
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Conservative Chris Loesch, music producer and husband of radio host and CNN contributor Dana Loesch, had his Twitter account suspended on Sunday. He was apparently targeted by leftist users who utilized the “Block & Report Spam” function to trigger the social media account’s automatic spam algorithm. He was notified of his suspension via an email from Twitter claiming it was due to multiple unsolicited mentions to other users. “You will need to change your behavior to continue using Twitter,” the email admonished.
“I never threatened anyone and am careful about being concise with what I write especially in public,” Mr. Loesch told The Washington Times. “They were going to make me sign this note that said one more infraction and I would be permanently banned. I wasn’t going to do that so I wrote emails to some of their people.”
…Conservatives suspect a coordinated campaign to report as spam users with whom liberal users disagree. Several users sent out tweets bragging about getting Mr. Loesch blocked, including one claiming “my life job to make conservatives lives miserable.”
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