After reading this thread from David Decosimo, we can’t help but agree with him when he wrote that it is absolutely and utterly insane that Yoel Roth held the role he did. We knew there were some bad things going on behind the scenes at Twitter, from shadow banning to locking, to flat-out suppressing content, but we couldn’t have known how poisonous the entire group was before Elon Musk bought the giant.
And pulled back the curtain.
Take a gander at this:
It is absolutely & utterly insane that Yoel Roth held the role he did at twitter: leading decisions about censorship, moderation, disinformation, etc. We are talking about someone whose lack of commitment to core principles free speech seems matched only by his ignorance of them. https://t.co/ZThxWsvwqV
— David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) December 9, 2022
Ruh-roh. This doesn’t sound good for the former head of Trust and Safety at Twitter.
Former.
Trust and Safety … RIIIIIIGHT.
For whom, exactly? Crazy, frothy-mouthed Leftists because he sure as snot didn’t do much to help secure the safety or trust for people on the Right. Maybe it was his tweets trashing conservative women or perhaps it was the tweet about racist fly-over country, but gosh golly gee, it sure looks like the guy Twitter used to trust for all of this had an agenda to push.
This thread, wowza.
You write a dissertation on Grindr, *a primary research prong of which is using your personal Grindr account daily from 2009-2013,* and a few years later you are making policy decisions about what constitutes ‘harm’ & ‘disinformation’ for many millions of people? How can this be? pic.twitter.com/TmyUAMZu2q
— David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) December 9, 2022
Grindr. Seriously?
Holy cow.
The dissertation mentions ‘free speech’ exactly one time, cites zero work on the topic (not even a throwaway citation to Mill), & does absolutely nothing in the way of grappling with the importance & meaning of free expression in the digital age.
— David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) December 9, 2022
This guy seems surprised.
Seeing what a shiznit show Twitter was before Musk, we’re not.
Instead it anticipates perfectly the regime of ideologically driven censorship he enacted.
I don’t begrudge him his views, uninformed, ill-considered, & utterly reflexive though they may be.
What I can’t understand is how you go from this diss in 2016 to de facto king of twitter.— David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) December 9, 2022
Probably got in with the right people. Vijaya Gadde? She seems to have her hands in all of this.
I do understand.
But seeing another case of institutional capture enabled by people elevating to the max someone whose primary qualification is unwavering devotion to the worst excesses of safetyist identitarianism & improvisational fluency in copypasta is still breathtaking.— David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) December 9, 2022
Breathtaking.
That’s one word for it.
Yoel Roth on using Grindr daily from 2009-2013 as research method.👇 pic.twitter.com/3S6MrlgyuE
— David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) December 9, 2022
Alrighty then.
This was the guy shutting people down for wrong-think on Twitter, making decisions about who was and wasn’t heard.
"Identity research team" also tracks with his ridiculous scholarship liberated from normative conventions that allow for civilized functioning. https://t.co/rSSmfq3Wfp
— J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨💻 (@JDHaltigan) December 9, 2022
Don't they understand that the ultimate problem is ever knowing what is true? Decisions about what to censor are often (usually?) based on disinformation, amplifying what is false and hiding the truth under a rock.
— Michael Hosea (@MathDozer) December 9, 2022
Also based on a bias and agenda, especially at pre-Musk Twitter.
We’ve gotta say … post-Musk Twitter is way better.
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Related:
Sanctimonious Twitter Trust and Safety Council Twits share their RESIGNATION letter and HOO BOY
Adam Schiff’s lame attempt at firing back at Elon Musk for BUSTING him in hate-speech lie backfires
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