SocraticGadfly: Looks like I won't be on Twitter any more (Update: I'm back)

September 27, 2024

Looks like I won't be on Twitter any more (Update: I'm back)

Elon Musk is apparently suspending the accounts of people who Tweet ABOUT Ken Klippenstein's Substack post of yesterday, with the actual dossier of the alleged Iranian hack of Trump's Veep vetting process of J.D. Vance.

UPDATE, Oct. 11: I am back on, after Ken got back on and wrote about it on Substack. That said, Ken on the weekend, it appears, got a faceload of Eff Bee Eye intimidation attempts.

OK, the original PDF, at Ken's post, has Vance's addresses, and a partial Social Security address, but not full.

Klippenstein said, in a follow-up piece, that the addresses are available anywhere, and other things. I'm going to do some quoting from that, starting with his basic rationale.

Self-styled free speech warrior Elon Musk’s X (Twitter) banned me after I published a copy of the Donald Trump campaign’s JD Vance research dossier. X says that I’ve been suspended for “violating our rules against posting private information,” citing a tweet linking to my story about the JD Vance dossier. First, I never published any private information on X. I linked to an article I wrote here, linking to a document of controversial provenance, one that I didn’t want to alter for that very reason.

There you go.

Now, some more meat.

The principle involved here is complex. I do not believe it is the job of the news media to alter documents, as if it’s a defacto government deciding what the public should and shouldn't know. Yes, I know that it is general practice to delete “private” information from leaks and classified documents, but in this case, not only is Vance an elected official and Vice Presidential candidate, but the information is readily available for anyone to buy.
The document itself describes its method of acquiring the so-called “private” information about Vance: "We undertook an examination of all readily available and relevant electronic and online records, several hundred Nexis and news articles, dozens of active and archived web pages, and several dozen public records from Nexis and the resources of various federal, state, and municipal government offices." In other words, everything was out there, either readily or for purchase.
We should be honest about so-called private information contained in the dossier and "private" information in general. It is readily available to anyone who can buy it. The campaign purchased this information from commercial information brokers. Those dealers make huge profits from selling this data. And the media knows it, because they buy the data for reporting purposes, just like the campaign. They don’t like to mention that though.

Could he have redacted even the partial Social? Yes. But, Musk would have banned him anyway. We know how selectively, and vindictively, he — yes, he; Twitter Security and Safety are his henchman in the current regime — enforces rules.

That said, here's the bottom line from Ken.

On the one hand, this is a very funny end to my Twitter journey. On the other hand, I no longer have access to the primary channel by which I disseminate primarily news (and shitposts of course) to the general public. This chilling effect on speech is exactly why we published the Vance Dossier in its entirety. ...
Did I make a mistake in not redacting the “private” information on J.D. Vance? If I wanted a Twitter account, apparently so. But on principle? I stand by it absolutely.

There you go.

Me?

I deleted my post with Ken's original info. So, I'm not such a warrior. And, account unlocked.

Then, when #BlueAnon shit-tards like Justin Baragona, formerly of the Daily Beast and it's lying "golden showers," started calling Ken a doxxer? I quote-tweeted (as well as direct replying, shown below).

But, for good measure? The quote-tweet, screengrabbed from Twitter's email to me:

And, got relocked.

And, I'm not deleting.

And, I'm also sure that Justin Baragona was NOT suspended. How could I have quote-tweeted him, or reply-tweeted if he were, given how quickly Musk's Nazi goons acted? 

We know they're goons working for the head goon, because, per Ken's sarcasm at top, one of the Tweets they want deleted is a callout of Musk:

There you go.

I appealed yesterday, but, if I lose, I move on. Baragona's original had nothing "doxxing" in it, and therefore, by simple logic, neither did I. But, Nazi goons will goon.

But, it's more than that. The goons apparently don't want ANY link to Klippenstein's Substack showing up. Two Tweets from earlier this week they want me to retract apparently had links to earlier Substack posts by Ken, but the goons at Twitter removed those links.

Here's one:

And another:

And, nope, not being removed.

Update? Per another new piece by Ken, it doesn't matter. He redacted the PDF. Musk still won't let him on. 

Update, Sept. 29: Ken now says Fuckbook or some other subset of "Meta" is also blocking this, as is Google. Hmm. Is this blog post being "decirculated"? Maybe I'm too small of fry for Google and Hucksterman, just like some commenters on Ken's piece. That, in turn, shows the goonishness of Musk's Nazi goons.

That said, I got this very post hauled down by Hucksterman's own goons. I have appealed ... and have not heard back.

Update, Sept. 30: Ken talked with Hamish McKenzie, co-head cheese of Substack. He said that, when he was talking to Twitter support people, they were just sending him poop emojis, just like the boss man. That said, at about the 20-minute mark, I disagree with Ken that Musk hauled him down primarily due to Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ pressure. Might that have been A factor? Yes. The primarily, let alone sole? No. Ken, they were sending you poop emojis. He is right about Twitter being a dying platform and I see that he's going to use Substack Notes as part of his post-Twitter strategery.

I have two more minor accounts of my original five, which I ran through TweetDeck back when it was free in the pre-Musk days. They'll wither and die on the vine.

I mentioned an original five, now down to three.

One was a parody of Trump without "parody" on it. I made his handle, "@realDonaldTrump," my name. Well, when I called out the Covington Catholic Chuds a few years ago, they bitched and it got suspended, because that wasn't my first strike.

So, I switched to No. 2, a parody of sorts of Actual Flatticus aka Chris Chopin. I called Bill Simmons a "whore" or "bitch ass white boy" or something, but no worse than that. Not my first strike, so, permanently suspended there, too. That has me down to three.

Both were in the Jack Dorsey days.

I appealed twice, after Elmo bought Twitter and was settled in, twice on each of the accounts, for reinstatement. Nope.

As for the future of social media? Mastodon has a fair chunk of racism problems and a bit of Nazi problems. And, its creator Eugen Rochko hides behind the fediverse skirts and does nothing.

Blue Sky? That's Dorsey, who let Twitter become enough of a shithole before selling. And, actually, per a Baffler story about who owns a piece of Twitter today, Ice Balls Jack ain't totally gone.

Threads? Fuck no, that's Hucksterman.

Facebook? I use that primarily for personal non-political comment. I do have a semi-burner account. It may get used more. Or, I can create a page for the blog off my primary account, which doesn't use my fully real name anyway.

Another option, for the shorter term, is using Substack Notes as my new Twitter.

Update: I have, for now, started both the Facebook page and Substack Notes options.

1 comment:

Cort Greene said...

Mr. Gadfly, sorry for your lost but I was banned from Twit/X when your tankie friends complained about me supporting the workers in Venezuela. Your like the JD Vance of gadflys...jajaja - https://cryptome.org/2024/09/J_D_V.pdf