TzipJan 17, 2023
Parker Molloy
January 6 committee found that Twitter and other social media companies gave Republicans preferential treatment on social media out of fear of criticism/reprisal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/17/jan6-committee-report-social-media/
What the Jan. 6 probe found out about social media, but didn’t report

The Jan. 6 committee's 845-page report offered few details of social media's role in the Capitol riot. Transcripts and an unreleased memo shows the committee knew more.

The Washington Post
Jan 17, 2023 at 1:32pmWeb
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
This has been obvious for a very long time, and it's made the right-wing whining about "anti-conservative bias" that much more ridiculous.
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
And if you actually look at what "the Twitter files" show (what the actual screenshots shared by Musk's right-wing lackeys and not their biased commentary), it's mostly Twitter hemming and hawing over whether to actually enforce rules that were being broken on the regular by Republicans. That's not "anti-conservatives bias," that's preferential treatment for Republicans.
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
Twitter wasn't being run by out-of-control lefties. It was being run by capitalists who worried that if they enforced the rules of the platform consistently, that Republicans would throw a fit and keep dragging Jack Dorsey in front of congress to demand answers for why specific accounts get suspended.
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
So Twitter, which already had a pro-GOP bias in how it was managed, was then bought by a guy who sees it as his mission to eradicate "the woke mind virus" (by which he means anything vaguely liberal/different), and that's how we ended up with the complete and total cesspool its become.
Show threadFemme MalheureuseJan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy They learned nothing from Facebook's response to the manufactured outrage in 2016 about alleged FB editor leftist bias.

(Outrage ginned up through Gawker site Gizmodo while Peter Thiel was attacking the snot out of Nick Denton, pushing Gawker toward bankruptcy.)

Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
@femme_mal Oh, yes, I remember the Gizmodo story that started it all. I've written about it with a fair amount of frustration in the years since.
Show threadFemme MalheureuseJan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy Whatever happened to Michael Nunez anyhow? He was a poor fit to cover that 2016 story; have to wonder if regular editing restraints were already gone with bankruptcy impending.

And of course Kushner's Observer pick up the story, ASAP. How fortunate for Elmo he didn't need an Observer to give his efforts a little push at a distance, he could just co-opt some horseshoe leftists.

Show threadThe Skeptic's Book of ListsJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy They got an unfair lift and because they don't have 100% of the pie they call it discrimination. Typical.
Show thread[REDACTED]™, Instance MigratorJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy yeah but people still use it and come up with every justification they can for patronizing the Nazi Bar and hate when you point out that they're still patronizing the Nazi Bar
Show threadMidLifeBroadJan 17, 2023
@quasirealSmiths @parkermolloy agreed. All talk, no action. I quit in protest the day Musky took over. If they were really principled and outraged they would quit.
Show threadonion_amberJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy the only reason Twitter is not the new truth social is because journalists, pundits, and media are still there wrapping a pretty bow around the cesspool.
Show threadJames Harris - Find my bridged Bluesky accountJan 17, 2023
@onion_amber @parkermolloy part of the problem stems from the idea that journalism cozied up so closely with Twitter. How often do you read news articles that are just a few paragraphs wrapped around a tweet? The ability to let a social embed tell half the story instead of boots on the ground journalism has basically eroded the whole publishing industry. In retrospect it was a true bargain with the devil. All their traffic is now tied to a toxic asset
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
@jbwharris yep! Think about how many "The internet is outraged!" stories that are just collections of random tweets exist
Show threadJames Harris - Find my bridged Bluesky accountJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy and sports is probably the worst for this. The Twitter embeds to share highlights that they send push notifications the moment it happens to maximize eyeballs.
Show threadStr8ngerJan 17, 2023
@onion_amber @parkermolloy how about actual official government departments & agencies? Assume they are all still on Twatter too… and that is insane. IMHO, the bird site must either become a public utility or be completely abandoned by public institutions.
Show threadOld Man MikeJan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy no idea. I left Twitter and don’t go back. Same way I don’t hang around with my old school bully.

💀Extwiticus Fucklonicus💀

Show threadGrae HallJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy He thinks people who care about others have a mind virus, while he spreads idiot tier hateful right wing conspiracy theories like a spiteful greedy dumbass
Show threadAgoraJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy
I was given a “pick your own reason” of why they suspended my account! Apparently, I broke “the Twitter Rules!!”
Show threadGrae HallJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Musk claiming to not be left or right, while amplifying straight up nazis and suppressing people on the left is an example of how functionally dishonest and disconnected from reality he is
Show threaddebbshockJan 17, 2023
ugh he's a hot mess.
Show threadAriadneJan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy I stopped being able to go on when they blocked third party apps, and I haven’t been on in a week after 15 years of nonstop scrolling and… I feel kinda good? Still crave my timeline, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I always equated twitter to smoking; I wonder if people that quit cold Turkey feel like this.

Show threadMidLifeBroadJan 17, 2023
@MinPinManor @parkermolloy I quit the day Musky took over. I definitely had withdrawals, it’s taken awhile but I actually like it here better. If only there was a twitteroderm patch.
Show threadMGoCoderJan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy Republicans are perpetual victims. No matter how far anyone goes to bend over backwards for them they will whine and cry that they are being wronged.

It never ends. There is nothing anyone can do to satisfy their crying outside of total capitulation. And even then they will just move the goalposts and start crying about something else.

Show threadStr8ngerJan 17, 2023
@MGoCoder @parkermolloy 🎯 typical tactic of authoritarianism… simultaneously playing the strong man & the victim card.
Show threadShoq 🌿Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy And yet, too few seem to understand that humanity learned a big lesson in this: that our data, communications, and knowledge sharing were entirely dependent on a handful of mega corporations and sometimes the whims, edicts and beliefs of the people who control them. We now have a chance to build a new infrastructure that doesn't depend on them at all. But we have to better explain the stakes before too many settle into new social media platforms The choices will affect all of us.
Show threadKarl RJan 17, 2023

@shoq @parkermolloy

Eben Moglen and others have been asking people not to trade convenience for their freedoms for many years.

He warns about privately controlled social media in these talks from 2012:

Why Freedom of Thought Requires Free Media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOk4Y4inVY

Facebook, Google and Government Surveillance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJCczbSF-B8

#SocialMedia #surveillance #privatization

re:publica 2012 - Eben Moglen - Freedom of Thought Requires Free Media

YouTube
Show threadShoq 🌿Jan 17, 2023

@wickedsmoke @parkermolloy

I'd seen it! Moglen at his best, capturing the totality of the problem before us in the new Fediverse: how to best ensure freedom of thought.

Show threadPartly Peaceful ChrisJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Bingo
Show threadhammancheezJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy x100000
Show threadMarta ThreadbareJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy "look, libsoftiktok was flagged"... yeah, with a flag that meant no matter how many times it broke twitter's rules, it required the CEO, the chief of legal and someone else to agree before any action was made. It was PROTECTED.
Show threadAndrew HintonJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy fun how Republicans think “not immediately and without question doing our bidding” is “liberal bias”
Show threadJanisJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy exactly. My first thought was tell us something we didn’t know. Now it’s official lol
Show threadOtownKimJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Of Course and Duh! The GOP are nothing but Domestic Terrorists!!!!!!
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy "Out of fear of criticism/reprisal"
And that's why Western democracies capitulate to Fascism, out of Fear.
So long as we have cowards leading us the Fash will win.
Show threadMark StullerJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy This is an interpretation of the Twitter files ‘revelations’ I share. Glad to have my take shared.
Show threadMotaJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Twitter couldn't ban nazi speech because it is indistinguishable from regular Conservative speech
Show threadJay1001Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy and that's exactly what they knew would happen. Republicans know there's no social media bias against them in the same way they know there's no election fraud. But complaining in public that there is helps them get preferential treatment. Such a scam
Show threadGene Thomas Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy not just twitter, this is the root cause of “both sides” in MSM
Show threadStr8ngerJan 17, 2023
@RedStateExile @parkermolloy 🎯
Show threadsolientJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy social media isn’t regulated precisely because politicians can use the threat of it to push their agendas. The republicans just happen to have been screaming “liberal bias” at anything that moves for the past 20 years; they have a comparative advantage.
Show threadDannyboyguymanJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy after just a couple generations of persistent pressure, the refs start working themselves
Show threadRebecca Gellman, with 🤗🤓Jan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy this tracks.

Success rate in reporting transphobes rocketed after Biden was sworn in.

Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
@GellmanRebecca Sounds extremely anecdotal. I don't think it has anything to do with Biden.
Show threadRebecca Gellman, with 🤗🤓Jan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy maybe.

But there was a definite upturn in success rate.

I commented on it at the time that twitter's policy seemed to have changed.

Show threadAgoraJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy so, the whining and gnashing of teeth on the right was all a farce?😳
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
@Agora always is. (Though, at this point, a lot of them believe their own nonsense. Even under Musk, I've seen a fair amount of "I'm being shadowbanned!" stuff from right-wing accounts getting massive boosts.
Show threadAgoraJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy 😡😡😡
Show threadTopKnotJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy
Weird how conservatives in the US and almost every #Republican Party elected official continues to fear a corrupt grifter. Trump must have a massive collection of dirt on #GOP. And that's who has a majority in the House?
Show threadStr8ngerJan 17, 2023
@TopKnot @parkermolloy I find it odd that so many assume/suspect Republicans are victims/hostages to blackmail by Trump and/or Russia. While these theories are entirely possible, the reality is much simpler. RepubliCONS have simply chosen their own cushy jobs & power over their dignity & oaths of office.
Money + Power > People + Principles #GOP = #GreedOverPrinciples
Show threadAuthor Sharon E. Cathcart ✅Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy I was saying that for ages. All the proof you needed was the number of times those of us who called out hate speech were penalized vs those who were spewing it.
Show threadTerrafied Kestrel Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy You can always tell what fascists are doing by listening to what they are complaining about others doing.
Show threadParker MolloyJan 17, 2023
@terrafiedkestrel Pretty much
Show threadJenXJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Oddly enough, so did Chris Wray.
Show threadBlamellorsJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy stuff Taiibi and Weiss will never say for $1000 Alex?
Show threadLucius01Jan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy
Is it 'fear of reprisals' or gutless enabling? In this instance, is there a difference? Silence = complicity.
Show threadMason PeltJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Color me shocked. How could anyone have foreseen this. LOL
Show threadOR Wine WomanJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy Holy c**p!
Show threadPoochJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy The new House extremists will complain that any messaging control, even that which incites violence, attacks on the Capital, Planned parenthood, on Democrat members of Congress, the CDC, election officials et al. are rights under the first amendment. However, criticism and / or peaceful protest of Congressional Republicans, Supreme Court members and BLM marches are somehow against the law and need to be dealt with harshly.. kind of like Lafayette Square. …makes perfect sense.
Show threadDan AnconaJan 17, 2023
@parkermolloy This story gave me my Morning Rage Aneurysm, and this isn't even a thing I've been working on directly. Fucking hell it's frustrating.
Show threadShoq 🌿Jan 17, 2023

@parkermolloy Once again, there's always a counter-narrative to their latest grievance, somewhere.

Debunking right wing myths, tropes and canards has been a hobby for many of us for a long time. And while's it's been the primary activity of orgs like @MMFA and other nonprofits, it still feels like something we spend far too little money on. I wish a fraction of what we spend on elections could be diverted to a few well-resourced war rooms that combat the daily Right-wing noise machine(s).