Twitter has again been the centre of controversy following their removal of verified status from a prominent but notorious right-libertarian journalist with a reputation for setting packs of followers on people who have incurred his displeasure. Arguments rage over whether this is appropriate punishment for a serial bully, or whether it signals Twitter is publicly taking sides in the increasingly ugly culture war.
As I’ve said before, Twitter needs to get a handle on the mobbing and abuse that’s blighted the network for a long time. But when Twitter has taken on the role of a public square, it’s dangerous for them to impose top-down speech policing in the service of anyone’s political agenda, and they are currently sending out very mixed messages on the subject.
If Twitter is to impose any kind of rules, which they need to, they do need transparency in how they’re enforced. With the best will in the world it’s difficult to know precisely where to draw the line between harassment and speaking truth to power, so much is subjective and dependent on context. It would not be a good thing if every long-established Twitter user risks a permanent ban for crossing some invisible line at the same time as a relatively junior moderator is having a bad day. If you can’t imagine that even happening to you because you’re one of the good people, I refer you to the famous words of Pastor Niemöller.
Despite some of the wilder claims, it doesn’t look as if the sky is falling on freedom of speech, at least not yet. But there is a danger of ceding so much of our virtual public square to one private business. It’s a single point of failure, and there is always the danger it may pivot and allow powerful political or corporate interests to suppress conversations they don’t like for reasons which are not in the wider public interest.
