Twitter bans and purges links to journalist org for publishing BlueLeaks

https://gizmodo.com/twitter-bans-journalist-organization-for-linking-to-lea-1844142166

by notthemessiah • 6 years ago

56 13 6 years ago

I'm definitely interested in how they justify this in comparison to Wikileaks. BlueLeaks certainly had sensitive information about victims and others that are innocent, but the line hasn't been officially drawn there by a statement or ToS policy. I don't see a Twitter statement in the future.

ubertaco• 6 years ago

I wonder how much of this has to do with the stripping-away of Section 230 protections that was started/attempted recently. A bit more paranoid response to published content that could create legal issues for Twitter now.

kanox3• 6 years ago

From the article:

The group’s account, @DDoSecrets, was permanently suspended, a Twitter spokesperson told Gizmodo, citing the company’s policy against the distribution of hacked materials. The policy specifically prohibits accounts from sharing “content obtained through hacking that contains private information, may put people in harm or danger, or contains trade secrets.”

easterncalculus3• 6 years ago

I did actually see that, on second thought I worded my OP in a way that sounded like they didn't comment at all, when I was referring to if they would compare it to how they handled Wikileaks in their response.

So I guess trade secrets are not in these leaks, but private information is certainly what Wikileaks is about. I think that the information of innocent people is more than enough reason not to host it, though. Just figured they'd want to clear the air of any accusations of favoritism.

mindslight4• 6 years ago

Yet another tiny cut demonstrating how centralized platforms are intrinsically unsustainable for freedom. How many people will this further discourage from referring to the primary source for themselves? Instead of a democratic in-touch society where everyone is one step away from the files, we get pre-digested articles that vaguely refer to the primary source as if it's some kind of hot potato instead of simply including a link.

Censorship always seems appealing for protecting sympathetic individuals, especially at its start when the cases are inherently worthy. But after the ruling power structure learns which levers to pull, censorship is inevitably used to protect and perpetuate the status quo at scale. This tragic arc was foreseeable over a decade ago when this trend of webcrapps was gaining popularity. Giving one entity power over the communications of hundreds of millions of users is an inevitable target for authoritarian control, and too concentrated to resist. But nobody wanted to listen, and now we're living the results.

kanox3• 6 years ago

The argument seems to be that those files contains lots of personal data of innocent people so it falls outside any sort of free-speech debate.

mindslight4• 6 years ago

In our society censorship doesn't occur by blunt order, but rather follows some justifying narrative. Based on the reporting I've read, I'm guessing these "innocent people" are police officers who should already be subject to extreme transparency by virtue of their position. Any specific standard starts off being used to punch up to harassers and the like, but then gets internalized by the status quo and used to routinely punch down.

No way to tell without looking at the source material though, which is the entire problem. Guess it's time to track down the torrent.

msla• 6 years ago

The fact Twitter is a private platform places this outside the "Free Speech" debate as it's usually understood. That's the whole point: Twitter, as a private platform, can self-censor expression by destroying your expression without owing you or anyone else even a figleaf justification. Any centralized platform can do that, and will, with sufficient provocation, or no provocation at all.

Twitter bans and purges links to journalist org for publishing BlueLeaks

Related Stories