Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

Twitter Axes Anti-Vaxxer Marjorie Taylor Greene

January 3, 2022

Twitter Axes Anti-Vaxxer Marjorie Taylor Greene

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, GOP QAnon Drama Queen and Miss Misinformation 2021, has finally been booted from Twitter for her anti-vax, pro-virus tweets. Sadly, her official congressional Twitter account is still active, and she has lots of time to tweet, having been bounced off all her House committees.

More:

“Twitter permanently suspends Greene’s account over COVID-19 misinformation,” Caroline Vakil, The Hill

“Twitter permanently suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account,” Doha Madani, NBC News

“Twitter bans Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account over COVID misinformation,” Joe Hernandez, NPR News

“Twitter Permanently Mutes Marjorie Taylor Greene Account for Spreading COVID Misinformation,” Jordan Hoffman, Vanity Fair

Updates:

“McCarthy Campaigns For Speaker By Denouncing Twitter After It Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Summer Concepcion, TalkingPointsMemo

GOP leader criticizes Twitter over Greene decision without naming her,” Rebecca Klar, The Hill

“Rand Paul Vows to Fill Misinformation Void Caused by Twitter’s Ban of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

“Facebook temporarily suspends U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s account,” Daniel Uria, UPI

“Conservatives clash: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Dan Crenshaw trade social media insults,” Chelsey Cox, USA Today

“Trump’s Favorite Pastor Is ‘Tired’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Zachary Petrizzo, Daily Beast

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Twitter’s Insurrection Night Massacre

January 13, 2021


After it became clear that Donald Trump had used Twitter to organize and incite the murderous mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, Twitter finally suspended his disinformation-spewing account permanently.

Twitter also disabled 70,000 QAnon-linked accounts used to propagate the conspiracy theories behind the MAGA Capitol insurrection. People those conspirators followed were unhappy.
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Trump Insurrection Selfies: Sedition Self-Incrimination

January 11, 2021

Trump Insurrection Selfies: Sedition Self-Incrimination

The seditious MAGA insurgents who broke into the U.S. Capitol at the bidding of Donald Trump and killed a police officer are being sought by law enforcement. Photos of the red-hatted terrorists have been posted by the FBI and DC Metropolitan Police, and the public is being asked to identify them. The FBI has even posted wanted photos at bus shelters in the DC metro area.

While a few brave press photographers provided some serious documentation of the domestic terrorists, many more pix were taken and posted by the Trump supporters themselves, bragging on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, DLive, and other social media platforms about their illegal occupation of the Capitol in answer to the president’s call.

The FBI and DC police aren’t the only ones preserving and scrutinizing the Capitol mob social selfies. Activists around the world, digital sleuths, have archived the MAGA-brag trophy pix before they could be taken down, and have been scrutinizing them since last Wednesday. One of the bigger finds so far was retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock, Jr., identified by John Scott-Railton at The Citizen Lab and outed by The New Yorker

Insurrectionists have scattered, but arrests on Federal and District charges are mounting. Before Instagramming the boys back home, those White Supremicist Christian warriors should have recalled Proverbs 16:18, “‘Hold my beer’ goeth before a fall,” and suchlike.

More:

“Thanks For the Evidence, You Seditious Dweebs,” Whitney Kimball and Tom McKay, Gizmodo

“The Pro-Trump Mob Was Doing It For The ’Gram,” Elamin Abdelmahmoud, BuzzFeed News

“The Instagram Insurrection,” Brian Kahn, Gizmodo

“More Capitol rioters in viral posts arrested, senator urges social media providers to keep data,” Rich McKay, Reuters

“The Capitol rioters put themselves all over social media. Now they’re getting arrested.” Sara Morrison, Vox

“Local Police Departments Investigate Whether Their Officers Took Part in Capitol Riot,” Andrea Noble, Route Fifty

“Off-duty police, firefighters under investigation in connection with U.S. Capitol riot,” Maria Caspan, Reuters

“At least 25 domestic terrorism cases opened as result of assault on Capitol: lawmaker,” Andrea Shalal and David Shepardson, Reuters

Updates:

“Anne Arundel police officer suspended while department investigates possible involvement in Capitol insurrection,” Lilly Price, Capital Gazette

“US Capitol Building Riot: Justice Dept. Pursues at Least 150 Suspects,” Katie Benner and Adam Goldman, New York Times

“Who were they? Records reveal Trump fans who stormed Capitol,” Michael Biesecker,
Michael Kunzelman, Gillian Flaccus, and Jim Mustian, Associated Press

“Archivists Are Mining Parler Metadata to Pinpoint Crimes at the Capitol,” Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox, Motherboard

“MAGA Civil War shirts, a Camp Auschwitz hoodie, and other extremist merchandise was on full display at the Capitol riot,” Hilary George-Parkin, Vox

“‘Trump said I could’: One possible legal defense for accused rioters,” Teri Kanefield and Mark Reichel, Washington Post

“Capitol Riot Suspect Arrested in DC Airport After Bizarre Series of Events,” Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian

“This Site Published Every Face From Parler’s Capitol Riot Videos,” Wired

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Trump’s Christmas Message to the Troops: F*ck You.

December 23, 2020
Trump's Christmas Message to the Troops: F*ck You.

High School Cadet Capt. Trump. Thank you for your service.

Before leaving for holiday R&R at Mar-a-Lago, bone spur survivor and U.S. Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump vetoed the Defense Bill because it didn’t defend him from being called out on Twitter. The bill would have provided pay raises to U.S. Armed Forces members. Mr. Trump also objected to removing names of previous violators of constitutional oaths from military installations, apparently fearing it would keep the Pentagon from naming Space Force facilities after himself.

More:

“Trump Vetoes Annual Defense Policy Bill, Including Military Pay Raise,” Kevin Freking, AP via Military.com

“Trump Vetoes Defense Bill, Defends Confederate Bases Over Troops’ Pay,” Arya Hodjat, Daily Beast

“Trump vetoes $741 billion defense bill over his completely unrelated spat with social-media companies and against the wishes of top Republicans,” John Haltiwanger, Business Insider

“Trump vetoes $740B defense bill, citing ‘failure to terminate’ Section 230,” Kate Cox, Ars Technica

“Trump vetoes $740bn US military bill over clause to rename bases honoring Confederates,” Griffin Connolly, The Independent

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Turning Point USA: Teen Trolls for Hire

September 18, 2020

Turning Point USA: Teen Trolls for Hire

Astoundingly, “on-shoring,” one of Donald Trump’s political promises, is happening. His 2020 campaign’s troll farms have moved from Russia to Arizona. A branch of right-wing youth indoctrination outfit Turning Point USA (known to us as Trump-Jugend) has been paying teenagers sub-minimum wages to fill social media platforms with attacks on Democratic candidates and disinformation about coronavirus. Twitter and Facebook finally noticed and shut down the teen accounts this week.

Turning Point Action, an arm of the nominally-nonprofit Turning Point USA, contracted right-wing social media company Rally Forge (get it?) to coordinate the teen trolls’ spamming. Funding may have flowed through shadow political action groups Turning Point PAC and/or RallyPAC. Turning Point USA, Turning Point Action, and Students for Trump are all headed by Charlie Kirk. Rally Forge and RallyPAC are both run by Jake Hoffman. Turning Point Action and Rally Forge are also behind a phantom campaign called “Navajos for Trump.”

More:

“Pro-Trump youth group enlists teens in secretive campaign likened to a ‘troll farm,’ prompting rebuke by Facebook and Twitter,” Isaac Stanley-Becker, Washington Post

Related:

“Turning Point USA co-founder dies of coronavirus-related complications,” Daniel Lippman and Tina Nguyen, Politico

“Pro-Trump super PAC backed solely by bank executive used donations to fund Facebook conspiracy meme campaign,” Brian Schwartz, CNBC

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Library of Congress Stops Archiving Twitter

January 5, 2018

Library of Congress Stops Archiving Twitter

Way back in 2010, the Library of Congress announced its plan to archive all public messages on Twitter (on Twitter, of course), starting with the very first tweet, the Twitter equivalent of the Gutenberg Bible.

That was then. On December 26, 2017 the Library pulled the plug on Twitter. While preserving a text archive of all tweets from the first 12 years of Twitter (2006-2017), the LoC will be more selective from here on out.

More:

“The Library of Congress Quits Twitter,” Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker

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H.R. 2884: The COVFEFE Act

June 14, 2017

H.R.2884: The COVFEFE Act
Congressman Mike Quigley (D, IL-05) has introduced the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement or “COVFEFE” Act, H.R.2884. It would amend the Presidential Records Act ( Sec. 2201, Title 44 USC) to include social media, ensuring preservation of presidential tweets. It has been referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The bill’s short title was provided by Donald Trump in a well-known tweet, since deleted.  Since Mr. Trump’s is the first Twitter Presidency, that deletion illustrates the need for such legislation, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer has already observed that the president’s tweets are official White House statements.

More:

“Remember covfefe? It might become a law about presidential records.” Carly Sitrin, Vox

“COVFEFE Act would make social media a presidential record,” Joe Uchill, The Hill

“The Covfefe Act Has A Silly Name — But It Addresses A Real Quandary,” Laurel Wamsley, NPR

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Trump: Yes, It Is a Muslim Ban

June 6, 2017

Trump: Yes, It's a Muslim Ban
President Donald J. Trump commemorated Saturday’s tragedy in London by tweeting a renewed call to ban travel to the US from six predominantly Muslim countries. A second version of his presidential order (he now calls it “watered-down“) is headed to the Supreme Court, and this presidential tweetstorm may have doomed the administration’s case. Even Kellyanne Conway’s husband thinks so.

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120-Character Tweets Pile Up In the Library of Congress

September 23, 2016

120-Character Tweets are Piling Up In the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress announced its plan to archive all public messages on Twitter in 2010 (on Twitter, of course). The Library has the very first tweet, the Twitter equivalent of the Gutenberg Bible. It preserves Barack Obama’s presidential victory tweet as well as George Washington’s diary.

But Since 2010 the fire hose of tweets has become an endless tsunami, 500 million messages each day. And volume is the least of it. Archiving is not just amassing stuff. The Library has yet to figure out how to make the stuff usable while protecting privacy. And the tweets keep on coming.

More:

“Can Twitter Fit Inside the Library of Congress?” Andrew McGill, The Atlantic

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Carlos Danger Rides Again — Into Bachelorhood

August 30, 2016

Carlos Danger Rides Again -- Into Bachelorhood
Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner (aka Carlos Danger) was caught with his pants down again, outed by the New York Post for sending sexty photos to strange women. His wife, foreign relations pro and Hillary campaign advisor Huma Abedin, invoked the 3-strikes-you’re-out rule and announced the couple’s separation.

Since quitting Congress and losing a local election in New York City, Anthony Weiner has been a commentator for Time-Warner cable news outlet NY 1 and a columnist for the New York Daily News. The TV outfit has put him on “indefinite leave,” and the Daily News cut him loose.

Serial adulterer and Anthony Weiner campaign contributor Donald Trump expressed sympathy for Ms. Abedin and smeared her boss Hillary Clinton in a single tweet. Anthony Weiner should remind his pal Mr. Trump how dangerous Twitter can be.

More:

“Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin says she’s separating with Anthony Weiner amid third sexting scandal,” Jeff Stein, Vox

“Trump sees personal tragedy and embarrassment as just political fodder,” Ruth Marcus, Washington Post

“Don’t Expect Donald Trump to Stop Lying About Huma Abedin,” Robert Mackey, The Intercept

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