Saturday, July 27, 2019

To my Twitter followers

10/2/19 -- NOTE TO READERS OF MY #ALPOLITICS TWEETS:
My experiences of Twitter shadow banning without my being able to understand what I am doing wrong under Twitter's rules has made leery in doing my tweeting, and I frequently refrain from sending a tweet because of concern that the tweet on top of tweets already sent might trigger another shadow banning of me. While my recent bans have lasted only about 24 hours, even 24 hours is an unwelcome interruption in my communication flow on #alpolitics, and also I may get subject to longer banning.
I think my tweets are a valuable contribution to the political discourse on #alpolitics. If you agree and you think I should not suffer the constraints Twitter's shadow banning of me has subjected me to, there are ways I think you can help me out. One way would be for you to retweet on #alpolitics tweets of mine that you think are particularly worthwhile, with a retweet message such as "Below tweet makes valuable contribution to the political discourse on #alpolitics." There are other ways we can discuss for you to help me out. Please contact me if you want to help me out.
Thanks.
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[Update 9/27/19: I determined that the shadow ban that was imposed on 9/25  was lifted yesterday morning. Then a shadow ban got imposed again at about 6 pm yesterday.]
[Update 9/25/19: Twitter appears to have shadow banned me again at about 9 am this morning.]
[Update 9/15/19: I believe Twitter shadow banned me again this morning. Hopefully this shadow ban will be lifted in 24 hours or so.]

I am currently experiencing more episodes of being shadow banned by Twitter. (See Shadow banned by Twitter for my understanding of how shadow banning works and my earlier experience of shadow banning.)

Under shadow banning, I believe my Twitter followers can see my tweets on their Twitter feeds, but no one else can see my tweets (unless they come to my Twitter account and look at my tweets there).

In dealing with my episodes of being shadow banned, I have not been able to get guidance from Twitter about exactly what I have done wrong in my tweeting that has gotten me shadow banned. If I knew what I was doing wrong, I would modify my tweeting to avoid being shadow banned.

Just about all my tweets use the hashtag #alpolitics in order to reply and communicate to tweeters who use that hashtag or who otherwise come to that hashtag to see what is being said there.

I feel myself greatly impeded in my communicating via Twitter when I am shadow banned by Twitter.

I wish to inform my Twitter followers about this shadow banning, and perhaps they can help me out if they retweet tweets of mine they see the on their Twitter feed and use the #alpolitics hashtag. Hopefully that will get my tweets exposed on the #alpolitics hashtag and seen by all who come there, as I desire in my communicating on Twitter.

Thanks.

Update 7/30
I was shadow banned from early yesterday to early today. This follows my being shadow banned  from early last Thursday to early last Friday and from early Saturday to early Sunday.

I continue to not know what I have done wrong in my tweeting that got be the above three shadow bans during the past 6 days. I have solicited guidance from Twitter via private messaging to Twitter, but I am unable to get a response. As to Twitter rules, the relevant rule seems to be the below, which appears at https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-reach-limited
Even if behavior isn’t reported, we use our technology to identify accounts that are engaging in what may be abusive or spammy behavior. When this happens, we take action by limiting certain account functionality, such as only distributing their Tweets to their followers. For example, this enforcement could come into effect if an account is repeatedly unsolicitedly Tweeting at non-followers or engaging in patterns of abusive behavior. It may also come into effect for spammy behavior such as aggressive following or other unusual behavior identified in the Twitter Rules
I reply to, and/or retweet, a lot of tweets of other persons, which tweets are not sent to me and do not mention me.

If Twitter thinks that should be limited, Twitter should set out a daily limit, such as the 2400 daily tweet limit set out at https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-limits.

Monday, July 8, 2019

Organizing against Fake News in AL

The state of affairs of Fake News is God-awful.  http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2019/07/combating-fake-news.html

The Fake News problem seems bound to get worse in the 2020 elections.

It is desired to find out who in Alabama is doing what to try to address the Fake News problem in Alabama.

It is desired to find out who or what in Alabama is having or will have the best or better effect in addressing the Fake News problem in Alabama.

Inquiries will be made via Twitter and in other ways to get information, and information that is received and seems particularly useful will be posted here.

Thanks in advance to those who provide useful information.






Combating Fake News


Generally
The state of affairs of Fake News is God-awful.

There is widespread disagreement about what statements and news are Fake News and what statements and news are not Fake News.

It is unclear whether the widespread disagreement can or will be lessened.

Any purported effort to combat Fake News entails taking positions about particular statements and news being Fake News and other statements and news not being Fake News.

Such an effort will likely be ignored or rejected by those who have different views about what statements and news are and are not Fake News.

Currently, it seems that few persons are subject to persuasion that their views about what is or is not Fake News are incorrect.

Notwithstanding the above God-awful state of affairs, efforts are being made to persuade others about Fake News, such as the above effort of New American Journal.

Persuasion requires getting messaging into the eyes, ears and brains of others whom one is seeking to persuade.

Repetition of messaging aids in achieving persuasion.

Money is of help because getting messaging out to other persons is not free of cost and effort.

Money is viewed as extremely valuable, even near indispensable, in getting messaging out to other persons. The importance of money is evidenced by the New American Journal soliciting donation in its above effort.

Human effort also helps significantly in getting messaging out to battle Fake News.

My efforts
I consider Trump a destructive purveyor of Fake News. I believe many of his supporters do not think Trump is a destructive purveyor of Fake News.

I use Twitter and my blogs to battle against Trump's Fake News and against his supporters who go along with his Fake News.

I retweet Trump's tweets and, in my retweets, I contradict or negate what Trump says.

I use the hashtag #alpolitics on my tweets.

Twitter has shadow banned me several times. https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html

Earlier today I discovered I was again shadow banned by Twitter.

As I explain in the foregoing link, a Twitter user can be unaware of shadow banning because the user sees the user's tweets, but other Twitter users do not see the tweets. This includes, in my case, that other Twitter users who go to the #alpolitics hashtag do not see my tweets.

I am uncertain of the extent to which  the shadow banned user's tweets are not seen by "mentions" in the user's tweet and are not seen in the Tweeter feeds of Twitter followers of the user.

Twitter rules say, "we will inform you about actions taken against your account and why."

I have not been expressly notified by Twitter of when I have been shadow banned and have only learned of the shadow banning by being in a different Twitter account and not seeing my tweets.

Twitter has lifted my shadow banning after short periods of time (as short as after one day). The shadow banning that I discovered earlier today seems to have been lifted now.

Given the extremely limited reach my tweets have, and the huge megaphone that Trump has for his lies and Fake News, I am highly motivated to be prolific in my tweeting to contradict and negate Trump and his supporters.

Because current tweets have much better chance of being seen by other Twitter users compared to tweets that have been shadow banned, shadow banning is an impairment of my ability to communicate. I an unable to know what I did that triggered shadow banning in the instances I have been shadow banned. If there were specific rules that triggered shadow banning, I would endeavor vigilance in order to avoid shadow banning.

As is, I will continue tweeting largely as I have been tweeting, and suffer whatever shadow banning occurs.

Collective efforts
New American Journal's effort to combat Fake News seeks to be a collective effort based on donations.

I urge a collective effort to battle Fake News using organized direct tweeting to fellow citizens. See http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2019/02/organized-direct-tweeting-campaign-tool.html.