COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE | APRIL 12, 2017

How You Know STAND is Doing its Job (and Twitter is Not)

STAND is an amazing platform. It is the first forum of its kind where you can hear directly from Scientologists about what it is REALLY like to be one and discover just how inaccurate the media really is.

One way I know STAND is working is that I periodically get random troll tweets sent to me about Scientology after a blog post.

Celebrities will probably tell you the same thing: the bigger they get, the more jokes made about them and the more senseless is the hate directed their way.

In my instance, I received three successive tweets about Scientology from the same person. They were, in this sequence: Lie #1, Lie #2, and Lie #3.

So instantly I blocked this malcontent and thought, “Great, now I’ll report him since Twitter considers this ‘abusive behavior’ as it’s slander against a religion.”

But after a few minutes Twitter replied saying there was no violation.

My experience was much like one described in a recent article in The Guardian, and if you closely read Twitter’s rules of conduct, my incident does not qualify. Why? Because technically he was not attacking me based on my religion. He wasn’t saying, “Evan, you’re dumb because you’re a Scientologist.” He was saying: “Tweet #1: Scientology is blah blah blah,” “Tweet #2: Scientology does blah blah blah.” And so on.

So the question now is whether Twitter is enabling hate speech.

If that’s his opinion that’s fine, not everyone’s bulb shines bright. But don’t voice this to me directly, because I will handle that by blocking you.

…as much of civilization converts—becoming more profile than person—online banter must be treated as seriously as a live oration.

And now Facebook and Twitter must be dealt with regarding their rules. Sure, they can rightfully be concerned about becoming Big Brother, but as much of civilization converts—becoming more profile than person—online banter must be treated as seriously as a live oration.

So the question now is whether Twitter is enabling hate speech (I think so) and can we report Twitter to Twitter?

Photo by: Guzsudio / AlesiaKan / Shutterstock.com

KEYWORDS

AUTHOR

Evan Wecksell

Evan Wecksell is a comedian who has performed in 46 states and has appeared on VH1, E!, Conan and The Goldbergs. He is also one of the best tutors in the world (says Evan).

╳