- Scott Ritter: American Cancel Culture, Round Two: The Russian Samovar / Twitter's Shenanigans Archived Message
- Scott Ritter: American Cancel Culture, Round Two: The Russian Samovar / Twitter's Shenanigans - sashimi January 13, 2023, 10:35 pm
- Thanks for that update nm - Tomski January 14, 2023, 1:15 pm
Posted by sashimi
on January 13, 2023, 10:35 pm
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https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/american-cancel-culture-round-two (quote) On January 6, I participated in a panel on Ukraine together with Dan Kovalik, which was hosted by Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. The event went well, despite the presence of some pro-Ukrainian individuals who sought to disrupt it through interruptions and intimidation. The interruptions failed - something I wrote about in an earlier Substack article. It took me a few days to realize that the process of intimidation was only just beginning. On Monday, January 9, I received notification from the Nomination Committee of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism that I was the recipient of this prestigious award. This was a big deal - I was in the company of contemporary giants like Julian Assange, Jimmy Dore, Max Blumenthal, Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Richard Medhurst, Gareth Porter, Caitlin Johnstone, Aaron Maté, Kim Iverson, Alastair Crooke, Anya Parampil, Dan Cohen, Danny Haiphong, Dan Kovalik, and many other notable independent journalists. It was quite an honor to be included in such company. On Tuesday, I received the news that my Twitter ban, which had been in place since April of last year for the sin of posting a Tweet that challenged the western narrative regarding the massacre in Bucha, Ukraine, in early April 2022, had been lifted. The bird, it seemed, was indeed free; @RealScottRitter was back in business. Almost immediately upon announcing my return to Twitter, however, I found my every tweet, re-tweet, and reply swarmed by accounts affiliated with the North American Fellas Organization, or NAFO, a loose affiliation of self-proclaimed "shit posters" the ranks of which include former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and whose sole mission it is to harass anyone who expresses an opinion that seems sympathetic to the Russian stance on Ukraine. I was on Twitter less than 24 hours when, out of the blue, I was once again banned, with no reason cited except some vague mention that I had somehow violated Twitter rules against harassment. This was ironic, given the inordinate amount of harassment I was receiving at the hands of NAFO. Breaking with past practice, the Twitter management did not cite a specific offending tweet - they just up and permanently banned me. To say that this was frustrating would be an understatement. In less than 24 hours, I had watched my Twitter "followers" grow from 82 thousand to more than 90 thousand. Since I had started publishing on my Substack page, Scott RitterExtra.com, I had been denied access to my Twitter following, and the potential that existed amongst their numbers for new subscribers, paid or otherwise. Now, with my followers accessible and growing by leaps and bounds, there was a real potential to monetize my writing efforts, something that, as a writer who likes to keep on writing, is an important detail. Then, without reason - "poof!" My Twitter account was gone, and with it the potential for generating additional writing-based income. Since there was no offending tweet identified, I was left trying to reverse engineer my brief Twitter revival for evidence that could point to a possible reason for the ban. All I could come up with was NAFO. I had posted the news about being given the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism on my Twitter account, and for every positive reply (there were many), I was greeted by a literal swarm of Shiba Inu adorned accounts, the tell-tale sign of the NAFO movement, who attacked and belittled me. Now, I don't lose any sleep over any insult hurled my way by any individual who hides behind a Shiba Inu meme. The problem, however, was that in addition to harassing me directly, the NAFO swarm flooded Twitter with complaints which, while lacking in any substance, most likely succeeded in triggering an automated banning mechanism within the algorithm used by Twitter to track this sort of thing. This was the Twitter version of "swatting," where individuals place hoax calls to 9-1-1 to draw a response from law enforcement, usually a SWAT team, at the home of someone they are targeting for harassment. And the potential uptick in Substack subscriptions wasn't the only casualty. (/quote) -- https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/american-cancel-culture-round-two |
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