Do Twitter’s Praetorian Guard Still Serve the Old Emperors?
Angelo PlumeI’ll always remember the day Twitter restored my long-suspended account — not because it was a particularly meaningful occasion for me, but because it happened to fall on Valentine’s Day. Elon Musk’s romantic gift, as I jokingly thought of it, lasted little longer than a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates. Exactly two months and 14 days later, I was booted off the platform again.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been banned from Twitter. This latest suspension is the fifth, I think, but am no longer sure. All the previous suspensions of my account left me totally indifferent. I never invested much in being on Twitter. I always knew that being on it was like playing a game of hide-and-seek: eventually they would find me and the game would be over. This time, however, I am rather annoyed.
Recall what Twitter was like for the past couple of years, before Elon Musk acquired it. The platform had become, by many accounts, a graveyard. Dissidents, nationalists, edgy bois, and shitposters had been cleared out long ago. Only a wily and elusive (or lucky) few survived the frequent purges. The majority of Twitter’s users seemed to be Leftists, celebrities, and bots. It was no longer a hive of activity and opinion. Of greater concern was the censorship during the height of the “COVID-19” “pandemic.” Verified and dignified users, experts in their fields of science, were banned from the social media site for spreading “misinformation” about COVID, masks, vaccines, and anything else, really. Here are some significant persons who were flattened by Twitter’s ban hammer:
- Dr. Robert Malone
- Alex Berenson
- Naomi Wolf
- Dr. Peter McCullough
There was blatant political censorship as well, with the likes of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump himself being booted off Twitter. The rise of transgenderism brought with it a further rise in censorship, with users being exiled for “transphobic” tweets or for “dead naming” a tranny. Jordan Peterson was one such user who was culled for violating these sacraments.
Those are the headline-grabbing names in the English-speaking world. The censorship across the “liberal West” was strict as well. To make a list of all the banned e-celebs, parody accounts, comedians, independent journalists, and just normal everyday people, would be, if not impossible, certainly impractical for this article, because the list would be enormous. As the Twitter Files scandal has confirmed, the censorship on Twitter reached a ravenous fury. I can imagine the moderators banning users left and right while cackling with glee, curling their fingers in maniacal pleasure as “The Flight of the Valkyries” played in the background. “BAN THEM! BAN THEM ALL! MWUAHAHA!” Of course, as we saw on the famous Joe Rogan Podcast episode with former Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde, the ex-operators of Twitter downplayed their censorship and biases and tried to pass off their nuking of users’ accounts as something that occurs after careful deliberation, but the reality of Twitter’s censorious behavior seems closer to my dramatic scenario.
Almost all of the censorship went one way. Even the “accidental” censorship seemed only ever to affect those to the right of Antonio Gramsci and those who objected to the official COVID narrative. This “accidental” or “inexplicable” censorship continues even after Musk took over and expelled so many of Twitter’s obviously biased content moderators. Journalist Eva Vlaardingerbroek’s account was suspended with no explanation as recently as March of this year. These things don’t to happen to CNN or Buzzfeed journalists. The capricious nature of these suspensions is, of course, entirely their point. Twitter can ban you on a whim, and they want you to never forget that.
Now, enough about all those people. Let’s get to more important things — namely, me and my suspension.
Elon Musk has officially been the owner of Twitter since October 2022. I have maintained a cautious distrust of Elon for a long time. I also didn’t expect immediate change to happen at Twitter. While many of The Banned rushed to appeal their suspensions–only to get rejected again–I bided my time, knowing that it was too early. I also, frankly, didn’t really care to be back on Twitter. Like I said, I had no love for the little blue bird.
Until that fateful Valentine’s Day. Leading up to February 14, many banned users were happily declaring that their accounts had been restored. After a few months of ironing out the wrinkles in Twitter’s modus operandi, rooting out the useless and partisan employees, and establishing some new policies, it seemed Elon’s Twitter was finally armed and operational. So it was suggested to me that I check in on my account and relaunch an appeal to have its suspension lifted. I did, and it was. Curiously, I was given an entirely fabricated reason for why my account was suspended. “A little background,” Twitter’s message explaining my suspension read. “We have systems that find and remove multiple automated spam accounts in bulk, and yours was flagged as spamby mistake [emphasis mine].”They even apologized to me for any inconvenience caused by having my account deactivated. The reason given, as I will reveal later, was total nonsense. My account was not shuttered “by mistake,” nor was it “flagged as spam.”
At the start, being back on Twitter was nothing special. Then, other users, some of whom you’d never have expected to be allowed back on the site, were reinstated as well. Gone were the days of capricious censorship. The graveyard was now alive with the resurrected reincarnations of some of its most entertaining and influential personalities. The old Twitter was a thing of the past. The new Twitter, Elon’s “free speech-friendly” Twitter, had arrived. Suddenly, being on Twitter was . . . well there really is no other word for it: fun.
It was fun to be able to interact, finally, with friends and fellow users. It was fun to be able to respond to the hateful tweets about white people, the regime’s lies, the propaganda, the sophistry of the journos, and know that a koryos of my brethren would have my back. With freedom to say what we wanted without fear of being banned for spreading “misinformation” or “misgendering” or “hateful conduct,” the dissident-nationalist side of Twitter had a noticeable effect on the site.
My “following” grew day by day. I always had a meager handful of followers on Twitter, chiefly because I would always get banned so quickly. Within a couple of months, I had over 2,500 followers. Not a lot, I suppose, and not that these numbers are the be all and end all, but I simply want to give an example of how rapidly my account was growing. I posted things which received tens of thousands of views, something that had rarely happened to me on Old Twitter. With this growth, however, came the same old problem: the jumped-up hall monitors. It appears Elon’s Twitter has yet to resolve the conundrum of users who seemingly spend all day on the site snitching on other users.
The writing on the wall appeared when I attracted the Eye of Sauron for engaging in a bit of shitposting on Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Someone on Twitter had asked in a poll whether users sided more with liberals or with Nazis. More voters sided with Nazis. The poll ended either on or shortly before April 20, Hitler’s birthday, and so I retweeted the poll along with a picture of a smiling Führer with the caption, “What a lovely birthday present!” This tweet of mine was reported by a disgruntled libtard, who reported another 90 (ninety!) of my tweets. Even the Vice President of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Department was roped into my birthday tweet, calmly informing a mob baying for my head that “posting pictures of Hitler is not a violation of Twitter’s terms of service.” I wish I could share screenshots of these exchanges as proof, which I retweeted along with some laughing emojis, but since my account has since been suspended, the screenshots have been scrubbed and I didn’t think they were important enough to save. Alas.
Not long after this, I was locked out of my account for retweeting a video in which an Arab boy sucker-punched a white boy. Apparently someone was upset with my commentary on such a display of anti-sportsmanship, and once again he or she, or zir, tattled on me to the Headmaster. But I appealed my lock-out and was successful. I didn’t even have to delete the tweet which had caught the eye of whoever was out to get me. The writing was on the wall, I was in the crosshairs; but at the same time, these were signs of Elon’s Twitter living up to its promise to allow free speech within the confines of common sense.
Then on April 28, the jig was up. My account got suspended yet again. Not locked under the condition of deleting a tweet — totally 86’d.
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9 comments
It seems to me, based on what has been banned and what has not, that Elon Musk is aware. I recall the (Kan)Ye tweet that got him banned, with a direct message from Musk. It seems that any mention of keywords or symbols related to Hitler or National Socialism will bring down the banhammer. His agreement with Keith Woods, along with his friendliness with Ye and what seemed to be a reluctant banning of his post including the symbol, almost as if he hated that he HAD to ban his “hate speech,” leads me to mostly good interpretations.
The best interpretation is Elon Musk is what some would call an “optics cuck,” while others might call it a “winning strategy.” He is with us, but doesn’t think the public is quite ready for the truth about evil bad moustache man. Thus, any sympathy towards his historical movement only makes our ideas look bad. Whether he is right or wrong, it is a debate about tactics that is very nuanced. This interpretation may be wishful thinking, but it fits.
Another interpretation is that he is simply a free speech enthusiast. He thinks it is very important to debate and speak openly about current topics, which does not include events from early 20th century. So he is a “basic conservative” along the lines of Tucker. If this is true, then he is better than almost every Republican politician at this point, and certainly better than the antiwhite freaks who used to run Twitter. He should be treated as an ally for the time being at least, and his platform should be used to spread the truth, although limited, in a careful way.
That only leaves the more conspiratorial explanations for his actions, of which I’m sure some people have come up with. As of now, either interpretation should lead us to the same course of action. Use the platform carefully; our big names perhaps more carefully, with random unknown people being more open on certain topics. Meanwhile, try to get Musk to address the issues you brought up concerning his moderators.
This is based on my limited knowledge of the issue, as I have managed to avoid social media so far, so maybe I am off the mark. However, I think I might have to finally join in on the fun.
”Nothing gets a rise out the Leftist schoolmarms and rabid anti-whites like a bit of Nazi posting”
Is it really any sort of enormity when a person who cannot restrain himself from publicly endorsing Adolf Hitler, whether in ‘jest’ or no, gets suspended from social media? In much of Western Europe, certainly including Britain, this would earn one a visit from the police. Indeed under upcoming legislation, the Online Harms Bill, not only such a poster, but also his ISP and Twitter itself could find themselves arraigned before a British judge. And it is no good complaining that the playing field is crooked if one is engaged in fouling it oneself!
Fantastic, insightful, and well-written article. The comparison between pre-Elon moderation teams and the Praetorian Guard was especially juicy.
I think it’s most likely that Mr. Musk has more on his mind than weighing in on every individual account ban; he’s running an electric vehicle company, a space exploration company, and also now holds the reins of arguably the most important social media platform on the internet. His support of Keith Woods could have simply demonstrated that he didn’t realize Woods was a designated enemy of the regime.
Ultimately, it’s hard to guess the motivations of the world’s wealthiest man. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that he’s /ourguy/, but he’s been largely unpersoned by most of the contemporary Western left (despite their hypocritical continued usage of his platform), so it’s a roll of the dice.
Witchever way you look at it, that was not a smart thing to tweet. Wasn’t funny, wasn’t a good gotcha, and it’s plain to see how most people would have assumed you were just yanking the guy’s chain about muh 6 million. I naturally don’t think people should be banned for stuff like this but it was basically prime reason for a libtard to do it.
Is it really any sort of enormity when a person who cannot restrain himself from publicly endorsing Adolf Hitler,
…
And it is no good complaining that the playing field is crooked if one is engaged in fouling it oneself!
Uuuh?
Can you explain this in simpler terms? Did I get that right:
When someone compares our situation to Weimar and is mentioning Hitler in this context – which the author explains very well – he is “engaged in fouling” and you approuve censorship ?
Many nebulous concepts floating around these days (anti-racism, human rights, diversity,…) have neither a clear definition nor a simple check if they are guaranteed or not.
Fortunately, “free speech” is not in this category.
It has a simple litmus test: Unless you can discuss National Socialism and mention you-know-whom without any restrictions, there is no free speech.
Exactly. Race & jews & NS (and generally fascism) are most important for censors nowadays, just like, not so long ago, in normal times, censors would fight primarily against REAL problems (such as for example: porn and other forms of immorality). You are not allowed to free discuss these topics? Then you know that there is no free speech left there. Look at (((their))) youtube: disgusting pornified crap of every sort allowed, but not Adolf, because he was bad for (((them))). What a sick and degenerated times we live in!
In “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche DuBois said, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
For freedom of speech, we shouldn’t have to depend on the kindness of strange, mercurial billionaires.
But we may have to take whatever we can get, whenever we can get it, for as long as we can get it.
And hope that we don’t end up like Blanche.
I wonder if one of these days, Elon will send social media censors to Mars on a rocket that doesn’t work 😉
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