The Salem-Based Satanic Temple Accuses Twitter of Discrimination

[DharmaSpace]

The Salem-Based Satanic Temple Accuses Twitter of Discrimination

The group has filed an official complaint with the state.
By Spencer Buell·   5/30/2018, 3:11 p.m.

Lucien Greaves at the Satanic Temple’s international headquarters in Salem, 2016 | Photo via AP/Elise Amendola

Arguing that it has been a victim of religious discrimination, the Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple has filed an official complaint with the state against Twitter, the group announced Wednesday.

The Temple, which set up an international headquarters in Salem in 2016, says the social media company did not respond adequately after a Twitter user threatened to burn its building down. It also accuses the company of inappropriately suspending two accounts run by its spokesman, and alleges it declined to “verify” those accounts on religious grounds.

“Twitter claims to be welcoming to people of all religions; it may welcome some, but it detests The Satanic Temple,” reads the complaint, which was signed on March 5 and marked received on March 12. A spokeswoman for the Temple says it is sharing the news now because it has only just received confirmation that the complaint has been received.

The complaint points to an incident in January, when a user on the site wrote a hostile message directed at the group. “A church like this should not exist!” reads the tweet,  posted by an account that has since been suspended. “Burn it!” The tweet gained traction after the former child actor Corey Feldman shared it, the Temple says. At the time, Lucien Greaves, the Temple’s co-founder and spokesman, reported the tweet to Twitter, but says the company instead suspended his accounts “without explanation.” Three days later, after the Temple threatened to sue, Twitter reversed its decision and the accounts were restored.

Screenshot via the Satanic Temple’s complaint

“Instead of taking swift action against the arsonist and her god-fearing champion,” the complaint continues, “Twitter suspended accounts that innocently spread the word of Satanism, doubling down after they complained of discrimination. The Satanic Temple brings this claim of discrimination and retaliation to stand up for the rights of religious minorities.”

Greaves alleges that he has tried unsuccessfully since November to get verified status from Twitter, which is denoted by a blue checkmark next to a user’s name and is designed to both confirm an account owner’s identity and confer elite status. The Temple’s complaint notes that other religious figures like Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama have been verified. Greaves has about 10,000 followers on the platform, and the Temple’s official account has about 29,000.

“The failure of Twitter to verify both accounts, which both clearly meet Twitter’s documented standards for verification, compounded by the suspension of the accounts clearly demonstrates a pattern of hostile discriminatory behavior engaged in by Twitter against The Satanic Temple,” Greaves says in a statement. “It reveals the biased human agency behind a facade of neutral and evenly enforced standards.”

The Temple is also seeking damages and attorneys’ fees.

Through a spokesperson, Twitter tells Boston it will not comment on individual accounts. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination confirmed that it is “actively investigating” the complaint, but declined to comment further.

Followers of the Satanic Temple claim they do not literally worship the Antichrist, and say that its use of Satanic imagery is meant to symbolize a fight against tyranny and in support of other values, such as “benevolence and empathy among all people,” according to its website.

It’s not uncommon for chapters of the Satanic Temple to assert their rights in public, often confrontational, ways. The Temple once campaigned to erect a large bronze statue of Baphomet, a Satanic goat-headed creature, next to a monument of the biblical Ten Commandments on Oklahoma’s Capitol grounds, and it joined a lawsuit filed by the ACLU to remove a similar Ten Commandments monument in Arkansas. It has protested the notorious Westboro Baptist Church in some, um, creative ways. In 2015, the Temple planned to hold a “black mass” at Harvard, inspiring a rebuke from the Archdiocese of Boston. The controversial event was abruptly canceled.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2018/05/30/satanic-temple-twitter-discrimination/

So this is the way to get Twitter's attention, to threaten legal action.

[Rowntree]

Twitter is obnoxious in not attending to report and its users' complaint in a timely manner. It has also been deleting and deactivate accounts for no apparent reasons. Users can lose tens of thousands of followers within hours or have their accounts shadowbanned, locked and even suspended for no apparent reasons. For religious matter, especially, Twitter seemed to take even longer to acknowledge, not to mention to address the issue or to assist those who experienced discrimination in the platform.

[Celia]

Not the first time Twitter failed to take action in a discriminatory and even criminal situation. Another example is the case of Ms.Xyla Foxlin where Twitter failed to do anything but to ask her to block the account. This is despite such rape threats kept escalating even to where the harasser kept doxing her and  to the point of tweeting out Foxlin's address in response to Twitter users looking for sex, telling them Foxlin was a lady of the night.

Luckily for her, Foxlin found an engineer who worked at Twitter through one of the women-in-tech networks she belonged to and reached out. This woman immediately helped escalate things at Twitter, leading the social network to shut down the account, once the Twitter folks saw the doxing.
Full report: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-xyla-foxlin-stopped-twitter-harasser-2017-9/?IR=T

Twitter is definitely irresponsible for not attending to report and its users' complaint in a timely manner.

[dsnowlion]

Not the first time Twitter failed to take action in a discriminatory and even criminal situation. Another example is the case of Ms.Xyla Foxlin where Twitter failed to do anything but to ask her to block the account. This is despite such rape threats kept escalating even to where the harasser kept doxing her and  to the point of tweeting out Foxlin's address in response to Twitter users looking for sex, telling them Foxlin was a lady of the night.

Luckily for her, Foxlin found an engineer who worked at Twitter through one of the women-in-tech networks she belonged to and reached out. This woman immediately helped escalate things at Twitter, leading the social network to shut down the account, once the Twitter folks saw the doxing.
Full report: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-xyla-foxlin-stopped-twitter-harasser-2017-9/?IR=T

Twitter is definitely irresponsible for not attending to report and its users' complaint in a timely manner.

I've read about this news before. I do agree that Twitter is notorious for not responding to abusive complains, especially those genuine cases. The thing is not everyone can hire an investigator and I am sure not everyone is going to get the same kind of help Ms Foxlin got. And I think victims of religious discrimination probably gets the least attention from Twitter. I've also read that Twitter can be very politically biased hence, I am not surprised that they did not take any action from the Salem-Based Satanic Temple shared here by Dharma Space. In this way they are being very biased. I may not like the Satanic religion but if it is not hurting/harming/abusing/threatening/spewing hate speech and/or forcing their beliefs on others, based on the democratic constitution, they have equal rights to use Twitter and/or any other platforms.

This is the same for Dorje Shugden practitioners whereby you'll see a few people who are supposed to be Dalai Lama's supporters, pretending to be Free Tibet activists, abusing Dorje Shugden people. They constantly tag Shugden Lamas and people and accusing them all kinds of things and the most famous one is that all Shugden practitioners must be paid CCP spies! Apparently, everyone and anyone who practices Dorje Shugden is a paid CCP spy. Wonder how come these Shugden people are all still very poor, since they are supposed to be paid by the CCP for whatever they do. It's really strange how they can just go around accusing any Shugden practitioner of Chinese spy. I guess it is the easiest and only thing then can say because there really isn't anything else.

However, on the other hand, I've been seeing Robert Thurman being mentioned to be the boss of a few anonymous Twitter users who have been attacking Shugden people. And guess what he is being exposed for being really stupid and asking anonymous groups to help him hack into Shugden practitioners' Twitter accounts! Despicable not to mentioned it is a crimn! How can a so-called expert in Buddhism, a Professor in the prestigious Columbia University discriminate others just because they don't follow the Dalai Lama's advice? Since it is just an advice as he said, then there should be no problems. Why is Robert Thurman suddenly the Buddhist police? He actually brings shame to the Dalai Lama for all the things he did. Well, someone called Indy Hack sure is making it known!

[DharmaSpace]

Either you have rule of Law or you don't, you cannot have both.

So Twitter should be fair in its dealings with others. Especially if it is a corporate animal.

 

[Rowntree]

You know what is so pathetic about Twitter? To-date, they have failed to provide any effective methods, at least something closer, in tracking fake accounts, so they resorted to deleting fake accounts! The worst thing is, the so-called fake accounts are not all fake and they have failed to identify that. To opt for an easy way out, they said those are SUSPICIOUS accounts. Often, you see users complaining that their real accounts are being locked and suspended for no reasons. In order to make themselves look good and not to affect their shares, they released news below trying to put themselves in a positive light.

The truth is, they suck at tracing fake accounts and prevent cybercrime (spew hate speech, troll, target harassment, incite harm etc.) on Twitter. They have not found any solutions to these root causes and trying to divert attention, hoping people will be ok with the purge because they know very clearly that people spent tens of thousands of dollars to get the number of followers they had.

Celebrities Are Losing Millions of Followers as Twitter Slashes Fake Accounts

From former President Barack Obama to Justin Bieber, the internet’s biggest social media influencers lost millions of Twitter followers Thursday as the platform began a massive purge of suspicious accounts.

By cracking down on fake accounts, Twitter hopes to restore faith in the controversy-ridden platform where influence—from entertainment to politics—can be inflated by automated or fake followers, the New York Times reports. Twitter said it expects the initiative to reduce the total follower count on the platform by a significant 6%, the Times reports.

Across the board, Twitter’s most followed celebrities felt a cut on Thursday. Katy Perry, the most followed person on Twitter, lost at least 1.5 million followers, leaving her leaving her at 107 million followers, Variety reports. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, lost about 2 million each, leaving them at 104 million and 83.2 million respectively. Rihanna, Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, also all lost about 2 million followers.

“This specific update is focused on followers because it is one of the most visible features on our service and often associated with account credibility,” Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal, policy, and trust and safety lead, wrote in a blog post.

Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal also lost about a million from his 15.3 million followers, and Oprah lost about 1.4 million followers, the Times reports.

Politicians felt the slash too. Barack Obama lost over 2 million followers from his previous 103.63 million, leaving him at 101 million, while President Donald Trump lost 340,000 followers, taking him from 53.4 million to 53.1 million.

Twitter’s primary account seems to have taken the greatest hit, dropping from 62.85 million to 55.35 million followers on Thursday — a drop of 12%.

http://time.com/5337863/twitter-fake-accounts-bots-purge-celebrities/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=time

[dsnowlion]

So this is the way to get Twitter's attention, to threaten legal action.

Yes and that you will sue them because of your losses due to their negligence and allow such abusive haters to troll and keep harassing people. They incite more hate and division amongst people. This is why I say they are a great causing disharmony. Can't imagine the karma they collect, but I guess they don't believe in that, it is just used as a front, while they swindle everyone's money for a lost-cause! Very silly.

[Rowntree]

Either you have rule of Law or you don't, you cannot have both.

So Twitter should be fair in its dealings with others. Especially if it is a corporate animal.

Twitter is never fair and never will. They entertain politicians and protect certain political accounts and suspend others etc. They protect trolls, racists and cyberbullies. They only entertain accounts of famous people but even so their response is not immediate. It can take weeks, months and even years until they take your case seriously. If they do not improve and stop purging senselessly, they can really close the business once and for all!

[dsnowlion]

Either you have rule of Law or you don't, you cannot have both.

So Twitter should be fair in its dealings with others. Especially if it is a corporate animal.

Twitter is actually very political and a lefty. They actually take sides and they actually shadowbanned those they did not like. It happened during the US elections... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/31/trash-talk-how-twitter-is-shaping-the-new-politics

So this means they are pretty bias and they take sides. So this is probably why if the politicians do not like China, then they will allow all the hate speech to surface and shadow banned those against it. This is what I notice and they consider this hate speech.

So yeah Twitter is pretty unfair and they do shape politics and affect people.