How To Get Suspended on Twitter - 

(What Is or Is Not Hate Speech)

     I like Twitter, for various reasons, including William Shatner, world events, artistic creations and such things. Sometimes I get involved in threads that are important to me or just because I'm bored. I knew, some days, I might be risking my access with certain posts and side comments. I do try to choose my words wisely, without explicits, unless I get really passionate. Yet, on the evening of May 20, 2020, I was still shocked when I received the following message on my #TwitterBoard : 

(screenshot of suspension notice from #Twitter Review Board ) 

     

     I muttered a few WTFs and such, while I tried to figure out if it was for real or just a hacker's funtime. It was real and they were serious in the accusation being brought against me. I read and re-read my comment and I couldn't (still can't) comprehend where the complaint stems from and how Twitter could agree with such a frivolous, false claim.  

     My anonymous accuser implied that my use of the word Skank is #HateSpeech. (I really do believe it's one of the 3 persons tagged by the Original Commentator - an ex-boyfriend maybe, who doesn't want to be known as the guy who dated a skank.) 

     The definition of Skank is as follows : 

noun

1. 1.

   INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN

   a sleazy or unpleasant person.
2. 2.

   a steady-paced dance performed to reggae music, characterized by rhythmically bending forward, raising the knees, and extending the hands palms-downward.

verb

1. 1.

   swindle or deceive.

   "they made a tidy sum skanking the tourists"
2. 2.

   play reggae music or dance the skank.

( courtesy https://www.lexico.com/en/ )

     Going through several credible (not Urban Dictionary) sources, Skank isn't even considered vulgar. Even by Twitter policy and definition, nothing in my comment incited violence, targeted any 'group' of race, gender, religion or politics, nor were my words threatening. I followed procedure anyways and filed several appeals to have the suspension lifted as I believe the suspension to be unwarranted. And I waited. I waited for my 14 days to go by, without a single email re: a review of my account status. 

     It's now July 16, 2020 and I'm still frozen out. I've still yet to receive any kind of correspondence from Twitter. That being said, I've decided to eat crow on this one and remove the original comment so I can resume my virtual life of social media. I will be posting this on Twitter once I'm reinstated, hopefully. I just want to bring attention to the bias process and lack of accountability from Twitter staff that needs to be exposed and corrected. I absolutely understand that it's a private company, yet it's on a public medium, therefore should be subjected to the same code of conduct and handle complaints justly, using common sense and actually reading the complaints to assure their validity.

     This probably isn't over... ( a public poll on the meaning of Hate Speech and the use of words like Skank to be posted soon). Also does society have to take things to extremes, including political correctness, to the point of skewering the basic meaning of a word?

Sidenote - Considering how the court case is currently going for both sides, I stand by my original comment as there's nothing in there warranting a suspension of such longitude and Johnny Depp is being vindicated. Let the Truth speak for itself (and if you have a screenshot, that helps too.)