About the Murthy vs Missouri decision...

Regarding Murthy v. Missouri: the Supreme Court decision yesterday about government coercing social media companies to censor users' activity based on political content.  SCOTUS decided that the plaintiffs had no standing and dismissed the lawsuit.

This seems like a colossal victory for the government and social media companies.  HOWEVER...

The case was *not* dismissed.  Today's ruling dealt with the temporary injunction in the case, not the case itself.  The case was REMANDED, back down the legal chain.  It could still come before the high court where the plaintiffs can better frame their arguments with solid evidence of coercion and censorship.

I believe that such a thing is not only possible, it is almost guaranteed to happen.

Twitter, or X as it's called now, is going to be VERY interesting to watch as it pertains to the case.  When Murthy v. Missouri was first filed it was confronting a seemingly unassailable block of social media companies, especially Twitter.

But Twitter/X is no longer part of that.  It's in the hands of Elon Musk now.  Who may prove to be quite enamored with the idea of opening up Twitter's old files and shed some sunlight on how his company under previous management censored content because the government told it to.

That may be a more substantive body of evidence than a few emails were as was the crux of the plaintiff's arguments.  If not in support of the Murthy plaintiffs then almost certainly worth a case all its own.

So to those who have been frustrated by today's ruling: be of good cheer.  This sort of thing has happened before, and it will again.  Personally I believe that Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas were correct in their dissent.  But I'm not ready to throw out the bathwater with the baby quite yet.  This was a ruling on the injunction, not necessarily the case itself.  The case was sent back to the lower courts.  And might still come before the Supremes again.

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Found this on Twitter tonight

 

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Dear Elon Musk: Make Twitter usable again

This line from the 1983 movie WarGames has come to mind in the past couple of days:

Except right now it's Elon Musk instead of Dabney Coleman.  And instead of the WOPR computer the problem is that Twitter is, at the moment, complete junk.

A few years ago I embedded the timeline of my most recent tweets on this blog, in the right-hand column toward the top of the page.  It gradually came to be a great complement to the blog proper.  Instead of making a post about anything that I found interesting enough to share, I simply tweeted it and it would also come up on the blog.  It had become a "secondary spinal cord" of my humble website.

Well, as you can see, the timeline is gone.  There is just a link to my individual Twitter page and you can see some of my tweets there. I say "some" because Twitter owner Elon Musk has limited how many tweets you can see per day.  And oh yeah, you MUST have a Twitter account and be signed into it if you want to read tweets at all.

Mr. Musk, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?!?

 

Musk claims that he's doing this to keep Google and ChatGPT and whatever other systems are out there from automatically sucking up information from Twitter.

What Musk has done instead is make Twitter absolutely FUBAR and completely useless so far as any meaningful work goes.

It's the proverbial "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".  Speaking of babies, why do I now think that had he been in Solomon's place, Musk would have gone ahead and cut the little infant in two?

"Mr. Musk, after very serious consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your microblogging service sucks."

Well, there's only one thing that I can think about doing, in light of these circumstances.  That being: I'm going to stop using Twitter at all, for the foreseeable future.  If Elon Musk reverses course and rolls back all of these limits, I will gladly come back to Twitter and forgive its owner and anyone else responsible for doing this to us.  But I need my embedded Twitter feed back to normal.

Nobody of sound mind does this to his or her customers.  It's like the phone company limiting your calls to two hundred seconds per day.  That's how insane these new policies at Twitter are.

Maybe Musk will get the point if enough people complain.  Because right now it looks like he's sabotaging his own company.  If there's a financial angle to that, I've no idea what it could be.  But he needs to fix this, immediately.

 

 

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A prediction

Five years from now Twitter will barely exist.  If it still does its market value will be significantly wiped out compared to today.

The board of that company needs to fire Jack Dorsey, now.

Even worse than other tech giants, Twitter is trying to be both publisher and platform.  It's not sustainably possible.  And it's heading toward disaster.

Expect an ever larger exodus of users from Twitter to competitors like Gab and Parler (the latter is supposed to be back online soon after its web services was yanked by Amazon, arguably against the terms of the service contract).

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Censored by Twitter

Well, it happened.  But from the looks of things I am in plenty of good company.

Last night I made a tweet on Twitter.  The now much-beleagured company that along with Facebook (is that a possible RICO charge?) has been censoring any mention of yesterday's New York Post story about Joe Biden and his son Hunter and their dealings with Burisma.  Among other things.

There is a photograph of Hunter Biden using a crack pipe.  Or maybe meth.  I don't know.  Meth would be a lot nastier.  But I know this photo exists.  I know because I have seen it.

So last night I made a Twitter post, along the lines of "the question that should be asked of every journalist, news outlet, and social media giant: Why should we trust you?"

Below that I added: "P.S.: there is a photo of Hunter Biden with a crack pipe."

I just checked my Twitter page.  That post has vanished.  Without warning or notice.

It's possible that a Twitter employee deleted it. It's also possible that they have adjusted their algorithms to automatically search and destroy anything negative pertaining to the Bidens.

However or whatever happened, it's not that big a deal.  I'm actually rather honored that of all the zillions of tweets flying right now about Hunter Biden, that mine was apparently targeted for termination.  The Twitter account page itself is still there (at twitter.com/theknightshift) but I wouldn't be surprised if that went MIA without warning sometime either.

 The more that Twitter and the other "Big Tech" companies pull stuff like this to an increasing number of people, the more they are looking at having their protections stripped and being broken up.  It happened before with the phone companies.  It could happen again.  Nothing is "too big to fail".  I've wondered if anyone has considered that Facebook and Twitter have become means of communication between people, companies, and organizations like churches and civic groups.  Depriving people of that or banning them from participation is almost tantamount to obstructing delivery of the mail service.  Or denying phone service on the basis of personal political beliefs.

And of course, Twitter and Facebook are behaving not so much as platforms as they are publishers.  There is a vast difference between the two.  Big Tech is trying to have it both ways.  And it's wrong.

Well, as I said: it's no skin off me if the post was deleted or even if my entire Twitter feed is destroyed.  Who knows: maybe there's a class action lawsuit that could come of Twitter's antics.  I wouldn't mind getting in on that action.

EDIT 10/16/2020 8:26 am EST:  The tweet is back where it was.  Oddly, I looked at its interactions and it has only been seen twice.  The other night it got up to around 200 or so within a short period of time.  Not speculating, just making a note of that.

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A federal judge just turned Twitter and Facebook into public utilities

In what might be the most hilarious case of unintended consequences in recent memory, today Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that President Donald Trump was wrong to have blocked users from his Twitter feed... which inadvertently has officially designated Twitter (and by extension Facebook and YouTube and other social media outlets) to be common carriers like the telephone system!

In a 75-page ruling, Judge Buchwald declared that Twitter was a "designated public forum" on which Trump could not discriminate against selected readers by blocking their accounts. "This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, 'block' a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States," Buchwald said in her opinion. "The answer to both questions is no."

So let's tear this down...

If a person is a "public official", that person can not "mute" communication between himself or herself and selected members of the audience based on their political views.  It is effectively giving the President a right to be heard whether he wants to be heard or not.

So when do these same protections get extended to ordinary citizens like Diamond & Silk, who have been chronically banned (and reinstated after considerable public outcry) from Facebook and other social media venues?

The documented cases of those who have seen their Facebook posts, tweets, and YouTube clips purged down the memory hole have have had one outstanding factor overwhelmingly in common: they have pertained to those who hold what are often deemed to be "conservative" beliefs.  Too many have been banned outright or have been "shadow banned": made to look as if they are broadcasting their message out but in fact have had their posts and tweets throttled down or shut down completely by Twitter or Facebook or whoever.  Indeed, I would go so far as to say that it is now an open secret that there is extremely active discrimination being practiced on the part of self-ascribed "liberals" and "progressives" within the tech industry against those who they disagree with.  So much so that some have wondered if there might be RICO charges on the basis of advertising purchased with these companies only to have potential audiences algorithm-ed out of sight and out of mind.

But now thanks to Naomi Reice Buchwald, Twitter and other social media platforms have been officially defined to be "common carriers" like AT&T, Comcast, and a lot of other companies.  In business but also subject to regulation by the government to ensure fair practices and privileges for all.  And if users of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram are being censored not because of inappropriate behavior but purely on the basis of ideology, well...

This is gonna be totally fun to watch as it unfolds.  Wouldn't surprise me if Twitter came down on Trump's side if it keeps them and every other social media outfit out of regulatory jurisdiction.

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Addy Miller is nominated for a Shorty Award: Let's help her out!!

Voting is underway until tomorrow night at midnight for The 4th Annual Shorty Awards, which is "a worldwide effort to engage hundreds of thousands of Twitter users to identify the best people and organizations on social media."

So I'm gonna pitch the case to y'all that in my opinion, Addy Miller deserves to win a Shorty. Because she's an incredibly talented young actress who is also immensely sweet and nice in real life, and she always takes time to interact with her growing number of fans.

In case you forgot who Addy is, here's a reminder...

Yup, she's the "little girl zombie" that Rick Grimes shot down in the very first scene of the very first episode of AMC's megahit series The Walking Dead. And word is that she's gotten involved in a bunch more great projects since then!

Here's a pic from a few months ago, when Kristen and I got to meet Addy at Woods of Terror near Greensboro...

Now ain't that the most precious-lookin' little cherub who ever played a flesh-eating undead ghoul?? :-)

Anyhoo, if you've got a Twitter account (which all the cool kids have these days) here's the link to Addy Miller's nomination page at The Shorty Awards. I'm asking all my online peeps to click on over and give her some support! She's doing very well so far, but every little bit helps.

And thanks!! :-)

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Halloween 2011: Priceline Negotiators score epic win as William Shatner re-Tweets our costumes!

What a crazy day this has turned into!! A little while ago we were at Woods of Terror in nearby Guilford County and had our photo taken with Addy Miller, AKA the cute lil' zombie girl from the very first episode of The Walking Dead. But before we did that, this afternoon there was the Trunk or Treat event at Fairview Baptist Church. What a great opportunity to pull off something that I had the idea for way back in the spring...

So here we are: Kristen Bradford as Naomi Pryce, Yours Truly as William Shatner, and Steven Glaspie as Big Deal from the TV commercials for Priceline!

But that's not all! After Kristen posted that pic onto her Facebook page I immediately Twitter-ed about it.

And William Shatner himself re-tweeted it!!!

Click on the link, and behold the visual record of our epic geek win...

Honestly don't know what else to say. Just... wow. To be re-tweeted by The Shatner. The Shatner is not a mere mortal: he is... a force of nature. And tonight The Shatner beheld one of my best friends, my girlfriend and I as the Priceline Negotiators.

The Shatner saw me portraying him and acknowledged that before all creation.

Whoa.

I think I gotta lay down after that...

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Pope Benedict tweets (with an iPad 2!)

This photo is so fascinating, and I can't quite articulate why. Pope Bendict XVI, using an iPad 2 and quite obviously on Twitter, to "tweet" a brief message to inaugurate the Vatican's official news site.

And what was the Holy Father's first message in 140 characters or less?

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI"

The Catholic Church was the primary repository of knowledge and learning in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire on through to the Renaissance. To have gone from a collection of scrolls and parchments, to seeing this photo of its leader communicating to the world with a piece of high-tech silicon and glass...

As I said: "fascinating"!

(But I'm also wondering if His Holiness might use his snazzy new gizmo for the occasional game of Angry Birds. Not that there's anything wrong with that... ;-)

Click here for SQPN's report on Pope Benedict's first tweet. And thanks to Fr. Roderick Vonhögen for the heads-up!

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Creepy, and all too true...

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Did y'all know that I have a Twitter feed?

Yes I do. And I use it for quite a bit of mirth and merriment!

(Okay seriously, for all of y'all going to see Eclipse tonight, hope you have fun :-)

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Question for my Twitter-in' peeps

What's the best third-party application/front end thingy to use with Twitter?

I'm beginning to use my own Twitter account a lot more, including photos and probably video as well. It would also be nice to have something that would, if at all possible, automatically aggregate tweets/twits/whatever addressed to me so that I see 'em without having to just happen upon them.

So what would y'all recommend? :-)

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"GOD HATES #TAGS"! Westboro Baptist nuts mocked at Twitter HQ counter-protest

Awright, what the hell has Twitter done to get the Westboro Baptist Church idiots to picket outside its corporate headquarters?

Whatever the "God Hates Fags" bunch's purpose in being there was, a lot more people showed up with some extremely clever signs mocking the "church"...

Also said to have been there was a "GOD HATES #TAGS" sign! Hilarious :-)

Click here and here and here and here and no doubt many other pages popping up documenting the hilarity, which reportedly was enough to drive the inbred progeny of Fred Phelps off the scene!

('Course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my own encounter with the Westboro Baptist loons a few years ago.)

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Best man rigs newlywed friend's bed to Twitter during sex

Yeah it's a slow news day apparently.

Read the wonderfully lurid technical details about the prank here.

And if you are interested in this kind of... stuff... click here to follow the Twitter feed straight from the newlyweds' bed.

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Damon Lindelof Twitter-ed me about LOST!

We're about four and a half months away from the return of Lost. What many have called the best scripted television drama ever is heading into its sixth and final season, with plenty of mysteries still abounding. Like, f'rinstance, the statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret that we saw in last season's finale.

Well, this might or might not mean anything but hey, it's my own lil' claim to having what might be a viable theory of Lost, so... why not share it with everyone? :-)

Damon Lindelof, one of the Lost showrunners, asked this via his Twitter account on August 13th...

"QUESTION: What is the significance of the statue of Taweret? (Creativity + ingenuity will win over ridiculous humor or familiar theories.)"

I'm sure that Lindelof got hit with a slew of responses. So I figured I'd posit my own rumination on the subject. Here's my tweet to Lindelof...

"@DamonLindelof Re: Tawaret statue: because giant alligator-headed women are a honkin' lot scarier than a "Beware of Dog" sign?"

And then like a lot of things on Twitter I completely forgot about it. Until a week later when Lindelof Twitter-ed my answer for all the world to see...

"@theknightshift Because giant alligator-headed women are much scarier than a "Beware Of Dog" sign?"

Whoa! Did I inadvertently stumble on something here? That was the only response that Lindelof conveyed via his own Twitter. Could it be that this really is the purpose of the Tawaret statue (which is estimated to be as tall as a 30-story office building)? Kinda would make sense, given that it looks out toward the sea. In times of yore that would certainly be quite a visual deterrent against approaching the Island.

Guess we'll just have to find out together in a few months' time!

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Southeastern Conference bans social media at sports events

"No Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or TwitPic!" That's the dictate being sent to sports fans and students of Southeastern Conference member schools if they want to attend athletic events. Under its newly adopted media policy, the SEC has informed its schools that "Ticketed fans can't produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event."

It's effectively a ban on all so-called "social media". Per the new regs, a fan could get ejected from the premises simply for using his iPhone to take a picture of himself at a Gators football game and sending it to his friends on Facebook.

So what's behind this boneheaded move? The $3 billion contact with CBS for the next 15 years, giving that network exclusive media rights to cover SEC games. In other words: if you go to an SEC event, you and your cellphone are potential competition to a multi-billion dollar broadcast television corporation equipped with the latest cutting-edge high definition technology.

This isn't entirely unheard of, but for a collegiate athletic conference to crack down on the fans themselves is certainly new (and treacherous) ground to tread. Not to mention darn near unenforceable.

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Death by Twitter

A seventeen-year old girl is dead after being electrocuted in her bathroom in a freak accident while plugging in a laptop computer that she was using to Twitter.

Maria Barbu of Brasov, Romania was found by her parents laying next to the laptop, and police think she "may have tried to plug in the computer's mains power lead with wet hands after the battery ran down during a long Twitter session".

Here's what I have to ask in case no one else has: why was this girl Twitter-ing from a bathroom to begin with?

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Twitter making Internet news finally come into its own right now in Iran

Twenty years ago this month, the broadcast of the crackdown on the pro-democracy protesters in Beijing by the Chinese government was widely hailed as the moment that international television news coverage like that of CNN became a serious factor at long last.

That was CNN in 1989.

In 2009 it is Twitter, of all things, that is marking the end of television's dominance of the news.

Here's the Twitter feed for most of the "tweets" about what's going down in Iran. At this hour there's a massive rally in Tehran by anti-Ahmedinejad protesters. The police have opened fire and killed at least one person. Just about everything we know about all this is coming from regular people who are sending live reports via Twitter.

Remember this well, folks. June 2009 is when people in Iran took hold of the power of "you media" and played it to the hilt. This is real revolution in more ways than one happening at this moment.

I hope this kind of exuberance spreads to more countries. Including my own :-)

EDIT 2:12 p.m. EST: I made a link to this blog post on the same Twitter feed (#iranelection) and right now, The Knight Shift is getting SLAMMED with more international visits than I have ever seen in the five-plus years of this blog's operation (along with quite a few folks from across the United States).

So a hearty hello to everyone who's finding their way here this afternoon, and here's raising up some thoughts and prayers for our friends in Iran who are taking their destiny into their own hands. May they be an inspiration for us all!

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Back from STAR TREK

And I'm already working on a full review. But that's not what this blog post is about...

The premiere of the movie tonight turned out to be a fitting occasion for me to take my first steps into the larger world of mobile telecommunications. So this evening, before and after the movie, I was doing my first real Twitter-ing from "out in the field", along with status updates to my Facebook page. Including some photos that I took with the built-in camera on my new phone. I'll admit that I have been a bit intimidated by all the procedure that I had thought was needed to do stuff like this... but it turned out to be as easy as anything! I'll likely be doing lots more of this remote Twittering/blogging in the future.

Anyhoo, while I work on the review, click on my Twitter feed for a taste of the craziness that happened during tonight's premiere of Star Trek!

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Churches that say "Amen!" to Twitter

Not so long ago, for a person to employ a BlackBerry or an iPhone during a worship service was deemed the height of irreverence. But increasingly it's not only grown acceptable, it's becoming encouraged.

Time Magazine has a story about churches that have adopted Twitter - the micro-blogging utility that's become all the rage - as a a tool for edifying, evangelism and Bible study. As one person in the article points out, Twitter makes it possible to actively write and save notes from that day's sermon, without having to ever again misplace what you jot down. As an added benefit, those who are somehow unable to "be there" can keep up along with the rest of the congregation.

Very, very cool. Kevin Bussey also shares some experiences he's had with Twitter on his own blog. And now that I've got a new cellphone that can send text messages, I might have to Twitter from a church myself sometime :-)

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