Twitter's censorship: A path to doom

by Mouser The King Cat

A few days ago, the venerable business newspaper Barron’s ran pictures of Trump and Sanders on its cover with this headline: Are They Killing the Market?  The article was the usual claptrap from market observers, hastily assembled. The intent was obvious, to influence South Carolina voters, with orders coming from the executive suite at News Corporation. (With weightier matters on his mind, Mr. Market responded by lurching to the upside; the influence of Barron’s may be fading.)

But the stock prices of certain companies needed killin’, to paraphrase a murder defense from the Old West. Case in point: Twitter (symbol TWTR), which traded over $70 shortly after its initial public offering and remains under $20 despite a recent spurt.      User growth is stagnant and likely to decline as censorship issues gain traction. The company recently instituted a “Trust and Safety Council,” ostensibly to protect tweeters from spam and abuse. Of course, every loon leftist group has a seat; un-PC types and free speech advocates are not welcome. That is Twitter’s privilege.

Examples of the council’s handiwork have popped up. Brietbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos (@nero) was stripped of his verification status (the blue checkmark) before he broke new ground on the subject, citing sources:

 “Twitter maintains a ‘whitelist’ of favored Twitter accounts and a ‘blacklist’ of unfavored accounts. Accounts on the whitelist are prioritized in search results, even if they’re not the most popular among users. Meanwhile, accounts on the blacklist have their posts hidden from both search results and other users’ timelines.”

Late last week, Twitter suspended the account of conservative journalist and blogger Robert Stacy McCain, who disdains feminists. Other liberal groups will be eager to attack opinion-makers because they can’t win any argument on a level playing field. Listen to Mr. Market: Support alternative platforms and short Twitter to $0.00.