**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 14:04

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 14:04

Lexi Alexander @Lexialex

The plot thickens on Paul Engelhard’s ban from the bird site. A bunch of my friends who have access to the head honchos of Twitter approached them about it, not even they could fix it. Apparently this is a German Twitter hate speech issue. Now I have to compose a tweet in German and @ German Twitter...which is my least favorite thing to do. My German isn’t that great anymore. Plus, I have to address German hate speech laws. Sigh.

**Agentfoo** @Agentfoo@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 14:50

**Agentfoo** @Agentfoo@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 14:50

@Lexialex So him decrying Nazis somehow ran afoul of German laws designed to prevent Nazism's re-emergence? I'm guessing he shared a photo or something with banned iconography?

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · 2018-02-23T14:55:55Z

Lexi Alexander @Lexialex

@Agentfoo no photo. He was mass reported by right wing Germans.

Feb 23, 2018, 14:55 · ◆ Tootdon ◆ · 0 · 1

**Agentfoo** @Agentfoo@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 14:57

**Agentfoo** @Agentfoo@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 14:57

@Lexialex Ugh, that's... ugh. Yet again, the apparatus of the state gets hijacked by the hard right.

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 14:57

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 14:57

@Agentfoo I know. I’m pissed off and people are either clueless or complacent about this

**Richard Cosgrove** @rcosgrove@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 15:52

**Richard Cosgrove** @rcosgrove@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 15:52

@Lexialex @Agentfoo I’m convinced the only way Twitter will change is if its shareholders fire all of its board and corporate officers with people who give a damn about the company screwing up.

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 15:01

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 15:01

@Lexialex @Agentfoo That seems to happen a lot on Birdsite. They're slow learners, but the far right have eventually figured out how to mobilize on that platform. I think they'll have a lot more trouble in the fediverse, and be more easily contained to their own echo chamber.

**Agentfoo** @Agentfoo@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 15:01

**Agentfoo** @Agentfoo@mastodon.social · Feb 23, 2018, 15:01

@bob @Lexialex We can hope!

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 15:04

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 15:04

@Agentfoo @Lexialex On Twitter because it's centralized there are no instances which can be blocked, and trying to block individual accounts is a losing game. A possibly controversial opinion is that I think whoever is running Birdsite is sympathetic towards the far right anyway, and giving them a particularly easy time.

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 15:05

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 15:05

@bob @Agentfoo hasn’t that been proven? I thought i read an article on this

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 15:06

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 15:06

@Lexialex @Agentfoo I havn't read anything about it in detail. It's just a hunch based on what I've seen over the last couple of years.

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 15:10

**Lexi Alexander** @Lexialex · Feb 23, 2018, 15:10

@bob @Agentfoo kind of: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/silicon-valley-tech-alt-right-racism-misogyny/

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 16:08

**Bob Mottram 🔧 ☕ ✅** @bob@soc.freedombone.net · Feb 23, 2018, 16:08

@Lexialex @Agentfoo That's on a similar theme to what I was blogging about yesterday - that if the alt-right get enough influence within Google then that could be a really major threat, given the amount of personal data they have.