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Monday, February 1, 2021

US Capitol breached and ......... ..... Twitter bans Trump !!!

Do you know what this symbol represents ? – how often do you tweet ??


Twitter is a modern public square where many voices discuss, debate and share their views. Media personalities, politicians and the public turn to social networks for real-time information and reactions to the day’s events.  

The one seen above is that of ‘Parler’ which is in news for wrong reasons.  Apple has removed Parler, which has a significant user base of President Donald Trump supporters, from its iPhone App Store on Saturday. The company explained that the reason why they removed it is because the posts on the pro-Trump app related to the US Capitol seige last week included violence, which violates Apple’s rules for safe content. On Friday, Google had also removed Parler from its Android app store, Google Play.   Parler is an American microblogging and social networking service. Parler has a significant user base of Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists

Kirstie Alley was born in Wichita, Kansas,  the daughter of Robert Deal Alley, who owned a lumber company.    After moving to Los Angeles to pursue Scientology and work as an interior designer, Alley appeared as a contestant on the game show Match Game in 1979. She won both rounds, winning $500 in the first round and $5500 in the second round.  She also appeared on the game show Password Plus in 1980.   In 1981, an automobile accident involving a drunk drive  killed her mother and left her father seriously injured.  She is famous as an American Actress.   Her breakout role was as Rebecca Howe on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1987–1993), receiving an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991 for the role. From 1997 to 2000, she starred on the sitcom Veronica's Closet, earning additional Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

It took a riotous mob storming the Capitol building for Facebook to finally take significant action against the president , Facebook took this  step on Thursday of blocking his account indefinitely. It announced that his access won’t be reinstated until at least after Joe Biden is inaugurated. “The current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government,” wrote Facebook’s founder and C.E.O., Mark Zuckerberg. “  Micro-blogging site, Twitter, finally banned US President Donald Trump’s account on Friday, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the US Capitol Hill siege and the unrest that followed. The decision got everyone talking online, memes and jokes ensued. After temporarily blocking his account on the day of the attack, the company pulled the plug permanently on @realDonaldTrump. However, the official account for the President of the United States, @POTUS, remains live. Twitter said its policy enables world leaders to speak to the public, but that these accounts “are not above our rules entirely” and can’t use Twitter to incite violence.

Actress Kirstie Alley came under fire on Saturday for comparing President Trump’s Twitter ban to slavery. The Cheers star was reacting to a comment from the American Civil Liberties Union which is also opposed to the suspension of the president’s account on the grounds of free speech. Alley, 69, claimed that tech companies now hold ‘the keys to the chains’ as she compared Wednesday’s riot on the Capitol by Trump supporters to the summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

 


Despite criticism, the celeb Trump supporter stood by her statement, claiming in a later tweet that there is ‘more than one definition of the word slavery’, yet also claimed she views the actions of the president’s mob as a ‘treasonous criminal terrifying act’.  Alley, who is a high profile follower of the Church of Scientology, had retweeted a statement from the ACLU which said that ‘it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions – especially when political realities make those decision easier’. While the statement later added that Trump could still address his followers through ‘his press team or Fox News’ which is claimed is a luxury ‘black, brown and LGBTQ activists who have been censored by social media companies’ don’t have, Alley focused on the first line

She attempted to end her Twitter thread before the backlash began ! After Alley was called out for appearing to condone Wednesday’s violence, she returned to Twitter to write: ‘No violence no violence no violence PLEASE no violence’.  ‘Breaching the CAPITOL was a treasonous criminal terrifying act and those people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,’ she continued. Yet others did not agree and accused her of minimizing the ‘vicious brutality of real slavery’ in her comparison.

Technology can ruin people too !! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

10.1.2021 

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