Matt Forney
Matt Forney is the editor of Reaxxion and a Chicago-based author, journalist and entrepreneur. He blogs at MattForney.com and is also on Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube and Patreon. He is the author of Confessions of an Online Hustler and many other books, available here. Matt's work has also been featured at Reaxxion's sister site Return of Kings, Taki's Magazine, Alternative Right, and other sites.
Recently, Twitter announced a new policy designed to help deal with “trolls” (read: #GamerGate supporters) using their site. According to TechCrunch, users that are deemed to be “harassing” will be required to provide their cell phone numbers in order to access their accounts:
Twitter currently makes associating an account with a phone number optional, but The Verge said that in cases where a user is found to be harassing others, their account may be temporarily banned until they provide their number. That number (and the email address used to register the account) would then be checked against a list of known trolls to decide whether a full ban is necessary. It’s not a perfect solution — the troll could abandon the banned account and open a new one without supplying a number — but it is certainly a positive step forward.
Given the way that anti-#GamerGate personalities and journalists have abused Twitter’s anti-abuse policies, this new change is another obstacle for #GamerGate supporters to contend with. It also shows how social media platforms are utterly beholden to the whims of social justice warriors.
How SJWs Will Abuse The New Rules
One of the most notable—and worrying—aspects of #GamerGate is how SJWs have so brazenly abused Twitter’s mechanisms for reporting abuse in order to silence their critics. SJWs have spammed Twitter with false abuse reports to get prominent #GamerGate figures such as Jordan Owen, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Slade “Roguestar” Villena suspended from the site (as of this writing, Villena has been suspended from Twitter a record twelve times). SJWs have also bought fake followers for other #GamerGate personalities such as Mike Cernovich and Reaxxion publisher Roosh in an attempt to get them suspended as well.
In virtually all cases, the individuals banned from Twitter had done nothing more than criticize social justice warriors. For example, the reason Jordan Owen was suspended was because he posted an image of Zoe Quinn’s face from when she did nude modeling for sites such as Broken Dolls. Quinn ludicrously managed to get Owen banned from Twitter on the grounds that the picture violated her privacy, even though it was from a commercial photo shoot and did not have any nudity.
Under Twitter’s new policy, #GamerGate supporters may find themselves permanently banned from Twitter even though they have not broken the rules. With Twitter now maintaining a database of “trolls'” phone numbers, the usual method of creating a new account after getting suspended will no longer work. While r/KotakuInAction users have suggested that it may be possible to get around this by creating a Google Voice account, others have stated that Twitter may eventually become like Facebook, where Google Voice numbers don’t work for verification.
There’s another chilling, Orwellian aspect to Twitter’s new policy: it increases the potential of doxing. By retaining the phone numbers of “trolls” in a database, Twitter is providing a way by which SJWs can dox and harass #GamerGate supporters, even more so than they do already.
SJW accuses me of pedophilia. I think you have me confused with your buddy Sarah Butts. pic.twitter.com/iN3s1RLQJO
— Matt Forney (@realmattforney) January 11, 2015
Twitter Bends To The Whim of SJWs
The rapidity with which Twitter has overhauled its anti-abuse policies in the past year puts the lie to the idea that “women aren’t welcome on the Internet.” SJWs like to claim that harassment of women is rife online, yet since #GamerGate began last summer, Twitter has sided with the anti-#GamerGate folks repeatedly by making it easier for SJWs to report “abusive” accounts. Twitter’s partnership with a feminist activist group, Women, Action and the Media (WAM), for abuse reporting is proof that SJWs dominate the decision-making process at social media sites.
The unevenness with which Twitter, Facebook and the like enforce their Terms of Use also benefits SJWs. As I mentioned above, numerous #GamerGate and anti-SJW personalities have been suspended or banned from Twitter for completely bogus reasons, yet legitimate abuse from SJWs often goes ignored. For example, in the past few months, SJWs have set up fake Twitter accounts to impersonate me and make defamatory comments (such as claiming I’m a pedophile or that I solicit prostitutes), yet when I report them to Twitter, it takes them days or weeks to respond.
It’s clear that with this new policy, #GamerGate supporters have another hurdle to leap when it comes to exposing SJW perfidy. It’s also clear that despite the squid ink that SJWs squirt, social media sites are on their side.
Read More: 4 Strategies From The Anti-#GamerGate Playbook
