Read on Twitter
Oh, hi there. Incoming thread on why I haven't used Twitter in over a year and how the reliance on this platform is dangerous for freelance journalists.
I'm not going to get into the gritty details of why my account has been locked for a year, but it was more or less a personal choice. Twitter deemed my tweets exposing @tearsoftrudeau as MichaelBer, a Toronto based edgelord & Faith Goldy campaign staff, violated their rules.
Despite an appeal filed in November 2019, Twitter refused to address the account lock, instead relying on self-censorship and erasure of those tweets. I repeat, the appeals process that Twitter offers is a ruse and goes nowhere.
If you'd like to learn more about what happened, @IWWFJU kindly wrote a post here last year. I urge you to read it and I thank them for their support. https://freelancejournalistsunion.org/statements/2019/12/17/kamel
During the period of my account being locked and @TwitterSupport’s refusal to address the mistake, I continued to work with @MackLamoureux and @BMakuch on a major investigation into the neo-Nazi terrorist organization The Base for @VICE https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/zachary-kamel
I’m going to continue using this platform sparingly moving forward. While I accept that Twitter is almost a requirement for any journalist, especially freelancers like myself — to keep up with news, find sources, and network — I believe the app more often than not targets
Journalists covering the far-right while giving carte blanche to the far-right itself. For example, @TheRealKeean’s post exposing @ARCCollective from last year is still up for the world to see. This is the same type of tweet for which my account was locked for so long except
I didn’t include Mr. Ber’s place of work or other personal details which I had but thought weren’t fit to print. https://twitter.com/TheRealKeean/status/1214268694844649475
Twitter also suspended @JewishWorker after they published a database of members of the neo-Nazi forum Iron March. I attempted to contact @TwitterCanada for a response on their moderation practices and appeals process but was met with silence.
All the while major accounts, many of them verified by Twitter itself, spread misinformation, hate, and conspiracy unhindered by Twitter moderators and seemingly with the company’s blessing. We need to carefully assess the cost-benefit of social media and make some tough choices.
I know I have. See you around, maybe?
