We Americans live in a nation that was founded by Puritans (respectively), a fact which isn’t a secret since we celebrate Thanksgiving round about this time of year to honor our Puritan forefathers. It could be argued that we’ve come a long way since then.
If we were discussing advances in the field of medicine or technology I would be inclined to agree, but the ridiculous and irrational mindset that spawned the Puritans is very much alive.
On Twitter, anyone who has nudity on their profile is punished by having their profile suspended. This rule applies to spammers as well- the bots that automatically follows active accounts to sell a product or promote a website. It would be reasonable to assume that most Twitter users have been added by one or all of those bots at some time, and when you are added you find that their accounts are often suspended by the time you have an opportunity to view whoever followed you in the first place.
That may seem like a small, reassuring victory for ethics and morals online. After all, the cyber-censors protect us from porn and SPAM and that’s good. But has anyone bothered to ask whether or not these are the things we need to be protected from? Is that really the most offensive type of content out there?
At the same time several SPAM accounts were being suspended a Twitter user by the name of JRilla1879 was busy posting these gems on Twitter:
“unTheist FUCK YOU AND YOUR EVOLUTION THEORIES AND STUPID SCIENTIST CHANGING THERE STORYS EVERY FUCKIN SECOND I'LL MURDER YOU ATHEIST”
And
“BitchSpot I GOT 4 SWITCH BLADES IN MY POCKETS EVERY WHERE I GO TRUST ME DON'T GET IT FUCKED UP SLASH YA FUCKIN FACE IN PUBLIC & LAUGH AFTER”
Or my personal favorite…
“#Losemynumber ALL THE TIME BECAUSE I ONLY USE DISPOSABLE CELL PHONES AND I DUMP THEM EVERYDAY BECAUSE POLICE & FEDS WIRE TAPING ME”
He also goes on to say…
“Pararnoid FBI BADGE AINT SHIT IF I SEE A FBI IN MY FACE I'LL MURDER THEM WITH THE AK-47 IF THEY DON'T GET SWAT WITH THEM”
So what is it we’re supposed to take away from this? The idea that it’s acceptable to threatened people with AK-47s and switchblades, so long as your nipple aren’t showing when you do?
The most frightening thing is not that these people exist, but the fact that they manage to live their everyday lives beneath the radar. If this guy had a naked pic as his profile photo his account would have been suspended within the week but, in spite of his belligerent threats, he has been allowed to amass 3,457 tweets as of the time this post was written.
How protected do you feel now?
The sheer number of Tweets means either Twitter has ignored objections to his posts, or there haven’t been any objections. Either option is scary.
It also is somewhat troubling that there’s a link to report SPAM, but not felony threats. If those aren’t ass-backwards priorities, I don’t know what would be.
So in America in the year 2009, you might have your life threatened with switchblades… but at least no one will try to show you naughty pictures. Thank goodness for cyber-censors…
Anyone wanting to visit JRilla1879's profile on Twitter can click on this link:
http://twitter.com/JRilla1879
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