I think you're wrong (e.g. The Federalist, Claremont, and Quillette are pretty much the zeitgeist of the more-extreme-than-mainstream right these days; Claremont pretty much is the pro-Trump/pro-fascist/anti-democratic section of conservative writers), but regardless, could you name a conservative opinion/idea/belief that Twitter does not widely disseminate?
> could you name a conservative opinion/idea/belief that Twitter does not widely disseminate?
I do not necessarily endorse or agree with the viewpoints of those who were banned. But some confirmed examples include: QAnon, vaccines, Hunter Biden laptop, use of gender pronouns. Anything Pro-Putin (there's growing support of Putin among conservatives, but I'm not one of them). Claiming that the 2020 election was stolen (where was Twitter in 2016?). Being a member of Proud Boys.
Meanwhile: https://rdi.org/twitters-dictator-problem/ - Same thing happened in India FYI. You should learn to understand that iron and velvet are two sides of the same coin.
That some accounts were suspended under specific circumstances does not mean that conservative content is suppressed. Potential bias in moderation policies of specific behaviours/events and the matter of suppressing ideas are two separate issues (although the moderation of the Hunter Biden story, as I mentioned earlier, was probably a mistake).
Twitter is flooded with pro-Putin, anti-vaxx, stolen election, and "only two genders" content. The claim that these ideas are suppressed is so easily debunked (with a quick search) as thoroughly false, that I doubt that those making that claim actually believe it.
I don't know if Twitter punishes conservative Twitterers more harshly under similar circumstances, but it is simply and verifiably untrue that conservative content, of any flavour and level of extremism, is not widely disseminated by Twitter. I know that suppression has been a fundamental narrative for the right for some generations now, but like its other incarnations -- "the war on Christmas" and "cancel culture" -- it is just not real.
> That some accounts were suspended under specific circumstances does not mean that conservative content is suppressed.
I never said anything about "Conservative content is being suppressed", which is in and of itself an incredibly vague and arbitrarily defined assertion. The commenter you replied to was the one who said it. Hopefully my points are clearer than that, but there is some overlap.
> Potential bias in moderation policies of specific behaviours/events and the matter of suppressing ideas are two separate issues
A suspended account suppresses content in at least four ways:
1) The specific tweet, and all retweets, are memory-holed.
2) The user is directly prevented from posting additional tweets, different (or equal) in content but always compatible in motive.
3) The suspension serves as a warning to discourage others from doing the same.
4) The suspension is a clear message to discourage others with similar views from investing time and resources to build a following on Twitter.
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> The claim that these ideas are suppressed is so easily debunked (with a quick search) as thoroughly false
The fact that you've admitted spending little enough time on research to be able to call it a "quick" search, and triumphantly so, doesn't help your argument. Nobody cares about suppressing last year's news, but what about when it was this year's news?
That's a think tank - Old guys in suits. Deep pockets. They're not grassroots-oriented, and don't need Twitter to reach their intended audience. They have the resources to fight back anyway, so it's not a high-value target. Not to mention they can afford to vet and craft their messages carefully to avoid getting blocked. Self-censorship.
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> I don't know if Twitter punishes conservative Twitterers more harshly under similar circumstances, but it is simply and verifiably untrue that conservative content, of any flavour and level of extremism, is not widely disseminated by Twitter.
You can suppress content and still be overwhelmed by its sheer appeal at the end of the day. It happens all the time. Sometimes the other team wins. That's why we're not living under the flavor of totalitarianism that existed in medieval times.
That has nothing to do with conservatism, though. If a conservative is arrested while spraying "Stop the Steal" on your car, that doesn't mean that the police is suppressing conservatism. Twitter chooses to prevent certain behaviours and certain actions, and also doesn't wish to disseminate misinformation about a pandemic (progressives fell victim to those beliefs, too). Like every enforcement action, it's certainly possible that specific instances are misguided, and it's also possible that there is some bias, although whether there is or isn't is far from certain (it's also possible that conservatives are biased toward rule-infringing behaviour on Twitter just as they are biased toward political violence; more conservatives are also arrested for politically-motivated violence than progressives, while property vandalism might be biased the other way).
The fact remains that every conservative idea, including extreme ones, is widely disseminated on Twitter. Even fringe right wing ideas have far more reach today -- thanks, in part, to Twitter -- than ever before in history. The idea that they're being suppressed is downright ridiculous.
I wasn't having an argument, merely saying that no one has ever been able to present a conservative idea that Twitter has not widely publicised, let alone banned outright.
The dangerous misinformation about Covid that Twitter didn't want to publish is not a conservative idea at all; both conservatives and progressives fell victim to it and spread it. I think that there were more conservative victims because these days people who more easily believe conspiracy theories are more likely to be conservative, but that correlation is purely accidental and wasn't always the case. Certainly there is no conservative content to stories about chips in vaccines or miracle cures.
As to vandalism and violence, I was pointing out that not every action that's performed concurrently to expressing an opinion is just an expression of a belief (if I mutilate you, that I'm doing so to carve "Biden 2024" on your chest doesn't make my action protected political speech). So the fact that some people were sanctioned while expressing some ideas doesn't mean that the ideas themselves are the sole cause for their punishment, which is why I keep looking for any conservative idea that isn't expressed on Twitter. For example, the opinion that there are only two genders is widely expressed on Twitter without censorship, yet misgendering individuals could be sexual harassment performed in the course of expressing that opinion.
