UPDATE: 4/3/15 1PM PST WUWT gets results, Tom is out of “twitmo”
I don’t regularly take up causes on WUWT, but this one sticks in my craw for the sheer pointlessness of it all. To borrow an overused phrase from the warmist movement, this is a “canary in the coal mine for free speech and climate skepticism”. Yesterday, I posted Abusive censorship on Twitter – same word used by Gavin Schmidt gets commenter banned.
In that post, you can see the exchange and what appears to be the reason, simply using the word “crap” to describe a graph. Nelson compared his use of the word to how Gavin Schmidt has used the word on Twitter in the past. In keeping with Team ‘no culpability” policy, Gavin complains there’s no comparison, and wants to be left out of the issue. Of course he does.
Of course, Gavin doesn’t seem to mind abusing Tom:
The story got picked up yesterday by Mark Steyn and then Twitchy, along with some other outlets, and I surmised that by this morning, Nelson’s account would be restored; I was wrong and sent this out.
OK, time 2 get busy. Tom Nelson @tan123 still unfairly suspended 4 using same word as @ClimateOfGavin. http://t.co/GvlNFHusn9 Tweet @support
— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) April 2, 2015
Followed by some support:
.@wattsupwiththat @tan123 Twitter @support should realise – partisan political censorship could quite quickly destroy their whole business.
— Foxgoose (@Foxgoose) April 2, 2015
Hey @twitter @support: one man's "denier" is another man's freedom fighter! Restore @tan123 immediately!@SteveSGoddard @JunkScience
— D (@dabon8rr) April 2, 2015
And this one, that I wholeheartedly agree with.
@wattsupwiththat @tan123 @ClimateOfGavin @Support To claim Tom's abusive is simply absurd. He's been professional all along.
— Pierre L. Gosselin (@NoTricksZone) April 2, 2015
I’ve been following Tom for years, he’s never abusive, always courteous, but he does ask some questions that make some in the climate establishment very uncomfortable.
Here are the rules that Twitter has in place, I can’t see where Tom Nelson went afoul of it.
The Twitter Rules
Our goal is to provide a service that allows you to discover and receive content from sources that interest you as well as to share your content with others. We respect the ownership of the content that users share and each user is responsible for the content he or she provides. Because of these principles, we do not actively monitor and will not censor user content, except in limited circumstances described below.
Content Boundaries and Use of Twitter
In order to provide the Twitter service and the ability to communicate and stay connected with others, there are some limitations on the type of content that can be published with Twitter. These limitations comply with legal requirements and make Twitter a better experience for all. We may need to change these rules from time to time and reserve the right to do so. Please check back here to see the latest.
- Impersonation: You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others.
- Trademark: We reserve the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those usernames. Accounts using business names and/or logos to mislead others may be permanently suspended.
- Private information: You may not publish or post other people’s private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street address or Social Security/National Identity numbers, without their express authorization and permission. You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent.
- Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.
- Copyright: We will respond to clear and complete notices of alleged copyright infringement. Our copyright procedures are set forth in the Terms of Service.
- Unlawful Use: You may not use our service for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities. International users agree to comply with all local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content.
- Misuse of Twitter Badges: You may not use badges, such as but not limited to the Promoted or Verified Twitter badge, unless provided by Twitter. Accounts using these badges as part of profile photos, header photos, background images, or in a way that falsely implies affiliation with Twitter may be suspended.
Abuse and Spam
Twitter strives to protect its users from abuse and spam. User abuse and technical abuse are not tolerated on Twitter.com, and may result in permanent suspension. Any accounts engaging in the activities specified below may be subject to permanent suspension.
- Serial Accounts: You may not create multiple accounts for disruptive or abusive purposes, or with overlapping use cases. Mass account creation may result in suspension of all related accounts. Please note that any violation of the Twitter Rules is cause for permanent suspension of all accounts.
- Targeted Abuse: You may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be targeted abuse or harassment are:
- if you are sending messages to a user from multiple accounts;
- if the sole purpose of your account is to send abusive messages to others;
- if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats
- Username Squatting: You may not engage in username squatting. Accounts that are inactive for more than six months may also be removed without further notice. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be username squatting are:
- the number of accounts created
- creating accounts for the purpose of preventing others from using those account names
- creating accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts
- using feeds of third-party content to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties
- Invitation spam: You may not use Twitter.com’s address book contact import to send repeat, mass invitations.
- Selling usernames: You may not buy or sell Twitter usernames.
- Malware/Phishing: You may not publish or link to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another user’s browser or computer or to compromise a user’s privacy.
- Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:
- If you have followed and/or unfollowed large amounts of users in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive following or follower churn);
- If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;
- If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
- If a large number of people are blocking you;
- If a large number of spam complaints have been filed against you;
- If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account;
- If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #, trending or popular topic, or promoted trend;
- If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies or mentions;
- If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies or mentions;
- If you add a large number of unrelated users to lists;
- If you repeatedly create false or misleading content;
- Randomly or aggressively following, favoriting or Retweeting Tweets;
- If you repeatedly post other users’ account information as your own (bio, Tweets, url, etc.);
- If you post misleading links (e.g. affiliate links, links to malware/click jacking pages, etc.);
- Creating misleading accounts or account interactions;
- Selling or purchasing account interactions (such as selling or purchasing followers, Retweets, favorites, etc.);
- Using or promoting third-party services or apps that claim to get you more followers (such as follower trains, sites promising “more followers fast” or any other site that offers to automatically add followers to your account);
- Graphic Content: You may not use pornographic or excessively violent media in your profile image, header image, or background image.
Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true. Please see our help pages on Following rules and best practices and Automation rules and best practices for a more detailed discussion of how the Rules apply to those particular account behaviors. Accounts created to replace suspended accounts will be permanently suspended.
Accounts engaging in any of these behaviors may be investigated for abuse. Accounts under investigation may be removed from Search for quality. Twitter reserves the right to immediately terminate your account without further notice in the event that, in its judgment, you violate these Rules or the Terms of Service.
We may revise these Rules from time to time; the most current version will always be at twitter.com/rules.
So, for those of you that think this suspension is unfair, help out by tweeting a message to @Twitter and @Support asking for @tan123 to be reinstated. if you want to show the double standard in action, you can reference today’s blog post with a short URL:
http://wp.me/p7y4l-w9w
or yesterday’s:
Be courteous. Thanks for your consideration. – Anthony
UPDATE: Gavin, in his full glory.
And his decision, after I replied “that’s not helpful, and reflects badly on you sir”
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Possibly under this?:
If you repeatedly create false or misleading content
Not being concensus it is by warmist reasoning ‘false ‘ and ‘misleading’. By any sane reasoning Mann would be banned for his false and misleading Koch conspiracy abuse of anyone he disagrees with (Koch Calenders anyone?) 😀
There does seem to be a push on suppressing dissent of late. Quite a few alternative sites have found themselves removed from GoogleAds over the past few weeks. This is one example but there have been others
http://gawker.com/google-suspends-anti-war-site-from-ad-network-for-abu-g-1692398286
Of course it could be completely unrelated but you never know. Climategate, Paedophile priests, the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal (UK) etc are just some ‘conspiracies’ shown to have substance despite being dismissed beforehand.
Social Justice Warriors love free speech – ‘for me not for thee’. What happened to Tom is very much their modus operandi
Good time to ask Richard Betts, who was indignant about something posted here as “not contributing to civil debate”, if he thinks this is ok.
An-th-ony
You need to have everyone who is Tweeting and Retweeting use the same hashtag # to get it to start “trending”… if you can show that hashtag trending people (Twitter) will pay more attention.
May I suggest #censorship or #twittership
Many of us refuse to be twits, but we can still be heard…
They have changed the complaint form since Tony’s suspension, but after some digging I was able to find good contact info for those who do not have an account.
http://www.contacthelp.com/Twitter/customer-service
Phone: 415-222-9670
press@twitter.com,
http://www.contacthelp.com/Twitter/update-department/421
Flood those fascists with righteous indignation.
I used the tag, #bad_twitter
If a web service is free, you may be the product being sold. Stop letting them sell you.
The Schmidt in this twitter exchange is remarkably similar to the Schmidt who was given a Bronx cheer from the Manhattan audience at Intelligence Squared in 2007 when Crichton, Lindzen and Stott bested him in a formal debate of the question, Global Warming is not a crisis. Blaming the audience for not understanding what they are hearing is not often a winning argument especially when they are Manhattan liberals who walked in the room agreeing with you.
http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/past-debates/item/559-global-warming-is-not-a-crisis
Schmidt has been hiding from knowledgeable skeptics ever since.
All the censorship in the world will not make their failed climate models come true.
But enough censorship will stop anybody from knowing.
Not really.
To use Algore’s phrase, there are “Inconvenient truths” that can be consealed for only so long.,sort of like the plague.
Another fascist media source favoring the fascist left.
Say it ain’t so!
this is a bit daft what with twitter being rife with p0rn.
That Gavin Schmidt behaves like a coward with very bad manners. He has obviously been hitting the kill switch because he isn’t interested in a debate or an exchange of arguments but for sheer dogmatism. Disgusting.
Maybe Gavin can team up with Mann and create a petition entitled, “Censorship is your Friend”. Sub-titled “How to hide your idiotic behavior”
The NY Times can sponsor it.
Better to ignore Twitter altogether. In terms of human discourse it is a ‘force for evil’ Just debases debate.
Note the time stamps on some of Gavin’s tweets. Since when was tweeting during working hours part of his job at NASA. Probably using a NASA GISS device. In the private sector, this would be indelible grounds for discpline up to and including termination.
They can stretch it since as head of GISS it is a public outreach on GISS role in Climate research.
Doesn’t seem as though “intelligent life on Earth” and “freelance troll” will win him any awards for customer outreach. Tom pays Gavin’s salary. If he complains to NASA, I’ll bet Gavin will hear about it. Nothing will happen to him, but he’ll hear about it.
Thanks for all the insights over the years. Since when was any of this “CRAP” – from Hansen to Santer to yamal061 to Lewandowsky- not grounds for dismissal, and in my world of finance, plea bargains?
Twitter and facebook are major platforms, whatever you may think of them personally. And nothing will change until people start leaving them in mass, and/or until people start adopting alternative platforms. The problem is that nobody is willing to make the change. I experienced that with a social platform I built a few years ago – nobody wants to go there if nobody is there yet. It’s turned into a platform for me to talk to my family…
Just like anything else – you get what you feed. Feed censorious platforms and you will reap censorship. Until people are in large numbers willing to support alternatives, that’s all you get.
Doesn’t seem much different than the rest of life. Places like this are echo chambers. Places like Twitter, NYT, mainstream news, etc. reinforce the truth: the facts are NOT coming out. Propaganda IS winning.
Orwell’s vision comes true bit by bit.
Chin up.
Restore Tom Nelson @tan123 uphold Science @Support falsely accused 4 word used by @ClimateOfGavin C http://wp.me/p7y4l-w9w @Anthony Watts
I suggest that only those who aspire to master the art of chic repartee at VIP cocktail parties should get a Twitter account and use it a lot. If that isn’t one’s aspiration then Twitter use seems marginally effective.
I have a Twitter account and am seeking skill in such repartee for cocktail parties.
John
I dunno, try this.
“is that a hockey stick in your trousers or are you just pleased to see me ” ?
zemlik on April 2, 2015 at 2:20 pm
– – – – –
zemlik,
Get to work on your skills in chic repartee soonest. : )
John
You cannot expect help, or sympathy from someone who is part of a weblog that deletes any comments they disagree with. Otherwise known as censorship.
Was never sure if it was RC generally, or it’s principals personally, that censored fact based intelligent comebacks. Given Gavin’s actions, the Venn diagram now says both. Sure sign of knowing you are on the losing side of an argument.
Gavin Schmidt is a [trimmed].
[PLease do not insult female dogs by comparing them to paid government bureaucrats. .mod]
Careful, the fasctwits are listening.
Not that there’s anything to hide. (wink, wink)
Definition of “twitter”, from Mirriam-Webster online:
(emphasis added)
From the same source, the definition of “twit”:
I do not use it, but from casual observation, I think it is aptly named.
I fail to understand why anyone pays heed to what goes on in the Twit-o-sphere. If Gavin Schmidt or anyone else want to believe he is some kind of cyber-sage with thousands of groupies who eagerly gobble up every verbal road apple he deposits on the virtual trash dump of Twitter, that’s a psychiatric condition that deserves sympathy at least until there’s an effective treatment.
Unfortunately twitter has the ear of an entire generation. It’s not “real” if it’s not tweeted. Politicians use it to brainwash their electorate, and anyone not on it is considered “stupid” by the younger, hipper generation.
I’ve never had a twitter account, and don’t expect to start… but pretty much everyone I know under 30 practically lives by it.
Actually, twitter has lost the cool factor among the youngest. Teens to college age don’t care for it all that much anymore. Instagram is where it’s at for that crowd.
Better to be considered stupid, than to BE stupid,
As my wife always said:”We dinosaurs know where the bones are buried.”
Oh well, time to start tweeting some of those old climategate emails to and from a certain Gavin.
What ever happened to CG3 ?
That would definitely be a violation of the twitter terms of use, as i understand it the emails you make mention of were stolen…
The emails were subject to FOIA which they (“The Team”) conspired to avoid. How can one steal something that is free? And paid by taxpayers?
Well, let’s start with: something that was paid for isn’t free, and work from there.
AFAIK Someone else, it has NEVER been proven that the ‘Climategate’ emails were stolen.
Brandon Gates April 2, 2015 at 4:58 pm
Well, let’s start with: something that was paid for isn’t free, and work from there.
—-
Okay, let’s do that. I pay taxes. My taxes fund this nonsense. Since I pay for this I own it, therefore it is free to me.
I paid for my car, therefore I am free to use it. It is free to me.
What is your point exactly?
This is exactly why FOIA were enacted.
Reg Nelson,
Your answer is as good as any:
Rule of law and all that rot.
“That would definitely be a violation of the twitter terms of use, as i understand it the emails you make mention of were stolen”
Oh, well then, why of course Gavin reported it to police immediately when he found the evidence, right? 🙂
Someone else says:
the emails you make mention of were stolen…
“Stolen”??
What’s missing?
This is the problem I have with “liberal progressives”. They are not liberal at all, it is an Orwellian label. They are exactly 180 degrees opposite from liberal. They are authoritarian. They are fascistic. And it is obvious at this point that they are growing desperate and feel a need to silence any criticism as their charade falls apart. There are billions of dollars at stake in keeping this scam alive.
Strange, I’ve always thought of myself as a Liberal Progressive (uk). In fact, I still do. Yet the underhand tactics used by the CAGW crowd to suppress and ridicule legitimate debate(and dissent) appals me. These people are not what I would call Liberal by any stretch.
Actually, I have been pondering this since first visiting this most excellent site. You see, what I have always thought of as the ‘Liberal tradition’ in the UK lays great emphasis on fairness, open-mindedness and scientific rationalism (or, at least, I think it does). Thusly, Liberals should be fairly easy to persuade as to the rights and wrongs of the matter simply by presenting them with the facts, and by laying bare the methods used by many of those pushing CAGW (as this site does extremely well).
So, thinking as what I imagine a ‘Liberal Progressive’ should, I quickly realised that I had been wrong for 25 years believing this crap (oops), and that I was being duped. Silly me, I should have looked into it, rather than trusting them.
But the point is, I suppose, that I didn’t know. Most people out there don’t. I find it hard to believe that If a true Liberal free thinker knew what had really been going on in the climate ‘debate’, that they wouldn’t come to the same conclusion that I have.
I know that the word ‘Liberal’ is anathema to many here, and that it seems to have a different meaning in the US to that in the UK, but to my mind this is misrepresenting the philosophy. There are many like me, I’m sure, that would come round if they were better informed.
So, please don’t make an enemy of the LibProgs, They need to be persuaded, and are less likely to listen to you here if you put their backs up. Facts, logic, and integrity will do it, eventually, but they need the information.
But then there’s Ed Davey (sigh)
ChrisDinBristol ,
Kudos to you, sir, for admitting it. Others have, also, as they have come to realize that they, too, were the victims of the ‘carbon’ hoax. Simply put, they were lied to.
However, I’m not aware of anyone who was skeptical of the man-made global warming narrative who changed their minds, and switched to being a climate alarmist. That tells us something.
It tells us that skeptics will change their minds if the facts and evidence changes, but the alarmist crowd will not. Skeptics search for truth, while alarmists are motivated by other things.
As you know, many readers here are politically liberal, but they refuse to accept the MMGW scare. Their interest is in the scientific truth of the matter, not in the politics. Skeptics want scientific veracity above anything else. That makes us different from climate alarmists.
And many careers and power.
In Ukraine suddnely those judges that convicted in currputed ways controlled by Russia has been convidted themselves, just like countless police chiefs etc etc. Everone thought they could do their dirty games in safety, but suddenly one morning things changed and the past did catch up.
I hope this day come for all those related to climate “science” with a dirty history.
So on a Wednesday Morning the GISS director is tweeting and blocking people.
So either he is breaking government policy or he is acting in his official capacity as director of thd GISS and banning the general public.
Either or its about time Gavin started acting like a grown up.
Pretty sure he has provided indelible evidence of breaking government policy. Probably figures, if Hillary can do it as Sec. State, I can do it as head of GISS.
It is worse than I thought. Found and read NASA social media policy NPD 2540.1G, issued after the 11/18/10 Office of Special Counsel prohibition on federal,employee use of social media to promote named political candidates. Gavin is allowed to do this Twitter stuff under an Obama executive ‘transparency’ order provided (a) does not distract from work and (b) is not overtly political concerning named candidates. Your tax dollars at work subverting you. Obama sanctioned, government sponsored, new media war against any who dare contest his official line. My bad for never imagining this was even possible, let alone sanctioned by new official policies.
They really are a bunch of tw@ts.
Reblogged this on Sierra Foothill Commentary and commented:
Here is another good reason to avoid Twitter.
Before I even got to the bottom where Gavin blocked you, Anthony, I was highly, highly, skeptical of this claim of yours:
“No I don’t think he is [okay with censuring of thought], he’s just annoyed he’s involved.”
+1
“He’s annoyed he’s involved.” More like he’s annoyed he’s asked a question he can’t answer.
Gavin, the International Man of Mystery. There’s plenty enough to understand about the climate without bothering oneself about what makes Gavin tick. The guy is nothing but a distraction.