[liberationtech] Independent UK Critic of NBC has Twitter account suspended after network complains

Tue Jul 31 14:22:46 PDT 2012

Not in defense of Twitter's underlying decision, but in the case of the
apology, I wouldn't say this is usual BS language. This is   Twitter's GC,
not the PR department, stating their policy and an explanation in response
to this particular situation. They handled at least the apology and
explanation correctly.  And as Jillian said, as a private corporation, they
are well within their legal rights to suspend any user they want, or draft
any kind of usage policy they want, as long as that policy isn't itself
illegal (eg. discriminatory, etc.)  That they screwed up in terms of the
user relationships, and in the larger sense of how you craft these policies
today, is fairly obvious-- and hopefully they'll listen to Jillian re:
appeals processes.

About the question of whether an email address *per se* is confidential, it
all depends. Email addresses may constitute personally identifiable
information, but I don't know if that applies to corporate email addresses,
because I guess you could make a case that's part of the public record
and/or it's routine business information-- and there are different
standards about personally identifiable information depending on the state,
agency, or jurisdiction. So I don't know the answer to that without
researching the case law. Anyone else?

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Jillian C. York <jilliancyork at gmail.com>wrote:

> Bernard,
>
> 1. Not reading a post and then pontificating on assumptions is pretty lame.
>
> 2. EFF Legal is not on this, because Twitter is well within their legal
> rights to suspend a user for any reason.  While I think that sucks, it is,
> in fact, the truth.
>
> 3. I very much hope that Twitter either rephrases their rules or starts
> investigating claims such as this in the future.  I also firmly believe
> that they need an appeals/escalation process for situations like this.
>
> Best,
> Jillian
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 1:24 PM, Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb <ei8fdb at ei8fdb.org
> > wrote:
>
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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>> Hi Jillian,
>>
>> Thanks for explaining the details. Pardon my language but...FFS. This is
>> disgraceful.
>>
>> Adams used publicly available information like this:
>> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gary-zenkel/3/569/126 and Twitter closed his
>> account?
>>
>> In which case, if I were Adams, I would release my legal attack hounds,
>> and sue Twitter under what ever legislation they could.  Anyone from the
>> EFF Legal want to comment?
>>
>> That is disgraceful. Another example of why I believe Twitters
>> self-censorship "internal struggle" earlier this year was an easy out for
>> them.
>>
>> I hope Adams doesn't take the usual "we're sorry" excuse thats trotted
>> out.
>>
>> Bernard
>>
>> On 31 Jul 2012, at 16:13, Jillian C. York wrote:
>>
>> > Bernard,
>> >
>> > Twitter's explanation was not that the statement was defamatory, but
>> that Adams had posted private information.  The email address he posted,
>> however, is not private: it is available on NBC.com.  That's the entire
>> case.
>> >
>> > -Jillian
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 1:39 AM, Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb <
>> ei8fdb at ei8fdb.org> wrote:
>> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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>> >
>> >
>> > (Slightly devil's advocate/contrarian POV)
>> >
>> > Interesting story, and Adams probably has a case but it never ceases to
>> amaze me when people disconnect their "real world" brains from their
>> "Internet" brains.
>> >
>> > I would be the first person to complain if someone's free-speech was
>> taken away, however, if Adams has said anything defamatory in his Twitter
>> stream, then he is still bound by "real world" laws.
>> >
>> > Just because I say something defamatory or libellous about person X on
>> the Internet, doesn't mean that *IF* it's found that a "real-world" legal
>> process cannot be executed.
>> >
>> > Most people using the Internet may not understand that, but I would
>> have expected journalists to understand it.
>> >
>> > Is it illegal to suspend someones services for naming an executive of a
>> media company for doing XYZ in the USA? I have no idea.
>> >
>> > If it is illegal, then people need to speak out against a ridiculously
>> brain-dead law.
>> >
>> > If it is not illegal, people need to complain to Twitter for freedom of
>> speech. Twitter need to rewind their equally brain-dead actions and
>> apologise to the guy.
>> >
>> > Now, if he has said nothing "illegal" on Twitter, then IMHO, fire up
>> the legal drones Guy. This I unfortunately have direct experience of. At
>> this point it becomes (certainly in parts of Europe) a case of "who's got
>> the bigger legal team".
>> >
>> > (My reasoning comes from Bruce Schneier's argument on laws specific to
>> "cybercrimes". To paraphrase "Prosecution can be difficult in cyberspace.
>> On one hand the crimes are the same.....The laws against certain practices,
>> complete with criminal justice infrastructure to enforce them, are already
>> in place....Fraud is fraud, whether it takes place over the US mail or the
>> Internet.")
>> >
>> >
>> > On 31 Jul 2012, at 00:17, David Johnson wrote:
>> >
>> > >
>> > >
>> http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--critic-of-nbc-has-twitter-account-suspended-after-network-complains.html
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > David V. Johnson
>> > > Web Editor
>> > > Boston Review
>> > > Website: http://www.bostonreview.net
>> > >
>> > > Twitter:
>> > > http://twitter.com/BostonReview
>> > > Tumblr: http://bostonreview.tumblr.com
>> > >
>> > > Cell: (917)903-3706
>> > >
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>> > - --------------------------------------
>> > Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb
>> >
>> > IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org
>> >
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>> > --
>> > +1-857-891-4244 | jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork
>> >
>> > "We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want
>> the seemingly impossible to become a reality" - Vaclav Havel
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> - --------------------------------------
>> Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb
>>
>> IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> *+1-857-891-4244 |** jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork *
>
> "We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the
> seemingly impossible to become a reality" - *Vaclav Havel*
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Lina Srivastava
--
linasrivastava.com  |  twitter <http://twitter.com/lksriv>  |
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