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Trump Threatens to Censor Twitter for Censoring Free Speech
The Trump-Twitter Industrial Complex continues to fester and mutate.
27.05.20
This week, President Donald J. Trump tweeted a false statement about mail-in ballots.
He wrote that secretaries of state were sending mail-in ballots to every person, when actually states are only sending out ballot applications. For the first time, Twitter jumped in to fact-check Trump's statement, adding a link to a webpage full of information about mail-in ballots.
<p>When users clicked the warning message, they received a statement that read, "On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNTkxMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODQ5MDQ2OX0.qCK1_6WD1phZh7KzkGkW6t4Qe-8qyqbrrNbyc--LSNs/img.png?width=980" id="11eb1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4267e2cb9c42e51d3e0dcf272a13f616" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Donald Trump's Twitter Feed">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/05/donald-trump-attacks-twitter/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a></small></p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNTkxNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTcwNzExNH0.uHCw7zA55qbATAAl42UoNOJDFP8gZQ0yJkA-2rDHIMQ/img.png?width=980" id="1dd72" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8e190c4e8943fd8a10b7714cfdc21e22" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Donald Trump's Twitter Feed">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/05/donald-trump-attacks-twitter/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a></small></p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1265427538140188676" id="twitter-embed-1265427538140188676" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1265427538140188676&created_ts=1590536410.0&screen_name=realDonaldTrump&text=.%40Twitter+is+now+interfering+in+the+2020+Presidential+Election.+They+are+saying+my+statement+on+Mail-In+Ballots%2C+wh%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FcdSr6B9kWi&id=1265427538140188676&name=Donald+J.+Trump" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="0d7270635a43c27517f6b0b764b4f3b2"></iframe>
</p><p>The company legitimized its actions by citing its "civic integrity policy," which prevents any user from "manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes."<br></p><p>President Trump promptly threatened to "strongly regulate" or close down social media platforms. "Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices," he wrote this morning. "We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."</p><p>Twitter has been acting more aggressively with regards to Trump, whose rise is arguably owed in part to his use of the platform. Earlier this week, after Trump questioned the death of a staffer named Lori Klausutis in then-Rep. Joe Scarborough's congressional office, Twitter company heads officials/headquarters/rulers of the universe? wrote that although the platform was unable to remove the Tweets, it was "deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family." Shortly after, Twitter applied visible warnings to two of Trump's additional tweets. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p><strong>Twitter's actions have raised new discussions about the power, autonomy, and even political identity of major corporations. </strong>Despite claims of neutrality, no social media platform has ever been completely neutral. (As Elie Wiesel said, "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.")</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Facebook's decision not to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/09/facebook-political-ads-micro-targeting-us-election" target="_blank"><u>censor untruthful political ads</u></a> generated a discussion about whether the company was allowing electoral interference by permitting <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/01/dont-abolish-political-ads-social-media-stop-microtargeting/" target="_blank"><u>microtargeting</u></a> and blatantly false information from saturating its platforms.</p><p>Twitter's actions also received some criticism. "It's not clear how Twitter intends to move forward with its disclaimer policy," wrote Inae Oh for <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/how-twitter-botched-its-fact-check-of-trumps-lies/" target="_blank"><u><em>Mother Jones</em></u></a><em>.</em> "For now, it seems pretty untenable, considering Trump's entire social media presence is propped up by falsehoods."</p><p><strong>In a world where <a href="https://www.popdust.com/corporate-twitter-zombies-2641538188.html" target="_self">brands pretend to be your friends</a> and where corporations are viewed as people, the fact that Twitter has developed some political spine of its own may be unsurprising. </strong>But were its actions really politically biased against conservatives if they were defending electoral integrity and the democratic process? And why did Twitter decide to lash out at this tweet, out of all the false, misleading, unhinged, and deeply dangerous tweets Trump has written? </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><h2></h2><p>This is uncharted territory, certainly, but there is some sweet hypocrisy in Trump's efforts to censor Twitter for censoring him. Regardless, both Trump and Twitter will both maintain distended amounts of money and power while pretending to defend democracy. Meanwhile, the pandemic will continue to rage and the world will continue to burn while Trump tweets away.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
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Culture Feature
Was the Jimmy Fallon Blackface Skit Intentionally Released as a Distraction from the Murder of George Floyd?
Racist police violence is a modern epidemic. So why are we talking about an SNL skit from 2000?
27.05.20
At this point, celebrity apologies are incredibly common. In 2020, it seems like some formerly beloved actor or TV personality is being put through the wringer of public opinion a few times a week.
Most recently, Twitter canceled Jimmy Fallon after an unquestionably racist skit from the 2000 season of SNL resurfaced online. The skit features Fallon impersonating Chris Rock, complete with black face and an offensive imitation of Rock's speech patterns.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0a614e14affa9173b14243139d031b8c"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YvCFNWNvgjo?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Jimmy Fallon Blackface</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://youtu.be/YvCFNWNvgjo" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
</small>
</p><p>This quickly led to the hashtag #jimmyfallonisoverparty trending on Twitter. While fans seemed split on whether Fallon should be forgiven for the 20-year-old misstep, most everyone agreed that Fallon should apologize regardless. This morning, he did just that in the form of a tweet. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1265386757958389768" id="twitter-embed-1265386757958389768" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1265386757958389768&created_ts=1590526687.0&screen_name=jimmyfallon&text=In+2000%2C+while+on+SNL%2C+I+made+a+terrible+decision+to+do+an+impersonation+of+Chris+Rock+while+in+blackface.%C2%A0%C2%A0There+i%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F6k9alCsBq7&id=1265386757958389768&name=jimmy+fallon" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="09013a4f6522314d4eff06b4e3a41b99"></iframe>
</p><p>As far as celebrity apologies go, Fallon's is a pretty good one. He doesn't try to sidestep the blame, he doesn't bring up the fact that there were undoubtedly many, many other individuals involved in the creation of the skit, and he doesn't even mention the fact that in 2000, many people still thought it was possible for black face to be done in the spirit of fun, because the deeply racist nature of the act was largely ignored in mainstream (white) media. Of course, we know better now, and it's easy to see that a white person doing an exaggerated imitation of a black person—darkened skin included—can only be a racist, belittling act with a long, dark history of racial oppression. With that in mind, Fallon's only option was to apologize without caveat or reservation. Indeed, it's refreshing to see a celebrity apology that doesn't try to justify or minimize their own misstep. While we can all agree Fallon made a terrible, racist choice 20 years ago, we have to believe that, like all of us, he's grown since then. If cancel culture is to have any efficacy in making the world a better place, it has to leave room for forgiveness and growth. Hopefully, the whole affair will leave Fallon (and those who witnessed it) more racially sensitive. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>All of that being said, one has to ask why the clip was brought up now, given that it's been circulated around the Internet before, and the specific YouTube clip that was shared was posted on the site over a year ago. It's also worth noting that the version of the clip that was going around Twitter has a text overlay that reads: "NBC FIRED MEGAN KELLY FOR MENTIONING BLACKFACE. JIMMY FALLON PERFORMED ON NBC IN BLACKFACE." </p><p>Megan Kelly, an outspoken conservative, was indeed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/26/megyn-kelly-today-cancelled-nbc-blackface-controversey" target="_blank">fired from her job at NBC because she defended the use of blackface</a> in Halloween costumes, saying on her talk show, "Truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who put on whiteface for Halloween," she said. "When I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up as a character." While Fallon's instance of racial insensitivity was in 2000, Kelly defended blackface in 2019, long after society at large had begun to acknowledge the hurt that blackface and other forms of racial impersonation could cause. This fundamental difference aside, Kelly also has a long history of racial insensitivity that Fallon does not, even once saying, "What is the evidence that what happened to Eric Garner and what happened to Michael Brown has anything to do with race?" in a conversation about the epidemic of racist police officers in America.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Given the text overlay, it's pretty clear that whoever began the #jimmyfallonisoverparty was not necessarily seeking justice for the black community, but was instead trying to imply hypocrisy in the cancellation of Megan Kelly, given that Fallon (who has been outspoken about the flaws of the Trump administration and political pundits like Kelly) is still on the air. One even has to wonder if, given that it's obvious that the #jimmyfallonisoverparty trend was begun by a conservative individual or group, if the trend was meant to be a distraction from the widespread racist police violence that has been emphasized in recent weeks by incidents like the death of George Floyd, a black man who was murdered in Minneapolis by a white police officer on Monday. It seems oddly coincidental that the clip of Fallon should flood the Internet with controversy the day after Floyd's murder, unfortunately serving to help steer conversation away from Floyd's unjust death.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p><br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNDg3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjY2NzE2OH0.qlU55jk9JTVERi8YjYud_Wf-h0OMw7cL4JNGmZqHNkA/img.jpg?width=980" id="b7334" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6a158840d8189a5620215c611f6785da" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="George Floyd">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">George Floyd</small></p><p>Indeed, under the unquestionably racist Donald Trump administration, more and more black people are being harassed, attacked, and murdered at the hands of racist white civilians and police officers. But Trump and his supporters don't want you to focus on that–so much so that it doesn't feel impossible that the Fallon skit was intentionally weaponized as a distraction.<br></p><h2></h2><p>In the last few weeks alone we learned that Ahmaud Arbery was murdered senselessly by a white man while simply out for a jog, and we all witnessed the harassment of Christian Cooper, a black man who was threatened by a white woman in Central Park who didn't want to put her dog on a leash. It's clear that racism in America cannot be reduced to insensitive skits from 20 years ago but is instead a current and deadly problem. What Jimmy Fallon did in 2000 was racist, yes; but don't let that distract you from the deadly consequences of racism in 2020, don't let celebrity apologies make you take your eyes of our lawmakers, who aren't doing enough to protect people of color in this country. Don't let the latest "#_____isoverparty" trend distract you from the deadly consequences of racism in our laws, culture, and criminal justice system. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
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Film Reviews
Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae Are That Annoying Couple in "The Lovebirds"
They can always find a reason to fight—but that's part of their charm
27.05.20
The opening sequence of Netflix's new romcom mystery, The Lovebirds, gives us glimpses of the first sparks of romance.
After a magical first date Jibran (Silicon Valley's Kumail Najiani) and Leilani (Insecure's Issa Rae) can't stop smiling, and they can't seem to leave each other's sides. But after a few moments of that early relationship bliss, we are transported four years into the future, when they are living together and have officially become that couple.
<p>They are preparing to go out while arguing passionately about whether they, as a couple, could win <em>The Amazing Race</em>—a show which Jibran (a snobby, know-it-all documentary filmmaker) has decided he hates without ever seeing it. As they get ready and take their fight out to the car, the topic shifts through the logistics of "freaky" sex, Jibran's picky eating, Leilani's attractive co-worker who steals jokes, Leilani's commitment issues, and ultimately the fact that their relationship has stagnated.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyMjIwMi9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDAxMTk5Nn0.VR_8k5Hsn2E_Mpx4elq3LCcjkXJWjZx1gURbwj-qiHE/img.gif?width=980" id="8c1ab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="be7d529b0fc42af87d413b5b48658275" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt='Kumail Nanjiani in "The Lovebirds"'>
</p><p>Within the first few minutes the movie has told you everything you need to know about the eponymous lovebirds. They have forgotten why they fell in love and have begun fixating on each other's flaws and shortcomings to the point where they can fight about anything. While they have a strong foundation that has kept them going for this long—and friends apparently still see them as "the best couple ever"—they are ready to call it quits...until Jibran crashes their car into a bicyclist.<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Suddenly they've been framed for murder, and in order to clear their names and survive the night they have to work together to uncover an elite sex cult, a blackmail conspiracy, and police corruption. In the process they realize that they really can't work together, and they need to fully cut ties–<em>wait, no.</em> The other thing. They resolve their differences, rediscover their love for each other, and realize they are the kind of team that can build a life together (and maybe even win <em>The Amazing Race</em>)—but not without a lot of bickering along the way.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>While the formula is familiar—and director Michael Showalter doesn't quite sell some of the action sequences—it's a pleasure to watch Rae and Nanjiani playing off each other's talent. The humor of their petty squabbling in the face of mortal danger, along with the genuine charm of the moments when they manage to work together, combine to make the movie work—and the fact that Netflix is even willing to make a romantic comedy about a black woman and a Pakistani man is an encouraging sign.</p><h2></h2><p>Overall <em>The Lovebirds</em> delivers a fun ride. Though if you're as picky as Jibran, you might want to skip it.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
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