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<strong>Twitter</strong> has chosen the hill to die on. And of course, it's censorship, the company has issued an ultimatum for the 18th of December, 2017 for users to comply. This follows the recent de-verification spree or right-wing personalities. Twitter's official stance can be seen below. They claim verification is a tool to confirm a user's, so as for people to not impersonate them. To quote them, <em>Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it <b>is interpreted as an endorsement or indicator of importance</b></em>, so they decided to change what the verification barge means by... making it no mean that a person is who they say they are, but are a moral endorsement. Funny that! Interesting how it's been right-wing people getting de-verified, but rapists and terrorist institutions are still verified. Hmmmm, nothing weird there. Anyway, in my eyes, this is clearly politically motivated, and I do not see how politics, or even criminal record, matters, when that badge should <b>only</b> mean X is X, not that X did something or not.

[![lose_blue_checkmark.png](https://s26.postimg.org/4lnjnr9mh/lose_blue_checkmark.png)](https://postimg.org/image/4lnjnr9md/)

In any case, on top of this, <b>Twitter</b>'s continuing to change their terms of service. The only reason this ultimatum is on the 18th of December, is because EU law requires companies inform its users at least 30 days ahead of such modifications. So let's go to how ridiculous these new rules are, which can be read in full [<b>here</b>](https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311).

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Some rules are common sense, such as following trademark and copyright laws and not performing illegal activities on the platform. But then we get <em>abusive behavior</em>. What constitutes this? All they say is that they approve of free speech.
<h6>*except in the case of abusive behavior, which we will not define.</h6>

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And now we get to the all seeing eye. While I agree with not allowing calls to violence on the platform, how the hell is Twitter gonna vet every user? Is Twitter every user's parent's now... or the police?

Then there's the <em>unwanted sexual advances</em> section. How is one supposed to know before hand? When people flirt do they first ask permission? <em>Hello there, fine madam, do I have permission to send sexually infused compliment your way?</em>

And last, but not least, we have <em>hateful imagery</em>. You cannot use your profile pic or header to engage in targeted harassment. So let me get this straight, a static image that describes me, which people have to look up, is targeted harassment?

What? Not to mention, that Twitter uses the <strong>Anti-Defamation League</strong> to parse what is, and what isn't a <em>hate symbol</em>. Now why is this important, you ask? Because this organisation has [<b>a database</b>](https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols?page=0) or such symbols, which apparently include <b>100%, 12, 13, 14, 18, 28, 38, 43, 83, 88, 311, 318, 511, 737,  </b>the word <b>hate, Orion</b>, the <b>not equal sign</b>, among the actual hate symbols like the swastika. And of course, they have the infamous meme, <b>Pepe the Frog</b> listed as well. Obviously, <b>white pride</b> is in there too, but the <b>hammer and sickle</b> is suspiciously missing. I guess an ideology that killed millions is just fine and dandy. No wonder Twitter stocks keep trending down. Can't say I pity a censorious company.

Well, I'll just be awaiting my impeding ban on the 18th. Till then, Shadilay, brothers!
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<center><h2>What's your take on all this? Share below, along with any feedback you might have. It is greatly appreciated!</h2>
<h1>Thank you for reading, and keep on steemin'!</h1>
(clicking any image will take you to its source)</center>