<story><title>Twitter refuses US order to disclose owner of anti-Trump account</title><url>http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-lawsuit-idUSKBN1782PH</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AbrahamParangi</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s an incredibly important difference between a corporation exercising its power to control speech on its platform and the US Federal Government exercising powers &lt;i&gt;not granted to it by the laws of the United States&lt;/i&gt; to control speech in general.</text></item><item><author>spaceflunky</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;quot;I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.&amp;quot; If we believe in the free America, this should be what we should all fight for, if we want to keep America for the reason it became great in the first place.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;re talking about the same Twitter that shut down Milo Yiannopolis&amp;#x27; account because Twitter didn&amp;#x27;t like what he was saying?</text></item><item><author>hyolyeng</author><text>This is truly terrifying. The fact that the US government will pursue this kind of action, potentially exposing and punishing criticizers of the government -- seems like this is how dictatorships&amp;#x2F;autocracy&amp;#x2F;totalitarianism start.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.&amp;quot; If we believe in the free America, this should be what we should all fight for, if we want to keep America for the reason it became great in the first place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spaceflunky</author><text>Two things are are wrong with your statement:&lt;p&gt;1.) The government has made no request to impede upon the speech of the account owner, nor has the gov asked to shut it down the account. The gov asked for the account holder identity because they suspect (with reason) that someone is impersonating a federal agent through the account.&lt;p&gt;2.) Twitter invoked &amp;quot;free speech&amp;quot; to deny a reasonable request from the government. Right or not, I am mocking Twitter for acting like &amp;quot;champion of free speech&amp;quot; on one hand and then shutting down what they deem as &amp;quot;hate speech&amp;quot; (which the ACLU explicitly protects as free speech) on the other hand. Twitter can reinstate Milo&amp;#x27;s account at any time, yet they don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;3.) We have just as much evidence to believe that the account holder is a fake federal employee as we do to believe they are real.</text></comment>
<story><title>Twitter refuses US order to disclose owner of anti-Trump account</title><url>http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-lawsuit-idUSKBN1782PH</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AbrahamParangi</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s an incredibly important difference between a corporation exercising its power to control speech on its platform and the US Federal Government exercising powers &lt;i&gt;not granted to it by the laws of the United States&lt;/i&gt; to control speech in general.</text></item><item><author>spaceflunky</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;quot;I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.&amp;quot; If we believe in the free America, this should be what we should all fight for, if we want to keep America for the reason it became great in the first place.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;re talking about the same Twitter that shut down Milo Yiannopolis&amp;#x27; account because Twitter didn&amp;#x27;t like what he was saying?</text></item><item><author>hyolyeng</author><text>This is truly terrifying. The fact that the US government will pursue this kind of action, potentially exposing and punishing criticizers of the government -- seems like this is how dictatorships&amp;#x2F;autocracy&amp;#x2F;totalitarianism start.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.&amp;quot; If we believe in the free America, this should be what we should all fight for, if we want to keep America for the reason it became great in the first place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cookiecaper</author><text>While this is an important distinction, corporate censorship &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; a real social problem when the corporations control the platforms most people use to speak.&lt;p&gt;A circumstance where a single entity controls the conversations of billions is unparalleled, and our practices need to be re-evaluated.</text></comment>