UPDATE: Newsbusters's Twitter account has been reactivated. Follow Newsbusters here.
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NewsBusters’s Twitter account was suspended today by Twitter for an as yet unknown reason.
Conservative social media accounts have been attacked the past few years by liberals who flag them as spam.
Matthew Sheffield wrote in 2008:
Because of the proliferation of fake blogs, spam comments and phony videos, many interactive sites have added mechanisms to prevent a group discussion from being hijacked by allowing regular readers to "flag" things they come across that are offensive, obviously spam or violate copyright laws.…
On this new frontier of free speech, it appears extreme liberals are the biggest offenders. Back during the presidential primaries, an entire group of blogs that refused to support Sen. Barack Obama in his quest to defeat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination were wrongly labeled as spam and taken down.
The Google-owned YouTube seems to be the biggest battleground for flag spammers. Dozens of pro-life videos there have been marked as "offensive" or containing "mature content," usually without any merit whatsoever. In many cases, complaints of the video producers have fallen on deaf ears.
It is unknown whether NewsBusters was flagged as spam, and a search of @spam and @NewsBusters on Twitter search doesn’t show anyone flagging it as spam through that means.
Twitter did accidentally suspend a number of accounts on July 5:
Earlier today, we accidentally suspended a number of accounts.We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.
NewsBusters had 734 followers at the time of its suspension.
Some Twitter users have been protesting Newsbusters’s suspension.
stixXxnstones said:
Oi, @newsbusters is not @spam. Twitter, WE WANT TEH NEWSBUSTERS BACK ;(
If you want to complain to Twitter through Twitter, address Tweets to @twitter.
Update 19:12 | Matthew Sheffield. Looks like the account is back. Good news!
—Mitchell Blatt is the editor of the foreign affairs blog Bombs and Dollars.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Twitter
July 10, 2009 - 16:50 ET by VinncyGHow incredibly fortunate for the Left.
You have got to be kidding
July 10, 2009 - 16:54 ET by bigtimerYou have got to be kidding me!
I'm checking this out pronto too!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Twitter reminds me of Tweety bird...
July 10, 2009 - 17:12 ET by gopcongress"I t'ought I taw a temocrat.... I DID! I DID see a temocrat!!"
______________________
Moderate... Democrat... Liberal... Progressive... Socialist... Communist—The progression is clear as day.
Sufferin' succotash
July 10, 2009 - 19:53 ET by jdlybrand"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
The on-line companies need to assume innocence
July 10, 2009 - 17:28 ET by c5thenTwitter, Facebook, etc. need to follow the innocent until proven guilty principle before suspending any account. They should have enough investigators to check out the claim and make a determination for themselves. The way they are set up now, any radical can complain about a post or a particular account and get them shut down just on their say so.
As is so often documented here, the far left liberals do not believe in the 1st amendment when it comes to ideas that they disagree with.
Throw 'da bums out!
no one re-elected who voted for socialism or debt
www.loyaltoliberty.com
Watch this
July 10, 2009 - 17:30 ET by CaligulaI have been absent for awhile from the commenting here, but I"M BAAAACK!!!!! I have a twitter account, and Tweet Deck.... Haven't really used it, but I'm about to. Two well known celebrities on Twitter are about to get overloaded.... and you know of whom I speak of. And I thought this was going to be a boring weekend! ; )
Caligula... Yeah, I just
July 10, 2009 - 17:41 ET by bigtimerCaligula...
Yeah, I just checked too, and now that you mentioned it, Twitter crashed this am on my computer, page overload, hadn't been back to see if it was fixed until this blog was put here, tweetdeck was working fine, went to regular twitter and said my acct. was closed, refreshed and works okay now..
I posted about this blog info here via another friend, we shall see, now I'm going to go back and see if NBs is still not up.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Spamalot
July 10, 2009 - 17:36 ET by reasonsjesterI've had my own site suspended by blogger (Google) for being flagged as "spam." This happened shortly after I smoked a lib who had the gall to wander out of his little lib bubble to try to engage in intelligent conversation. These libs do not know how to handle informed opposition.
pointvcounterpoint.com
It appears Obama's army of internet tough guys strikes again
July 10, 2009 - 17:37 ET by lsudolemiteNow if you'll excuse me I'm off to go spam the HuffPo account.
Hi Mitchell Blatt... NBs
July 10, 2009 - 17:51 ET by bigtimerHi Mitchell Blatt...
NBs is there just fine now....maybe they had same problems some of us all had earlier today with a page overload and a crash....I had forgot about that until you brought this up, and Caligula brought some suggestions up.
I don't think this was any conspiracy. ;-)
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
bt
July 10, 2009 - 19:58 ET by jdlybrandCould the N Koreans have anything to do with this? I saw on Drudge that PC's may be next. Just putting it out for comment.
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
jdl... It crossed my mind
July 10, 2009 - 20:05 ET by bigtimerjdl...
It crossed my mind later too when I briefly heard some news report about the latest update with the worn NK is getting into everywhere.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Due To Strange Activity
July 10, 2009 - 18:03 ET by JDWSounds like the news media
JDW
DAILY WAVE
When people fear their government there is tyranny.
When government fears the people there is liberty.
Funny that a website that
July 10, 2009 - 18:21 ET by Another Dead KennedyFunny that a website that suspends users ends up getting suspended by another site. Go figure.
Wow. That was really
July 10, 2009 - 18:23 ET by hydrodynDMWow. That was really clever.
No, really man. It was.
I know.
July 10, 2009 - 18:37 ET by Another Dead KennedyI know.
Rats!
July 10, 2009 - 18:51 ET by RukusAnd here I thought you might be coming over to the dark side. Rats! Oh well, carry on. : (
Gary
I want my country back!
I like a little of both.
July 10, 2009 - 18:54 ET by Another Dead KennedyI like a little of both. But come on, you have to see the comedy here.
Riiiight. Because your
July 10, 2009 - 19:01 ET by hydrodynDMRiiiight.
Because your "joke" is predicated on the assumption that NewsBusters shouldn't terminate the accounts of people who abuse their membership.
Your insight is truly stunning.
Aw come on man
July 10, 2009 - 19:03 ET by RukusYou can do it!
Gary
I want my country back!
Heyyyyyy!
July 10, 2009 - 20:00 ET by jdlybrandWatch it Cunningham!
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
Heehee
July 10, 2009 - 20:38 ET by RukusI'm just havin' me some fun! ; )
Gary
I want my country back!
CONTROL!!! MUST HAVE
July 10, 2009 - 18:44 ET by RR GOPCONTROL!!! MUST HAVE CONTROLLLLL!!! (bangs fist on table)
That's the way all these kinds of things are. They go on and on about how they have to protect people against identity theft/fraud, how they have to help prevent cyberbullying, and then there's my all-time favorite...protect the children (awwww) especially from pedophiles. Doesn't matter that these 'children' are taking off their clothes and photographing themselves and their friends left and right, just gotta protecting them from the dirty old men in trenchcoats.
And none of these things do a damn bit of good. The actual protections are other than what they claim in addition to the savvy and common sense of internet users themselves.
Just excuses to maintain control, enforce ideologies, be politically correct, etc.
As an aside, I won't even go to Fox Nation because they insist on screening every comment beforehand (do I sense Cybercop Bill O'Reilly had a hand in this)?
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
RR GOP... In complete
July 10, 2009 - 18:48 ET by bigtimerRR GOP...
In complete agreement with you, have also posted same sentiments here and there over time, the govt wants control of the internet and has for a long long time, and will get their claws in there, BOR makes me see red it when it comes to this issue.
Btw...what you mentioned about the Fox Nation is true, I quit going there, takes forever to get your post posted, or anyway it used to, wasn't enjoyable whatsoever to me.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
BT-And the Chicago
July 10, 2009 - 19:03 ET by RR GOPBT-And the Chicago Tribune's site called The Swamp, I believe is the same way.
I was on there a month or so ago and some foul-mouthed Libtard had just berated Conservatives big time. My follow up post was directed more to whoever mods that site referring to their own TOS...they had no problem with a dear Comrade posting stuff like that.
I had already been sensored previously for a much milder comment.
Whoever controls the modding on ABC's Jake Tapper site is by far the worse. At least they let you post, but many Conservative posts just seem to magically disappear within a minute after being put up. Eventually they filtered ALL of my posts as spam.
So I got a Gmail account and constantly change my handle there. Just won't let them get away with that. Too stubborn I guess. ;-)
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
It was probably just a glitch.
July 10, 2009 - 18:56 ET by R D Helm-Dave
"Obama's health care 'reform' plan is to blow up the building in order to fix a leak in the roof." - Herman Cain
I keep saying it is the work of OSHT
July 10, 2009 - 21:49 ET by Free StinkerObama's SHock Internet Troops - OSHT
Suppressing free speech since 2008™
OSH!T?
July 10, 2009 - 21:54 ET by BlondeOMO....I am Shocked, I tell ya...totally shocked.
I hope he fails, too.
Free, ROFLMAO!
July 10, 2009 - 22:56 ET by R D HelmYeah, and OSHT is about right, too.
-Dave
"Obama's health care 'reform' plan is to blow up the building in order to fix a leak in the roof." - Herman Cain
I wonder if twitter had
July 10, 2009 - 22:06 ET by TN MomI wonder if twitter had anything to do with our missing Sec of State? Hillary hasn't been seen much lately.
Glad NB is back on Twitter!
Maybe she's using Cheney's
July 10, 2009 - 22:11 ET by bigtimerMaybe she's using Cheney's old undisclosed location.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Do You See Now?
July 10, 2009 - 23:46 ET by farstar99Do you see why it is lunacy to rely on Democrat-run Internet entities like Google, Facebook and Twitter to plan GOP operations?
One "outage" days before the 2012 election and we could lose.
Don't believe me? Look up Facebook's history.
Now use Bing to search for those founder names along with "Obama."
so who should we use?
July 11, 2009 - 21:49 ET by lbcdawnNot just
July 11, 2009 - 19:33 ET by danboNot just Twitter.
My antiviris doesn't do that good a job with the Viagra ads but keeps diverting political mail from a few groups to my spam.
I've notified the groups, turned off the phishing sub routine and complained to Norton. But it keeps doing it.
Unless my antiviris has diverted a response to my feedback and complaint to them, they've never responded.
I'm about to censor Norton off my computer.
Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.