Twitter and the stigma for Ruptures

Twitter has undeservedly assigned the link with Russia to the independent French publication Ruptures.

This act, whether done on purpose or by mistake, shows how easy it is for large tech companies to be judges and juries on any issue of interest.

This mark is a modern analogue of the scarlet letter from the classic novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850.

A sort of stigma.

Only here it is assigned not for adultery, as it was in the book, but for the connection with Russia.

Or with China.

Well, you understand - with the villains.

Since August, Twitter has been stigmatizing all media organizations found to be "affiliated with the state" for being related to Russia (or China).

This means that now at the top of the pages of RT and Sputnik, as well as a number of other Russian and Chinese media resources, there is a label “state publication”.

It is also displayed in each of their tweets - however, their tweets themselves are not visible to very many ... After all, publications of such accounts are eliminated with the help of a shadow ban and do not get into the news feeds of those who are not subscribed to these accounts.

La rédaction de @Ruptures_fr, mensuel indépendant financé par ses abonnés, devient aujourd'hui un "Média affilié à un Etat, Russie"? 🧐🤔

Allo @TwitterFrance?

🙏🙏Merci à tous d'amplifier cette publication afin de connaître le pourquoi du comment de cet étiquetage soudain pic.twitter.com/mol9AieMKB

- Ruptures (@Ruptures_fr) September 7, 2020

However, at the same time, the “scarlet letter” of our time is not awarded to all state-sponsored media organizations.

Voice of America * (funded by the US government) and France 24 (wholly owned by the French government) have escaped the “informing” stigma and their content is not suppressed.

Twitter officials, when introducing the new rules in August, clarified that they do not apply to state-funded media with "editorial independence" such as NPR or Voice of America in the US, or the BBC in the UK.

As well as Qatar-funded Al Jazeera.

In general, as for the designation of state propaganda, Twitter's list is not very long here - in the vast majority of cases, Russian and Chinese accounts fall under the distribution.

Now, having worked for RT for a certain number of years, I understand perfectly well that many, including some of my friends and family, will support the new Twitter rules - they will be glad that the insidious, malicious, veiled influence of Beijing and Moscow will finally be removed from the fair field of Western democratic discourse.

But for anyone who is enthusiastic about Twitter's plan to expose Kremlin and Beijing-related media outlets, it might be worth checking out the following example of how this "crimson letter system" can seriously misfire.

On September 7, the list of "state-affiliated media" authored by Twitter was supplemented by an interesting publication - the French newspaper Ruptures (@Ruptures_fr).

This is a Parisian completely independent (at first glance, niche) Eurosceptic media outlet.

Its editor-in-chief Pierre Levy assured me that it is "independent of any country, political party, group or company."

Only a handful of contributors are involved in this monthly newspaper, devoted to the analysis of European politics - and, as surprising as it seems these days, the newspaper is still printed and sent to loyal readers.

This has been going on for over 20 years.

No dubious money trail leading to the Kremlin is visible here.

The newspaper exists, relying on its 10 thousand subscribers.

Upon discovering that their Twitter account had (mistakenly) fallen victim to the "scarlet letter" system, Pierre and his staff were discouraged.

“On September 7, the inscription“ media affiliated with the Russian state ”suddenly appeared, and none of the representatives of the social network contacted us.

We have no idea why we were given this defamatory label, ”Levy told me.

Meanwhile, the Ruptures team still has some guesses.

“We noticed that shortly before the appearance of this mark, we published an article about the“ rushgate ”in France.

This article was very critical of the way the topic was covered by most of the mainstream French media, and noted the lack of professionalism shown in this, ”continued Levy.

Whether this action was intentional, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper does not know.

Perhaps this is a warning connected with the fact that they went to a criminal act here - they published material that defends Russia at least a little.

According to another version, the sudden appearance of a false stigma - a reference to ties with Russia - may be explained by an identification error.

RT has a division, the video agency Ruptly.

And the name Ruptly sounds a bit like Ruptures ... The first four letters really match!

Pierre Levy added: “We don't know if this is a human error or an algorithm flaw.

One way or another, Twitter is under pressure from the dominant (anti-Russian) ideology.

And it happened in such a context. "

“Okay, the algorithm or even the person on the Twitter team inadvertently made a mistake.

Nothing wrong.

We'll clear it up in no time, ”thought Ruptures.

Only Twitter didn't tell them anything about this.

He didn't say anything at all.

And he never deleted the mark.

Have you ever tried to get through on Twitter - I mean, reach real, living people in this organization?

(Yes, either Uber, or Facebook, or Google - to any other faceless tech giant, for that matter ...) Ruptures tried.

Pierre and his team never received an answer.

The fact that RT also failed to contact the press service of Twitter, I think, will not surprise you.

The situation for a small and independent newspaper, of course, is very unpleasant - it was unfairly accused, marked with a shameful sign, the “scarlet letter” of the digital age, which it will have to wear until Twitter decides to correct its mistake.

Pierre himself told me the following: “For those who are not familiar with our newspaper, this remark is very misleading.

Someone, perhaps, will not read us because of this.

We intend to get it removed. "

However, the result of this surreal embarrassment was not only one negative.

"Dozens of new subscribers came to us - out of solidarity with us or just out of curiosity." 

Nevertheless, under the slightly comical absurdity of this whole story, something much more sinister can be seen ... According to Pierre Levy, “these companies now play the role of both the judge and the jury.

Private organizations that may or may not give a voice to certain media, certain people, or even denigrate them.

Freedom of the press, freedom of speech are extremely valuable things.

Only the court should be able to make such decisions ”.

Prior to the Ruptures incident, this whole scarlet-letter Twitter scheme was only concerned with the bad guys - those who, according to Western governments, spread propaganda - organizations such as RT or China's Global Times.

But now the system, which, to the delight of so many, shamed and restrained the "bad guys" has made a slanderous mistake - it characterized the tiny and stubbornly independent media (which, yes, published an article criticizing the way "rushagate" was covered in France) as "state edition "Russia.

In addition, Twitter refuses to correct this error or respond to messages, emails or calls;

or even admit the existence of the newspaper he slandered altogether.

This situation should cause concern not only among some state propagandists in Moscow and Beijing.

Your Twitter account could be next.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.

Author Twitter account

* Media recognized as a foreign agent by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 05.12.2017.