WikiLeaks vows to challenge Twitter with ‘rival service’ after Breitbart troll is banned
Whistleblowing platform Wikileaks could be poised to branch out into micro-blogging after engaging with a war of words with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over the social media platforms decision to ban Breitbart editor and prolific troll Milo Yiannopoulos.
Describing the decision to ban the right-wing conservative for inciting abuse against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones as ‘cyber feudalism’ WikiLeaks observed that Twitter is more aggressive at curtailing abuse when the victim happens to be a celebrity and that the precise reason for Yiannopoulos’s black listing isn’t transparent.
In response Dorsey himself replied via a tweet: “Dorsey soon replied to WikiLeaks, echoing this language. We don't ban people for expressing their thoughts. Targeted abuse & inciting abuse against people however, that's not allowed."
Instead of banning people in the aftermath of incidents such as this WikiLeaks suggests that Twitter introduce features such as shared block lists to make it harder to harass members in the first place.
Dorsey conceded that these were all ‘fair points’ and pledged to work on the issues but not before WikiLeaks threatened to tread on its toes with a ‘rival service’, stating: “We will start a rival service if this keeps up because @WikiLeaks & our supporters are threatened by a space of feudal justice.”