By Erin Haust on Apr 30, 2012
CDN:
As of late, conservatives have been dominating social media platforms including Twitter. In 140 characters or less, conservatives have managed to get deep under the skin of the progressives using the site and in retaliation, it seems, some Twitter users from the left are creating “blocklists” to automatically get conservatives’ accounts suspended.
If you are conservative and using Twitter, you may be on a “blocklist.”
Chris Loesch is one such unlucky conservative who had his account suspended twice in one hour. Apparently, Mr. Loesch got into a heated Twitter discussion with progressives who were threatening and harassing his wife Dana, who works for the Breitbart empire.
A group of “tweeps” from the left banded together and “spam blocked” Loesch’s account activating the automatic suspension tool woven into the Twitter technology. If enough people click the “Block for Spam” button on an account, the user is suspended without warning.
Loesch’s initial suspension was less than 30 minutes old when the hashtag #FreeChrisLoesch started trending. A conservative army of followers heard of the suspension and “flash mobbed” twitter with an outpouring of support for Loesch. His account was reinstated only to have the very same thing happen minutes later.
Rumors on Twitter and other social media sites suggest that there are other conservatives who are being “targeted” not for actual spam, but for being conservative. There are lists floating around that encourage Twitter users to abuse the auto-suspension tool to silence those who disagree politically.
If you have seen or can link to any such lists, DM me on Twitter. This story isn’t over yet.
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