Ross: The ongoing struggle for civility across Twitter

The people who run Twitter – after holding months of conversations with ordinary users – have now expanded the rules against hateful conduct to include tweets that demean people based on religion.

And they’ve provided examples for those of you who aren’t sure when you’re being hateful toward a religious group.

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Here are a couple of them: “We need to exterminate the rats. The [insert religious group here] are disgusting.”

Another example: “We don’t want more [insert religious group here] in this country. Enough is enough with these maggots.”

And there are others, but the catch is that we have to report the offending tweets for Twitter to remove them and potentially shut down the accounts.

Because the people who run Twitter don’t actually run it, in the sense that someone runs a radio station and knows what’s being broadcast. Nobody at Twitter checks tweets until after they splat on your digital windshield.

But that’s the world we live in. The billionaires create the platform, and we peons battle each other for control. And so the time has come, America.

I realize Twitter was designed for people bursting with things to say, but the time has now come for people to open accounts who are not bursting with things to say, but bursting with things they want un-said. In the digital age, America will have to edit itself. Let the epic struggle for civility begin!

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