
Suspended by Twitter for tweeting feminist academic research - bryanrasmussen
https://civic.mit.edu/2018/09/29/twitter-suspended-me-for-tweeting-feminist-academic-research-heres-why-thats-a-problem/
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ominous
The title, even if faithful to the original, is misleading. As the post
states, he doesn't know and it is not clear why. He does take the liberty of
guessing:

> I can also see how my tweet might have triggered a very, very naive rule
> that saw “gender,” “STEM,” and “natural” in close proximity, or interpreted
> the text on the screenshot (which now shows up as a grey box) as denigrating
> women as a class, when the substance of the message was doing the opposite.

> any system that (apparently) flags feminist academic research about the
> social construction of scientific privilege as being abusive of women as a
> class

An interesting guess. However, the text on the screenshot contains facts. That
the author feels the need to specify the facts are "doing the opposite [of
denigrating women as a class]" as something of note, rather than just worry
that facts are being policed, just smells bad. Were they the wrong facts,
would it be ok to ban?

Furthermore, the ban has been lifted:
[https://boingboing.net/2018/09/29/platform-
censorship.html](https://boingboing.net/2018/09/29/platform-censorship.html)

------
ppod
On a tangent here: The block quote in question is interesting and rightly
highlights how strong gender imbalances in STEM might not have a
historic/natural bias. However, I always think we are going down a dangerous
road when we even argue this point. If we base our campaign for contemporary
fairness and equal opportunity on the argument that in the past women have
been important and respected contributors to science and tech, then we are
making it contingent on this historical fact rather than, as it should be, an
absolute right founded on the inherent equal rights of men and women.

~~~
bryanrasmussen
I think it's more an argument against the idea that they are incapable, if
they were capable in the past then something must be argued to have changed in
the essential nature of women since then.

