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[flagged] Danny DeVito was unverified on Twitter after supporting union strike (twitter.com/moreperfectus)
51 points by Saint_Genet on Aug 19, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 17 comments



Twitter automatically removes the verified badge (for re-review) if an account removes certain elements, like a display name or associated phone number. It’s likely that someone was making changes to his account and accidentally triggered the system: https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/twitter-ve...

I really, really doubt someone at Twitter decided that DeVito’s support of Nabisco workers striking was a good reason to manually remove his verified status.

No need to jump to conclusions. Twitter staff isn’t busy pulling strings on famous actors’ blue check marks to get petty revenge about supporting union strikes.


This is such a bad-faith article.


Strange. Twitter is D+43 so I highly doubt it was related to his posts. More likely, his account was comprised or his personal information leaked (e.g. Tmobile leak).


Are they suggesting Twitter stripped him of his verified status because he supported the union strike? That makes zero sense. Why would Twitter care?


Maybe Nabisco/Kraft is a big advertiser on Twitter.

Seems more likely it's some random coincidence.


And it seems like a weirdly petty thing to do, too. If Twitter had a problem with what he said, they’d warn/ban him, not take his badge away.

I’m inclined to believe this was a mistake on someone’s part.


Why would they unverify him?


It’s not Twitter. It’s the US gov pulling the strings


Many years ago during the arab spring, lots of Egyptian protestors were coordinating via Twitter, mostly giving tips on where to run from the Junta who were savagely beating them. Twitter shut down in the entire country and as a response I deleted my account.

Since then, Twitter has taken increasing liberties when it comes to supressing use of their platform, to the unheard of extent of banning a sitting President.

I do think that free speech does have some natural limits. I dont think Twitters approach is healthy.


>to the unheard of extent of banning a sitting President.

Everyone keeps bringing this up like Twitter banned Trump from the White House or something. A sitting president doesn't have any more of a right to a personal Twitter account after breaking the site's terms of service than anyone else. He's not a king, and Twitter isn't his property.

What happened to Trump wasn't anywhere near unheard of - people just believe that even the basic rules of decency for posting on a social media platform shouldn't apply to him. Twitter bent over backwards putting up with him for four years, until he crossed a line not even Twitter was willing to put up with. Most people would have been banned far sooner.


Well, have you heard of another sitting president being banned? If not, then its unheard of.

Specifically the tweets that got him banned were:

"The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" Trump tweeted Friday at 9:46 a.m.

and

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

To say that these are advocating violence is more than a stretch, its a lie.


Spot on. It’s also worth noting that Trump’s use of Twitter did, demonstrably, contribute to some unheard of, unthinkably extreme public dangers too. So they were in the impossible position of either respecting the office, or preventing further public harm. On that particular call - and only that call - I think they made the right move.


Check mark is already back. Obviously it was a mistake or his account changed in a way to make it temporarily go away.


This strikes me as strange. Why would Twitter unverify a fairly famous comedian for the mere act of supporting a union?

Either there is more to the story, Twitter is asinine, or someone is pulling the strings.

There must be more to it than just this.


Here is good backstory to the strike, the Big Why.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/nabisco-workers-strike-portla...


lol twitter is like one of the furthest left companies in the history of the world. highly doubt they did anything


Twitter as a company leans liberal, not left. Don't confuse what part of the username says with what Twitter the company does.

Twitter is all too happy to rip away open APIs, block and rate limit bots and anything else that will increase revenue and prevent competition.




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