Hi, everyone! I just got back from a temporary ban. So now I'd like to talk about X's moderation and support functions, how they don't work, and why they're not conducive to this site being a legitimate public forum. I was banned for allegedly posting "other people's private information without their express authorization and permission." What did I post, specifically? I posted that the Tea app was hacked. I didn't post any private information whatsoever. I didn't post links to the hack, nor did I post the pictures of anyone on the app. I didn't even retweet any of that content, and there was—and still is—a lot of it posted on this site. I was very clearly banned under false pretenses. This is unfortunately normal for X. The way moderation works here is tyrannical; it does not reflect reality, but instead reflects the efforts of people who run sockpuppet accounts, doxxers, journalists, and other ne'er-do-wells with too much time on their hands. If you report a post enough—from real or fake accounts—there will be action brought against the target of the reports, regardless of the content of the posts. In sharp contrast, X's support staff almost never take down posts that are actually against the rules of this website or even, often enough, against laws the site is beholden to. The rule against posting another person's private information is probably the best example of this. You are de facto free to dox people on this site, even though doxxing is a bannable offense. I have seen people post personal addresses, phone numbers, private pictures, job titles, employment records, off-the-record remarks, emails, passwords, information about their families, correct and incorrect rumors, and more, and virtually none of it is ever removed after being reported. Not for want of trying, either. Reports generally receive the response that actual doxxing cases—including whole accounts that advertise themselves as 'the home of the dox of [person]'!—are not violations of the site's rules. At least, until the moment where a post is brigaded and support removes it, seemingly without human review, and they punish the poster, usually with a slap on the wrist. To get an idea of how perverse this site's moderation is, consider the fact that right now there are tons of very popular posts that actually did provide the link to the data from the Tea hack, and they're still up as of a few minutes ago! Meanwhile, posts that contain no private information like mine have been punished. To get another idea, consider that there are tons of accounts whose stated purpose is to get other users suspended. They spend their time combing through people's posts to find something to report, and they're often proud enough about this that they post when they've had a success. They openly brag about violating the rules (sockpuppets and brigading are not allowed!) and I've never seen anything happen to them. I've blocked several of these accounts, but some of them are still around as of a few minutes ago. The site's moderation is tyranny. The rules of this site effectively do not exist unless you know someone or you're willing to be a lifeless cretin making sockpuppet accounts or riling up groupchats to get things you don't like reported and removed. If you want to have information about something like the address of your kids' school or the identity of your non-public figure spouse removed, fat chance. But if you want to punish a poster for saying that progressives are wacky? Just spin up ten fake accounts or gather your nuttiest friends and mass report the 'offending' post. Moderation has curious cultural effects. Some of you have accounts from before Elon bought the site. Do you feel that it's any different than it once was? It is, and if you think it's not, you're either daft or in denial. A lot of that change has to do with moderation. On 'old Twitter', if you said anything moderately right-wing, you were liable to be suspended or banned. Accounts that just posted graphs were frequently kicked off the platform entirely. Accounts that skirted the line were sometimes banned, but were also frequently suppressed, with their follower growth kept artificially low (see, e.g., @Steve_Sailer). People could 'feel' all of these moderation decisions at the time. They were an open secret, that sometimes people at Twitter leaked they were engaging in. After Elon bought the site, all of these practices were outright confirmed. At the same time, when right-wing accounts are allowed on the platform, they show up. The response from left-wing accounts is different. They usually do not want to debate, do not want to see uncomfortable posts, and do not want to engage with their detractors. So what do they do? They stop posting, block people, or flee to alternative platforms. I shouldn't need to explain to any of you what this has done to the content you see daily on this site. I'll take it for granted you're aware of posting trends. But I might need to explain what today's poor moderation does. In brief, it supports garbage posters. It encourages doxxing since it is de facto allowed and everyone knows it. It encourages people who would make fine contributions to this site to up and leave, creates safety issues for users, limits the sorts of content they engage with and post, and overall detracts from the user experience and the public forum function of the site by letting the remaining oppositional posters default to doxxing, threats, and rumor-milling instead of debate. If those posters were punished for violating the rules, they would probably violate the rules less often. They would probably leave the site more often, but that's fine, because they're ruining the norms here anyway. I'm not going to belabor these points, I'm just going to note now that this site's abject failure to engage in content moderation is illegal, and I hope that regulators act to punish the site if its moderation practices do not shape up. Specifically, X is in violation of... FTC deceptive practice regulations, which should be enforced to fine this site for claims about its moderation practices that are materially wrong. Three states laws I'm aware of: California Penal Code § 653.2, Washington RCW 4.24.792, Texas Penal Code § 42.074. The Digital Services Act and GDPR . Dutch law built off of GDPR: Doxxing is a punishable criminal offense in the Netherlands since January 1st, 2024. French Penal Code art. 223-1-1. Germany's StGB § 126a. Britain's Online Safety Act 2023 and Data Protection Act 2018 s.170 as well as the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and Communications Act 2003 s.127. And likely a lot more rules, regulations, and statutes that I'm not aware of. With luck, X will address the malicious abuse of its support services and will help people who are actually being doxxed and threatened online. Because right now, they're effectively condoning doxxing, death threats, and poor community norms.