Nazis for New Year

If you use social media, you’ve met neo-Nazis and their allies.  They’re everywhere, and they’re about as charming as you’d expect.  And if you haven’t met them personally, you’ve probably met one of their avatars.

The con goes like this: The impersonator lifts an online photo of a Jew, Muslim, African-American or other minority — typically one with clear identifying markers, like a yarmulke-clad Hasid or a woman in hijab. Using that picture as a Twitter avatar, the bigot then adds ethnic and progressive descriptors to the bio: “Jewish,” “Zionist,” “Muslim,” “enemy of the alt-right.”

False identity forged, the trolls then insert themselves into conversations with high-profile Twitter users — conversations that are often seen by tens of thousands of followers — and proceed to say horrifically racist things.

In this manner, unsuspecting readers glancing through their feed are given the impression that someone who looks like, say, a religious Jew or Muslim is outlandishly bigoted. Thus, an entire community is defamed.

Yair Rosenberg, who a study by the Anti-Defamation League found received “the second-most abuse of any Jewish journalist on Twitter during the campaign cycle” (better luck next time!), helped create a bot called Imposter Buster, which patrolled Twitter and identified impostors.

The Nazis, who of course have bots of their own, and lots of accounts, began bombarding Twitter with complaints.  The result?  Twitter suspended Imposter Buster.

The company’s justifications were both entirely accurate and utterly absurd. “A large number of people have blocked you in response to high volumes of untargeted, unsolicited, or duplicative content or engagements from your account,” we were informed. This was true; Impostor Buster had been blocked by many neo-Nazis. “A large number of spam complaints have been filed against you.” Yes, by neo-Nazis. “You send large numbers of unsolicited replies or mentions.” Yes, to neo-Nazis.

The real threat, apparently, was not these trolls — who today continue to roam the platform unchallenged — but our effort to combat them.

I guess neo-Nazis and the high volume of traffic they generate are too important to Twitter’s business model to allow anyone to interfere.

Frohes neues Jahr, everyone!  2018 is beginning to look much like 2017.