Pwn3d by Twitter, Not

The Big Algorithm at Twitter recently flagged a tweet for "violating our rules for hateful conduct."  It went on to impose a 12-hour "countdown" after which my social media privileges would be restored. Well, almost.  Actually, the clock wouldn't begin to run until after I'd satisfactorily met certain conditions. Specifically, The Algorithm demanded that I 1) divulge my telephone number and 2) delete the offending tweet.  Simply comply with these demands and my "privileges" would be restored, after that 12 hour wait.

Much about this doesn't seem right. I don't recall being forbidden to say "Eminem is a corporate whore" as a condition of opening the account in the first place, so this late change in terms and conditions seems to me to be the sort of thing that contract law was developed to contest: smarmy, unpredictable, and coercive behavior by one of the parties.  And this being imposed by a machine which not only demands strict, non-negotiable compliance but then insults the injury by applying kindergarten-level behavior modification techniques?

Forcing ourselves to leave that aside, this bit about requiring my telephone number is a non-sequitur, a naked grab at my personal data. In fact, it is so lacking in any logical connection to the charge of "failing to not be hateful," one is not to be faulted for wondering if the entire episode is just a pretext for snooping.

If it were true that Social Media (and Twitter in particular) were engaging in creative or even coercive strategies to convince users to give up what is known as "PID" ("personally identifiable data", and you can tell it's "a thing" because it has a 3-letter acronym), it would support one of my occasional pet-theories, namely that Twitter is, and perhaps was and always has been, nothing more than a fancy data-gathering apparatus.

And a very effective one.  Long before The Donald ran for POTUS, "Twitter" was a household word, frequently mentioned, even cited, by all the traditional media. To the casual user (those who are in the crosshairs of the pro user), it's cool and it's fun and its accessible on your phone so you can instantly see your published thoughts appear in fancy type and full color on the little screen. It has become part of the mainstream social habit - witness to which we call to your attention the comments by the founder of Facebook comparing "likes" to "dopamine hits."

Despite consistently losing large sums of money, maybe even for longer than Amazon did, Twitter persists. Something has kept it afloat long enough for it to become a fixture, a social media staple. As such, Twitter can apparently dictate certain behaviors of its users and punish them for non-compliance. In doing so, it shows us something of what its sponsors are really after.  Today, they will find a reason to demand a telephone number.  What will they demand from us tomorrow, a photograph?  And the next day, will it be a DNA sample?