“For every 5 seconds I do not have flapjacks, I shall break one window” — Peter Griffin, Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy”

Having now experienced multiple, unfounded suspensions of my Twitter.com account; the defemation of my character, or Personae, as exists publically at the popular, public social web service known as Twitter, or Twitter.com (Twitter Inc., San Francisco, CA),
I must be proactive to incite change.

No Suspension Without Due Process

As a citizen of the United States, I am fortunate to be under the protection of its Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, notwithstanding much other legislation concerning the matters of public, or civil rights.

While Twitter is a privately owned, public dependent web service, having its own set of rules which the User is obliged to agree to abide by throughout his own use of that service, it may not be subject to abide by Due Process, however it remains subject to public scrutiny. Throughout the History of the United States of America, the People have designed the civilization, and it is the People who maintain it, presently. Only the People will create changes to come.

What is Due Process?

First, forget the Phrase: “Google-it”!
Instead, remember, always to “Duck-Duck-Go-For-It”!{*99}

Please research the US Civil Liberty of Due Process. I recommend using the search engine, DuckDuckGo.com , as it does not record your activity, unlike its more popular counterpart, Google®. Or, simply click here: DUE PROCESS at DuckDuckGo.com

Essentially, the concept of Due Process is that which prevents US Citizens from imprisonment without first having his or her Fair Trial in front of a Jury of Peers. In other words, a US Constable on Patrol / Police Officer (whatever your definition of the local Police/ Police Officer) for example– even if he or she, the C.O.P., having first-hand account of an alleged crime– witnessing the theft of regular goods in a public market by John D Fooly, may not place imprison John D Fooly, that is John D Fooly must not be placed behind bars, against his will– for he is protected by Due Process– until he has gone to trial in a an applicable court of law, AND also found guilty of that crime. If found guitly of crime, then it is the burden of the Judge, or Magistrate, to provide an appropriate Sentencing, according to the degree and nature of that crime. Sentencing may, or MAY NOT include imprisonment, that is John D Fooly might instead, be required to pay fines (the sum of which, essentially, go back to the community in some manner, depending greatly from locale to locale: where did the alleged crime occur; in which US State or Commonwealth, to County, Township, etc., occurred the alleged crime), and/ or fulfill some term of Community Service (i.e. Community Service is often translated to such much needed, hard-labor; tedious tasks as the removal of litter from the community highways; parks; neighborhoods, or some such “oh, i get it– yeah, i’ve seen those guys wearing the orange, Community Service jumpsuits).

Twitter™ Ignores Due Process

While difficult to assess abstract concepts of Crime, and Punishment within the likewise abstract concept of (Eg. public communication via Twitter) Mass-Communication on a Public-Channel through a Web Service Provider [likely, yet to be defined in US Court, Twitter in this case], it is not difficult to break down the concept of what is right, and what is wrong, in terms of the treatment of its Users.

Anecdotal Example

Fiction, based upon characters which might represent a true story. (Humor: a nod to the based upon characters of a true-story, we see so often, designed to trick us to believe stories like “Paranormal Activity” are true events; some real record of real events, as the cinematography is produced to imply.)

“I was Born in a Small-town” — John “Cougar” Mellencamp

Let us suppose a small-town, volunteer fire department uses Twitter to announce an Emergency response required of its volunteers. As whimsically as such a dependency might be developed, assume the account is likewise as whimsically Suspended, as one might argue is the case with any User-account currently (at time of authoring this article), without any evidence, or Due Process. The account (Ie. the Volunteer Fire Chief’s Twitter account) is rendered useless; the owner has been removed of the privilege of dissemination of Emergency information through the virtually immediate communication, afforded via Twitter, to his or her followers (Eg. volunteer fire-fighters): such a disastrous potential, you might find, hits a bit closer to home!

It is beyond the scope of this article to examine why Twitter.com is not required to treat its Users in the same manner as the C.O.P. in the example, above, however the User is essentially subject to whatever his or her account Provider (ie. Twitter.com) deems appropriate treatment, whether according to the User actions, or otherwise.

Civil Responsibility and Citizenship

I believe, since Twitter developed into a service, essentially relied upon by some members of the Public, for general or even emergency communications, it is the Responsibility of Twitter to halt its unethical treatment of Users, and likewise, User-account privilege; to impose something resembling “Due Process”, before such rather random suspension of User-accounts; User-account privilege.

It is Your Civil Duty to Tweet, or Re-Tweet; whatever you wish to do, on whatever Channel you wish to use (Eg. Twitter, Facebook, E-Mail, etc.); at least, to copy/ paste; provide the link to this article, along with your own (optional) comments, in an effort to force Twitter to change its methodology. We all know how quickly the E-mail chain-letters are able to be spread. This time, let us experiment with these Channels in an effort designed for the Public Good!

Legislative Representatives

Your response is encouraged. (Eg. Have an idea for the improvement of this article? Please provide to [usename, stated below, sans preceding “@”-symbol] at GMX.com , an e-mail service, SUBJ: “RE, Twitter Ethics” [Eg. To: aj….st@gmx.com ])

Godspeed, friends.
@ajaxStardust

• *99 – © 2012, by J Sabarese