Twitter released a new set of tools on Tuesday that could finally stop the unregulated craziness that happens on Twitter. The 'Mute Words' feature gives the user the ability to mute certain words, phrases, hashtags, emojis, or usernames.
Twitter suspended high-profile accounts associated with the alt-right movement, the same day the social media service said it would crack down on hate speech.
Among those suspended was Richard Spencer, who runs an alt-right think tank and had a verified account on Twitter.
The alt-right, a loosely organized group that espouses white nationalism, emerged as a counterpoint to mainstream conservatism and has flourished online. Spencer
has said he wants blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Jews removed from the U.S.
Twitter on Tuesday removed Spencer's verified account, @RichardBSpencer, that of his think tank, the National Policy Institute @npiamerica, and his online magazine @radixjournal.
"This is corporate Stalinism," Spencer
told The Daily Caller News Foundation. In a YouTube
video, entitled
Knight of the Long Knives, an apparent reference to the purge of Nazi leaders in 1934 to consolidate Adolf Hitler's power, Spencer said Twitter had engaged in a coordinated effort to wipe out alt-right Twitter.
"I am alive physically but digitally speaking there has been execution squads across the alt right," he said. "There is a great purge going on and they are purging people based on their views."
Comment: The mainstream media is also piling on in support of suppressing uncomfortable opinions.
Will alternative voices be demonized or banned following Trump's victory?