Twitter has suspended the accounts of a number of American “alt-right” activists hours after announcing a renewed push to crack down on hate speech. “Twitter is trying to airbrush the alt right out of existence,” Spencer said. As with Facebook’s clampdown on fake news on its social network, users interpreted the social network as finally realising that its platform was facilitating and emboldening the far right, but only during the week after the far-right’s candidate of choice had won the US presidential election. For former Twitter users, both those cast off the site due to their extreme views, or those quitting Twitter in protest, a new social network is hoping to hoover them up instead. Webcomic character Pepe the Frog was added to an online hate symbol database in September owing to the figure’s co-option as an alt-right icon.

Source: The Guardian November 16, 2016 15:07 UTC