<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div class="gmail-heading-meta"><h1 class="gmail-post-title">Politically correct Twitter will prohibit ‘dehumanizing language,’ such as comparisons to animals, viruses</h1><ul class="entry-meta gmail-post-meta"><li class="entry-meta-author">
                                        <a href="http://www.gopusa.com/author/admin/">
                                                <img src="http://www.gopusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/avatar-150x150.png" alt="GOPUSA Staff" class="gmail-avatar gmail-avatar-74 gmail-wp-user-avatar gmail-wp-user-avatar-74 gmail-alignnone gmail-photo" width="74" height="74">
                                                <span class="gmail-author-name">Washington Times</span>
                                        </a></li><li class="entry-meta-date">11:45 am October 1, 2018</li><li class="entry-meta-comments">13 comments</li></ul>                           
                                                                </div>    
                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                        <div class="gmail-post-content">
                                                                <p>Twitter announced plans to prohibit “dehumanizing language” 
on its platform, including tweets comparing people to animals and 
viruses.</p>
<p>In a blog post, members of Twitter’s trust and safety team asked 
users for their input on a pending rule change that would broaden the 
company’s existing hateful conduct policy to include language that 
treats others as “less than human.”</p>
<p>“You may not dehumanize anyone based on membership in an identifiable
 group, as this speech can lead to offline harm,” reads Twitter’s 
proposed policy change.</p>
<p>“Dehumanization can occur when others are denied of human qualities 
(animalistic dehumanization) or when others are denied of human nature 
(mechanistic dehumanization). Examples can include comparing groups to 
animals and viruses (animalistic), or reducing groups to their genitalia
 (mechanistic),” Twitter’s trust and safety team explained.</p>
<p>Identifiable groups include any groups of people that can be 
distinguished by shared characteristics such as race, ethnicity, 
nationality, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age, disability, 
disease, occupation, political beliefs or social practices, the blog 
post said.</p>
<p>“Language that makes someone less than human can have repercussions 
off the service, including normalizing serious violence,” wrote Twitter 
attorney Vijaya Gadde and Del Harvey, vice president for Twitter’s trust
 and safety division.</p></div>

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies                     <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone:  (215) 898-7475<br>Fax:  (215) 573-2138                                      <br><br>Email:  <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a>    <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>