[terminus]

I see a lot of people arguing about free speech and censorship here.

I'm not sure how anybody is being censored here -- given that we are only debating verification. People are not deprived off their speech. Second, for instance in the cases of people penalized after this new policy, some of them (Jason Kessler for instance) were responsible for real world violence.

I personally think that this was a long overdue move for twitter. We've fought long and hard to discredit neo-Nazi ideas and ideals and to welcome them back in the town square as if anything they have to say is worth listening to is just absurd.

I think Sartre said it best:

  "Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of 
  the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks 
  are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing 
  themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use 
  words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-
  Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with 
  discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit 
  the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in 
  acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by 
  sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you 
  press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, 
  loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument 
  is past."