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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Twitter Kills the Most Important State Level Conservative Group in the Country

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  July 20th, 2011 at 09:44 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I have long considered Empower Texans to be the most important and effective state level conservative grassroots organization in the country. These people are not just respected in Texas; they are feared. It is an awesome thing to behold.

Michael Quinn Sullivan and company do excellent work educating Texans on the men who go to Austin claiming to be conservatives only to turn left out of the eyes of their constituents.

And they use Twitter as part of their communication strategy. In fact, twitter is a key component of their outreach. Or at least it was.

Today, Twitter not only shut down the Empower Texans twitter feed, but it also shut down the twitter feeds of every individual who works for Empower Texans.

Twitter is a private organization. It can do what it wants. But I am very troubled that it did so without explanation and without anyone for Empower Texans to contact.

If this was an orchestrated effort on the part of others to flag Empower Texans as a spam account such that Twitter’s computer system would automatically can it, Twitter has a serious security problem.

It was a man made decision, Twitter has even bigger problems.

Either way, it needs to fix this.

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COMMENTS

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  • izoneguy

    N/T

  • popdaddy

    I don?t use twitter, Facebook, My Butt or any of the ?social media? .

    Good grief, I don?t even use my cell phone for text messages or Internet. Maybe I?m a little conventional but certainly a very conservative Texan.

    Many thanks for the information about Empower Texans PAC that I was not aware of. I used my traditional Internet research skills to find a link to Empower Texans PAC, signed up with my email address and have printed the TFR Action Tool Kit.

    A good night?s work thanks to Red State!

  • carolina

    some ‘hacker’. Based on the variety of twitter groups that I follow, and others that I see – I cannot imagine twitter shutting them down.

  • carolina

    some ‘hacker’. Based on the variety of twitter groups that I follow, and others that I see – I cannot imagine twitter shutting them down.

  • rightjb

    You have a right to do what you want with your private company. We have a right to use another social media network. We are respectfully asking you TWITTER to explain this action. Unless serious cause is made – we will migrate to G+ or another service.

    @PolitiJim

    PS. We really love you. But we are immediately seeking litigation advice.

  • blooch

    You and popdaddy made my day.

  • runner12

    It would shock me if Twitter did such a thing and would almost inevitably hurt them from a PR perspective ( note: I do not use Twitter, much to the shock and awe of my friends).

    If it is a hacker, Erick rightly pointec out that they have a serious security problem. If they don’t fix it soon, it could be a PR nightmare as well. Especially on the heels of prominent figures whose Twitter accounts have been hacked.

  • http://www.ipsnational.com Craig Whitelock

    The disease known as Liberalism, has now very effectively infected Twitter. Liberals demand openness only when it suits their cause and tolerance only when it comes to their talking points. This move, by a private organization, is nothing more than Liberal ownership practicing their brand of Totalitarianism.

  • Finrod

    .. prohibit me from expressing my true opinion of Twitter in the light of this news.

  • traversecityconservative

    Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo was named to Obama’s presidential advisory committee for security telecommunications
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/27/twitter-ceo-dick-costolo_n_868015.html

    Twitter Chairman Jack Dorsey is a Democrat – http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/square-dcs-launch-doubles-mo-8-fundraiser-updated

    …And an interesting quote from Biz Stone (former creative director – left Twitter in June) about Twitter and the State Dept:
    http://boingboing.net/2011/06/29/biz-stone-on-twitter.html

  • gekster

    ..

  • Finrod

    If anyone hacked Twitter they could take over RedHot, or Twitter could decide one of these days to deny RedState access.

  • zooboy

    As a Texan, I’ve been searching for a way to find the truth about goings-on in Austin: Empower Texans sounds like it. I’ve seen enough to know that our Gov Perry is Not a genuine conservative. This points to the need for a Conservative social networking / search site. Google, Facebook, and YouTube have all previously censored conservative content, under pressure from their leftwing buddies in the global warming / counterfeit marriage / abortion crowd. Something about being based near San Francisco maybe.

  • http://www.ipsnational.com Craig Whitelock

    “Twitter accounts for AgendaWise, AgendaWise Executive Director Daniel Greer, and AgendaWise Lead Writer and Researcher Weston Hicks were suspended yesterday for reasons still unknown.”

    “AgendaWise serves Texans with conservative strategy, analysis, and accountability for liberal media and donors.”

    Either a DNS for Conservatives or a direct attack on Conservatives by Twitter management.

  • gekster

    Gotta figure out which tag to hit.
    And more than often, hit the wrong one, get frustrated, and then don’t care.

  • smitch61

    N/T

  • http://theheartlander.wordpress.com/ heartlander
  • izoneguy

    Rick Perry must be giving Obama and his Marxists nightmares……

    Are there any Texas based conservative internet communication groups?

  • peg_c

    Even above AZ. Further, Texas is now the ideal state to aspire to move to for those of us stuck in navy blue and failing states. Texas is iconic to conservatives everywhere and everything we love and admire must be destroyed by this regime any way possible. I think Twitter is the new Google – the willing tool of the hate-America crowd.

  • Alpip

    I really began to understand its power. I initially thought it was nothing more than to use it like some want-a-be movie star, following some narcissistic, drugged-out Hollywood vanity telling me her every mood, every thought, every desire.

    I use it as a news feed, following people such as Jim De Mint, Sarah Palin, James Taranto, Jonah Goldberg, Erick Erickson (of course), Nick Nolte, Jim Pethokouskis and other top conservatives, news makers and news reporters. I also follow a number of folks like me (news junkies) to get regional info not covered at the national level.

    Twitter can be a very powerful tool, and that’s why the Obama administration is looking for ways to deny access to their opponents.

  • Wayne

    without doubt an abundant resource of social media that is not subject to the musings of political strategists. It would be all but impossible to turn off the pipeline of information technology that is available to left, right and anything in between.

    Eric’s post only serves as a reminder that political powers are capable of anything and those reporting news worthy events should do so responsibly. Otherwise, we’re just a mob. And, I want no part of that….

  • incumbentrant

    I wondered if it might have something to do with one of HO’s czars…
    maybe they have more control over the net than we think…

  • edintexas

    Though I have to admit I’ve never heard of “My Butt”. Was that a bit of hilarious hyperbole?

  • edintexas

    You mean like What’s His Name, the former NYC Congresscritter?

  • irishgirl

    Empower Texans is a great website and you get all kinds of news, etc. Can’t help but wonder if Rick Perry about to jump into the race has something to do with this.

  • runner12

    But there have been real problems with other celebs and government figures accounts.

  • cwfoster

    I read some of the disparaging comments written by some posters about the new social media, and would like to sound off about some disturbing observations.

    First, I wonder what some ‘traditionalists thought and said about “those newfangled cartridge-firing guns” when muzzle loaders were on the way out. After all, you couldn’t adjust the powder charge from shot to shot if you had some desire to, and it just wasn’t the way things were done for years!
    The new social media has been demonstrated by both the “Arab Spring” and the Obama presidential campaign to be a powerful weapon in the information war. The pen is mightier than the sword, and social media is the fastest way to get the most information out to the most people in the history of mankind. We need to do two things. The social media needs to be protected under the First Amendment, the owners and operators shouldn’t have control wrested away from them, but they need to ensure equal access. I’m not talking about the Fairness Doctrine, where a radio station has to air some money losing programming to offset Rush Limbaugh, but if they allow access to liberals then they need to provide access to conservatives that will see the same ads, and generate the same income as the leftists. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the like are all controlled by liberals and we are behind the power curve on this. Maybe some enterprising individual might even find some code slingers and start a “Conservative-centric” social media site that can’t be shut down at inopportune times!

    Second, we need to not only use these tools, but learn to use them effectively! Having the best sniper rifle in the world is ineffective if the gunner doesn’t know the fundamentals of shooting! To appreciate how well it CAN work, look at the uprising in Egypt, or the ‘get out the vote’ push in 2008 for Obama. We ignore these new tools at our country’s peril. Innovate or die! This is not an issue of Constitutionalism, this is a tactical issue. and if we don’t adapt we will be run down! Freedom Connector is a good start, but it’s largely broken up into regional and local groups. We need a national SM that can alert people all over the country and mobilize the grassroots to contact congressmen, stage a counter-demonstration, or do whatever is necessary to deflect the efforts of those who wish to ‘fundamentally change’ our country,

  • chicagoray45

    I’ve encountered this all over the net, particularly with the left wing newspaper boards here in Chicago on the Trib and the Daily Buttrag AKA The Daily Herald

    “If this was an orchestrated effort on the part of others to flag Empower Texans as a spam ”

    They target people like us out there smacking down their ignorant arguments and do what liberals do best, try to limit the freedom and liberty of everyone they disagree with otherwise they’d be drowned out by common sense and facts day after day. You just need to get an anonymizer and they can’t block your IP anymore.

    The Guardian in the UK hates me and ban every user ID I create, they just hate NON PC non GLOBAL Warming people like myself and do everything within their power to silence us, especially now as their one chance to rule the globe got so close but now is slipping away under the mountain of truth overcoming them.

    It doesn’t hurt that their Messiah has turned out to be an unmitigated utter failure across the board and under the table and back again. Obama’s killed the Liberal movement singlehandedly in almost the same way George W Bush did the conservative movement. I voted for him but by the end when his love for the Mexican illegal alien movement became sickeningly apparent he lost my support

    He certainly despite his faults was a patriot and made this clown look like the South Side Chicago Ghetto rabblerouser he is and always will be, that’s for sure.

  • badgerbyte

    As the online specialists for viralization applications development in the entertainment industry such as Harry Potter, we knew this was bound to happen and as such we’ll be launching Twitter competition of the 2012 Primaries and General elections. The current event thrust that comes with an organization such as Empower is precisely what?s needed for viralization. We?ll syndicate a presser then one can go to c-net for the free app. Assuming cogent performance and next gen development of tools comes down to who gets there first I suppose. At the end of the day all principal companies will be invited to group up in Mountain View. Stay tuned, were on it and so are 200 other very good companies.

  • jericho777

    Then if I were you, I would put moral judgement over need and cancel out Tweeter here… I just closed my account with them. Boycott them and show them who is their true bread winner?