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Blocking in Memphis: Twitter Users Banned for Tweeting About Bluff City

CREDIT:

The ban hammer shows no mercy. And on Twitter, it can befall anyone who uses hate speech, spreads disinformation, or … types out Memphis?

Yesterday, many Twitter users found their accounts restricted with a short term suspension because their tweets contained the word “Memphis.” The strange event came to many users’ attention early in the day when trying to use the platform to talk about Dutch professional soccer player Memphis Depay, who currently plays for the French Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais [Lyon]. Even just an isolated mention of “Memphis” could land a suspension.

As the day went on, bans continued to pile up for anyone who thought about tweeting the word. Users jumped on the bandwagon, egging each other on or trying to goad others into saying Memphis. Even the Grizzlies Twitter account joined in on the shenanigans.

Blocking in Memphis: Twitter Users Banned for Tweeting About Bluff City

Lyon also poked fun at the situation, with the team unable to talk about its star player.

Blocking in Memphis: Twitter Users Banned for Tweeting About Bluff City (2)

Conspiracy theories made the rounds, chief among them the notion that bans were handed out due to Depay trademarking his name. The suspensions also seemed to be more frequent for users who were unverified.

Eventually, Twitter came out with a statement, blaming the whole fiasco on a “bug,” and promising that all the affected accounts had been restored. The company has not elaborated further.

Blocking in Memphis: Twitter Users Banned for Tweeting About Bluff City (3)

Never a dull moment in the Twitterverse. But at least now we can all Tweet “Memphis” to our heart’s content.

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President Trump Bans Social Media Apps TikTok and WeChat

CREDIT: Kon Karampelas

Kon Karampelas

Late Thursday evening, President Donald Trump issued two executive orders banning social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the United States in 45 days.

President Trump Bans Social Media Apps TikTok and WeChat

Under the ban, transactions between American companies and citizens and the Chinese tech giant Tencent would be prohibited if they are not sold to American companies under the allotted time.

The executive orders do not state what ownership percentage or global markets would have to be given to American companies to pause the ban. The Trump administration has also stated that any deal would have to include a “substantial amount of money” coming to the U.S. Treasury.

The Trump administration had been critical of the apps, stating that their data collection process could put Americans at risk despite numerous experts citing their data collection practices were on par with the industry standard.

Nonetheless, in his executive orders, President Trump stated that the apps could “allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”

President Trump had initially set a deadline of Sept. 15 for when ByteDance, owner of TikTok, would need to sell the social media app to an American-owned company. Microsoft has been in talks of acquiring TikTok’s business in certain markets, specifically the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but has shown little interest in their other markets.

The move leaves a lot in the air as Tencent is also the owner of some of the largest U.S.-based game developers in the world. The company retains full ownership of Riot Games, developers of popular games League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, and Valorant; 40 percent ownership of Epic Games, developers of the popular shooter Fortnite; and 5 percent ownership of Activision Blizzard, the parent company of the developers of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Destiny 2.

Though White House officials confirmed that the initial wave of bans will not affect video game companies owned by Tencent, potential Chinese retaliation and subsequent executive orders could put them at risk.

President Trump Bans Social Media Apps TikTok and WeChat (2)

TikTok released a statement following the announcement where it expressed confusion and shock at the decision.

“For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the US government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed. What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall

Kicking Butts

Why are citizens who are old enough to smoke losing their jobs in bars and restaurants? Because of the recent ban on public smoking, bars and restaurants that do allow smoking must now deny access to anyone under 21. That means bar backs, waiters, and hosts who are at least 18 (the legal smoking age in Tennessee) can fire up at home, in the car, on the sidewalk, or anywhere else smoking is permitted. They just aren’t allowed to have their jobs anymore.

Earlier this week, WKRN news of Chattanooga quoted a 20-year-old former bar employee named Rena Doss who complained, “I don’t smoke, and nobody was blowing smoke in my face. … This was a good-paying job for me, and I have bills to pay.” Experts have since suggested that Rena and others like her could relocate to Memphis, where the recently reelected Mayor Willie Herenton has stated that he can do nothing to stop crime, in order to pursue careers in professional thuggery.

The Dismal Life

In a recent column, The Commercial Appeal‘s managing editor Otis Sanford informed CA readers that there is (“sadly”) a “dismal side of Memphis.”

“It’s thrust on us regularly,” Sanford claims, “thanks to a large criminal element and some in the media who believe discord should lead the news. It also comes to us courtesy of a few self-serving politicians, their enablers, and charlatans posing as Internet bloggers.” Although it’s never surprising to hear a representative of mainstream media lumping bloggers into the same category of blight as criminals and cancer, it’s particularly troubling in this case. After all, the CA has repeatedly front-paged negative political stories broken by charlatan bloggers days earlier. Perhaps Sanford, following another dismal trend, no longer subscribes to his own paper.

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Two Tiger Players Plead Not Guilty in Beale Street Incident

(AP) -Two University of Memphis basketball players pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of disorderly conduct and inciting a riot related to a nightclub scuffle over the weekend.

Shawn Taggart and Jeff Robinson appeared briefly in Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court. Their

The two were arrested after police responded to a disturbance outside the Plush Club on Beale Street early Sunday. Club security accused Taggart of starting a fight, though police said they later refuted that.

While being detained by officers, Taggart was accused of yelling obscenities and agitating a crowd that had gathered outside the club. Robinson also was charged with assault because he approached a police officer aggressively and used verbal threats, said police spokeswoman Monique Martin.

The incident prompted coach John Calipari to impose a curfew and bar them from visiting any nightclub.

Robinson, 19, is a freshman shooting guard from Columbus, N.J. Taggart, 22, is a 6-11 forward from Richmond, Va., who transferred last season from Iowa State. Neither has played a game for the Tigers.