Alert Twitter when you see this antisemitic code

[gollygee]

Warning if you follow the article: this is really, really ugly stuff. But the good news is that Twitter now recognizes the ((())) code and you can alert tweets that contain it as hate language.

Edit: to be clear, the way this is used is to take someone's name and surround it with parentheses. So, like (((lastname))). This becomes a signal for bigots everywhere to decent on the person and send tons of hateful tweets and messages.

Also, because it isn't searchable, Twitter is relying on people to alert when they see it. They can't find when the code is used unless people alert on it. It is hate language and should be treated as such, even if the content doens't look obviously hateful.

https://mic.com/articles/144228/echoes-exposed-the-secret-symbol-neo-nazis-use-to-target-jews-online

Weisman asked his harasser, @CyberTrump, to explain the symbol. "It's a dog whistle, fool," the user responded. "Belling the cat for my fellow goyim."

With the parentheses, @CyberTrump had alerted an army of trolls. The attacks that followed were sudden and unremitting. "The anti-Semitic hate, much of it from self-identified Donald J. Trump supporters, hasn't stopped since," Weisman wrote.

The origins of the symbol ((())) can be traced to a hardcore, right-wing podcast called The Daily Shoah in 2014. It's known as an "echo" in the anti-Semitic corners of the alt-right — a new, young, amorphous conservative movement that comprises trolls fluent in internet culture, free speech activists warring against political correctness and earnest white nationalists. Some use the symbol to mock Jews; others seek to expose supposed Jewish collusion in controlling media or politics. All use it to put a target on their heads.

To the public, the symbol is not easily searchable on most sites and social networks; search engines strip punctuation from results. This means that trolls committed to uncovering, labeling and harassing Jewish users can do so in relative obscurity: No one can search those threats to find who's sending them.

[MrScorpio]

2. I've never seen this before. It's good to know.

I'm figuring that the reason that I haven't seen this is because I refuse to follow wingers in my Twitter feed.

[gollygee]

3. I haven't seen it either

But apparently it's used against Jewish celebrities too and we could see it if we were looking at retweets or something.

[Blue_Tires]

16. +1000

[grossproffit]

4. I abhor antisemites. Thanks for this post.

[jberryhill]

5. Color me stupid...

If it isn't searchable, then how do the fellow anti-Semites find the targets?

[gollygee]

6. I wondered that, but I'm not an expert on Twitter

All I can figure is that they must also share the information on Stormfront or wherever they hang out. Like if they see this code, they know to share it on whatever hate sites they frequent.

[jberryhill]

9. But can't they just share the Twitter handles on those forums?

...which would make a bit more sense than a "non-searchable" code.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. The idea is not that it assists in search but that it points out the name when one comes upon it.

The same thing is done withe less fanfare by using "quote marks". A recently departed poster used it thus:
"Many try to equate Obama and Sander's elect ability. Sorry Obama was young and charismatic. Sander's is an old crusty "jew'. If most of the Sanders supporters don't understand how he would play out there then I think you are missing America's underlying feelings about northeasterners and how they view "jews".
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1059701

Each use of the word is given "highlight marks".

DU this cycle has been playing with that fire, and pretending it is not fire.

[herding cats]

7. My guess is, it not being searchable means they can't track the ones using it.

Once their followers see it used by them in their Twitter feed, the swarm descends. With no way for Twitter to know where the beginning source of the swarm was.

I imagine they're using throwaway troll accounts to do their actual anti Semitic hate work, once the rally has been called.

[lapislzi]

14. If you use Tweet Deck

I believe punctuation is searchable.

Fuck those guys right in the (((ear)))

[X_Digger]

8. It's a bit of hyperbole. The ((())) or {{{}}} was used back in the pre-intenet BBS days as 'hugs'.

You cannot use either punctuation in a search, so it's not a true 'troll here' beacon, it's likely the followers of the person making the comment that see the punctuation and pounce. (Or a re-tweet).

[jberryhill]

10. But then why use the punctuation at all?

Why not just "pounce" on whomever that person goes after, and skip the parentheses?

Or, simply have designated targeting accounts, so the attackers simply follow those accounts and go after whomever the targeting account tweets at? That way, you wouldn't miss a victims by having to scroll back through that person's tweets in order to find out.

This does not make tremendous sense.

[X_Digger]

17. Hence my identification of the whole issue as a bit hyperbolic. :) n/t

[jberryhill]

11. This makes no sense at all

As noted by another, the ((())) has long been used in text communications to denote a virtual "hug".

So, what you are suggesting here is that when one sees that used on Twitter (presumably because one follows anti-semites, and gets in in their feed), then one should "report" this to Twitter as an anti-semitic code.

Now, what is the point of that? Do the people who run Twitter also recognize this as an anti-semitic code? In other words, when you report it to them, they will say, "Aha, found another one" and take some kind of action?

What action will they take?

And, here's the point, Twitter is perfectly capable of detecting messages using multiple parenthesis on their own system. Why on earth would anyone need to "report" to Twitter that one has seen a message using multiple parenthesis, when they are perfectly capable of detecting that string of characters being transmitted on their own platform. And, no, this has nothing to do with the use of searching for special characters via the user interface.

This makes positively no sense at all, and smacks of someone pulling someone else's leg.

I call bullshit.

[lapislzi]

15. Well...

Mic is pretty reliable. I tend to trust them. It doesn't cost you anything to keep an eye out for it, and to follow the trail to see where it leads.

Or, as someone else said, stay away from Twitter.

[Lodestar]

13. Better yet...stay off Twitter. n/t