Free speech on Twitter?

[Renegade Vile]

Are you trying to say that you think any attempt at enforcing proper conduct on social media is ineffective, or that it shouldn't be happening at all and people should be free to be as vile as they want to be, with a complete disregard for the safety and well-being of others?

Yes. People should be free to be as vile as they want to be, because it is impossible to draw a line. Either you allow everything to be said, judged and evaluated equally (and trust that the stupid ideas, the abuse, etc. will be identified as such and disregarded), or you start censoring which is a downward slope that can be manipulated to suit corporate media needs.
Will this result in hate-speech? Yes. So what? You know what gives hate speech power? Censorship. Censorship will breed frustration and in turn push other people to thinking in the same vein. Same goes for insults and other verbal abuse, including trolling. Giving it attention gives it power. Ignoring it, takes all the power away. Easier said than done, perhaps, but if you live in a country where Free Speech is an essential element, then you have to take the bad with the good.

I like to think of it like a smoking ban, as those have been getting increasingly popular in the last decade. There are places where smoking is rude, and it's not really fair to subject 10-20 people to something they find uncomfortable if none of them are participating, thus there's nothing wrong with having some rules as to where you can or can't smoke. I don't see that there is any harm in trying to make certain social media sites "Safe" in the sense that you can have a debate without it turning into a contest of who can be the most disgusting and cruel to the other party.

There are smoking bans for concrete health reasons such as second-hand smoking, allergies, lung diseases and asthma. This is comparing apples and pears. I see a ton of harm in just the word "Safe". It creates separation and segregation, as well as control and monitoring. IF you're having a debate and someone turns cruel, ignore them or end the debate. Simple.

Or are you saying that being unreasonably rude is somehow the natural state of online communication, and thus people should just accept that that's the way it is or get off the internet? Because acting like lots of people do on the internet has never been the socially acceptable way to conduct oneself in any society. In many places, particularly in Europe, the behavior that Twitter seeks to keep an eye on is even outright illegal and thus should be monitored and prevented where possible. It's got nothing to do with a police state where hearts and minds are under constant government scrutiny, it's just about making Twitter a bit less uncomfortable to visit.

Unreasonably rude is the natural state of online communication because most people use their monitors as a barrier allowing them to spew any horrible thought that crosses their minds without fear of reprisal. Accept it, but do not get off the internet. Ignore it. You are not going to stop these people from being assholes and making these safe spaces will end up getting a lot of people who don't deserve it banned as well. Everyone's had a heated argument that took an unfortunate turn. How will you handle those one-off cases?
I live in Europe. I have no idea what you're talking about. What behavior is illegal? Bullying? "Racism"? All muddy terms.

I like Twitter's format, but I don't think I can count how many times I have written something or replied to someone and then had the most vile stuff posted back at me. Hell, I've had people stalk me, harassing me in every reply-chain that I've been in until I spent a week or two being inactive, likely making them loose interest. Is that really not harassment, but just someone exercising their right to voice their opinion that they'd rather I wasn't alive? Because it kind of feels like harassment. And that's without going into the sort of thing that popular Twitter-users experience.

Report them as harassers. I'm pretty sure Twitter has channels that help you deal with harassment. That still should not open the door to some group of "educated" individuals judging people's every word. Social media is a dung-heap enough as it is without it also being policed.

I'm just still looking for any real reason why an attempt at curbing toxic behavior is a bad thing.

You are not going to curb anything. In fact, you're only going to bring toxic behavior off Twitter and potentially into the outside world. Censorship is -never- a good thing. To know what toxic behavior is, we need to be exposed to it, simple as that. I've had my fair share flung at me, and what you do is: ignore it.

[Renegade Vile]

Additionally, I took a quick glance at some of the organizations that council will be working with.
Hollaback and Feminist Frequency 's presence immediately make me suspicious.