by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Vikas Datta,
New Delhi : He transformed a theory into a viable political programme, steered it to power through revolution, and laid the foundation of a mighty ideological state which played a key role throughout the 20th century. But does Lenin have any relevance now after the Soviet Union’s fall and communism’s “discrediting”? Definitely yes, and “he would flourish now”.
Not only was Lenin the originator, or at least a pioneer, of the “post-truth politics” we see today — where the likes of Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon consider him an influence, he would have adapted well to contemporary forms of political outreach like Twitter, says British journalist and author Victor Sebestyen.
“Lenin made a huge contribution to the end of imperialism and colonialism. He has had more impact in Asia, where his influence persists — in China, in North Korea — than in Europe. But his legacy also lives on a real way…
“He would be very recognisable in politics now… in the ideologically-driven age of today. I see the present age as a revolutionary age where masses won’t accept present traditions and leaders… Lenin would have excelled in it,” Sebestyen, who was in India recently for a literature festival, told IANS in an interview.
Asked what would make Lenin suited for contemporary political millieu, the author, whose latest work is an exhaustive biography of Lenin — the first in English in over two decades — listed several key traits.
“He promised the people everything, lied without shame, and offered simple solutions to complex problems… He identified scapegoats and justified himself by political victory… he would have shone on Twitter,” he said.
Lenin was the “godfather of post-trust politics”, with adherents like Bannon, who identified himself as a Leninist with the same aim of destroying the state, he added.
On what inspired him to write “Lenin the Dictator: An Intimate Portrait”, Sebestyen said he had a fascination with the great Russian revolutionary even before he thought of writing the book. “I wanted to focus on Lenin the man, rather than the idea or propaganda,” he said, adding most Lenin biographies are one-sided, being either eulogistic or condemnatory.
Sebastyen said he was impressed with what he found about Lenin “who was entirely different from his reputation”, as he was not always being icy or logical but quite emotional, prone to flying into a rage, and quite ruthless. He was ideological only to a point, after which he was a pragmatic man of action.
And in the book, there are many things about Lenin that we don’t know — we know he hated the Tsarist system following this elder brother’s execution, but why did he hate liberals? We also learn how he loved nature, especially adoring the mountains, but also hunting.
Another major fact that comes out is that all of Lenin’s important relations were with women — his mother, his sisters, his wife Nadezhda, his mother-in-law and, especially, Bolshevik Inessa Armand, with whom he had a love affair his wife never minded but was censored by his Soviet successors.
“Lenin wasn’t a feminist in the modern sense, but he took women seriously,” said Sebastyen, contending he always saw men as potential rivals or fell out with them over politics, thus ending up with no close male friends.
On the system of repression that came to mark the Soviet Union, he says Lenin does bear responsibility for ordering terror — and creating a system which was perfected by his successor Stalin — but wasn’t personally cruel like him, or Hitler or Mao. “He saw the deaths as theoretical and never sought or relished in details.”
Sebastyen, whose family fled Hungary when he was an infant in the wake of the 1956 revolt, about which he has written in “Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution” (2006), and covered communism’s fall in East Europe in “Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire” (2009), says the present situation there is “profoundly depressing and disturbing”.
“The regimes in Poland and Hungary — which initiated the change in 1989 — are deeply authoritarian with nasty roots… they are not fascist but seem to be on their way. Nationalism, racism are so appealing for lazy demagogues and people fall for it… in Lenin’s phrase, it is ‘false consciousness’,” he said.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology, World
San Francisco : Sidestepping once again whether Donald Trump’s tweets violates its terms of service, the micro-blogging platform has clarified that it will not block the US President’s tweets because he is a world leader.
In a blog post called “World Leaders on Twitter”, the company said on Friday that there has been a lot of discussion about political figures and world leaders on the platform.
“Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” the company said.
“It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
Twitter was not blocking Trump for his “nuclear button” tweet that stormed the social media, and many thought raised prospect of nuclear war with North Korea.
Trump declared that his nuclear button was “much bigger” and “more powerful” than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s after the latter threatened the US about Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.
A number of users reported to the tweet, TechCrunch reported, with the expectation that threatening a war one is capable of starting should violate Twitter’s revised “Terms of Service”, given the company’s recent crackdown on violent threats.
In December, Twitter began enforcing new rules around violent and hateful content posted to its platform to reduce the amount of online abuse, hate speech, violent threats and harassment associated with its service.
“You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people,” as per Twitter’s rule about violent threats.
In response to Trump’s threat on Twitter, the company earlier said that it had reviewed the case and “found that there was no violation of the Twitter rules against abusive behaviour”.
Moreover, the rules do not apply to whatever Trump posts because of who he is and the “newsworthiness” of his statements, Twitter added.
In the latest blog post, the company said it reviews tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce its rules accordingly.
“No one person’s account drives Twitter’s growth, or influences these decisions. We work hard to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : A month after Twitter doubled its 140-character restriction for people to express more in a tweet, users were divided on the new 280-character limit with only 38 per cent approving the change, a new survey has found.
According to the survey by London-based market research company YouGov, four in 10 said they liked it more now that tweets could be 280 characters long, while around a third (32 per cent) said they preferred it when tweets could only be 140 characters long.
The remaining 30 per cent were undecided on the change.
The 140-character limit was around since 2006 and became part of Twitter’s personality. The new 280-character limit was made available virtually for all users — including for those who tweet in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil.
In September, Twitter launched a test with a select group of users that expanded the 140-character limit.
“Our goal was to make this possible while ensuring we keep the speed and brevity that makes Twitter, Twitter,” the micro-blogging website had said at that time.
During the first few days of the test, many people tweeted the full 280-limit because it was new and novel but soon after, the behaviour normalised.
Only five per cent of tweets sent were longer than 140 characters and only two per cent were over 190 characters, Twitter had found.
YouGov also found similar trend. About half (45 per cent) preferred 140 character Twitter, while 42 per cent like 280 character Twitter more (13 per cent did not have an opinion).
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, News, Politics, Social Media, Technology
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s radio programme “Mann Ki Baat” was the most trending hashtag on Twitter in 2017, followed by #jallikattu and #GST, the micro-blogging platform said on Thursday.
#Mannkibaat sparked a great deal of commentary all over the year, including a tweet from cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar that went viral.
“Mann Ki Baat” is a radio programme hosted by Modi on the last Sunday of every month to addresses people of the nation on All India Radio, DD National and DD News.
“#MumbaiRains and #TripleTalaq emerged as some of the top trending hashtags of the year,” Twitter said.
Jallikattu, a traditional Tamilian bull-taming sport, was in the spotlight earlier in 2017.
Other trending hashtags were #Demonetisation, #SwachhBharat, #UttarPradesh, #GujaratElections and #Aadhaar.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : Aimed at reducing hateful content on its platform, Twitter will start penalising accounts from Monday that include “hateful imagery and display names”, or those who “use username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behaviour”, the media reported.
According to a report in ReCode late on Sunday, “for Twitter, the two new restrictions are attempts to combat rampant harassment and abuse on the site”.
Twitter announced new guidelines covering abuse, hateful conduct, violence and physical harm in November.
Facing criticism over the years for its poor handling of “abuse”, Twitter “updated” its rules in October and November, clarifying its policies on graphic violence, spam and self-harm, among others.
The changes are part of revamp to Twitter’s policies surrounding online abuse.
The biggest updates on the platform include abusive behaviour, self-harm, spam and related behaviours, graphic violence and adult content.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has also announced plans to act more aggressively on violence and sexual abuse.
In an internal email which was obtained by Wired.com, Twitter’s head of safety policy in October emailed members of its Trust and Safety Council on new rules to promote free speech and curb violence and sexual harassment.
“We hope our approach and upcoming changes, as well as our collaboration with the Trust and Safety Council, show how seriously we are rethinking our rules and how quickly we’re moving to update our policies and how we enforce them,” Twitter said.
“We will immediately and permanently suspend any account we identify as the original poster/source of non-consensual nudity and/or if a user makes it clear they are intentionally posting said content to harass their target,” the email read.
“If the account appears to be dedicated to posting non-consensual nudity then we will suspend the entire account immediately,” it added.
On hate symbols and imagery, it said: “At a high level, hateful imagery, hate symbols, etc will now be considered sensitive media (similar to how we handle and enforce adult content and graphic violence)”.
On violent groups, Twitter said it will take enforcement action against organisations that use or have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause.
—IANS
