UPDATED: I had a very friendly chat with the Jordan Times Editor in Chief (who was totally unhappy about what happened with me on Twitter). Obviously, The Jordan Times does not condone the blocking of users from their service nor the style of the communication that was used by the person working on their Twitter channel, who clearly has gone beyond the mandate of posting the Jordan’s Times stories on Twitter. Before my chat with the Jordan Times’ management, I also received an apology from the person handling the Twitter account and I was also unblocked.
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Get this! I got into a normal argument with whoever is handling the Jordan Times’ Twiiter account and I got blocked from following their service!
This is what happened. A few days ago, on September 23rd, I was looking at the latest tweets from the Jordan Times. I saw a tweet asking Jordanians not to allow “foreign Journalists” to “ruin” Jordan reputation. The instruction in that tweet was that, we, Jordanians, should always emphasize how safe Jordan is.
I found it strange that the Jordan Times is sending out such generalized instructions (as if talking to a herd of sheep). Its not their job to tell me or anyone else how to “protect” the country’s reputation.
So I replied to that tweet writing something like “with all respect, a paper’s job is to be informative and critical” and that flag-waving instructions about how to deal with foreign journalists is not needed.
Almost immediately, the JT sent an ALL CAPS tweet (which is considered shouting on the net) saying “JORDANIANS AND WE ARE PROUD OF OUR JORDAN, AS BUSINESS AS NEWSPAPER AND AS PATRIOTIC”.
Huh??
Not to mention that this shouting was not even written in proper English, I replied to the JT saying “Why the ALL CAPS shouting? Generalizations and warnings of foreign journalist trying to ruin our reputation is not patriotism.”
Today, I noticed that I have not been seeing JT’s tweets for some days. At first I thought this was some Twitter glitch, but after trying to follow the JT again, I got a clear message that I was blocked from their service!
This is outrageous and totally unacceptable!
What I know is that the JT’s Twitter account is being handled by a company specialized in social media. But it seems that the person handling this is someone who doesn’t get the “social” bit. This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen capital letters, grammatical mistakes and and an angry attitude on the JT’s Twitter account.
It is worth mentioning that the JT has over 23,000 followers on Twitter. The company doing this for them is obviously very aggressive and active. But besides posting links to the JT’s articles, the JT often tweets things which by no means belong on a serious national newspaper’s Twitter account (such as general warning about foreign journalists!)
Needless to say, the Jordan Times will be hearing from me on what happened. As a newspaper they should be up to their responsibility of protecting freedom of speech and debate, whether on paper, on the web, or on Twitter.
I might add that I am a paying subscriber to their paper version. Blocking a subscriber’s access to one of their online services because of a comment is a very serious mistake.
Read these related posts on 360east:
- Skype.com unblocked in Jordan! What was that all about?
- “Watwittering”, public API and other Watwet updates
- TootCorp launches ZOOFS: what Twitter is watching
- A brand, a celebrity and a tweeting chicken: KFC goes KGC with Oprah
- Looking back at Skype’s blocking/unblocking: a Jordanian communication problem?
Comments
12 responses to “How disagreeing with the Jordan Times on Twitter will get you BLOCKED from their service!!”
Jordan Times is owned by Alrai, which is essentially a government mouth piece. Are you really expecting them to nurture freedom of speech and be self-critical? DO YOU REALLY?
Well, I did got removed from people’s accounts, who claim to be liberal an open minded, for disagreeing with them before couple of times on Facebook (and I do, as you probably know, disagree with a lot of people) .. and most likely got unfollowed on Twitter, just I don’t keep track.
The thing is, Jordan Times’ account is a public channel, not a personal account, and the person handling this, wither it’s by the social media company I teewted you then, or by a JT employee, should keep the mentality of customer services in mind when getting into argument with people. To say the truth, my experience with them (if I can remember the exact tweets accurately) was something like, they posted a tweet with the word God or Allah in it, and I replied that a public channel should not promote a certain philosophy over the other, and I remember they reply was simple as “Ok!”.. maybe back then they hadn’t much followers and they were just starting
BTW, they are following you now on Twitter, which means the embargo has been lifted!
WHY DON’T YOU LOVE JORDAN AHMAD ?!
🙂
that’s weird! but it is a live example on how everybody emphasize on the right of freedom of speech for all but gets upset when someone practices this right! like JT wants the freedom of speech to be privileged to them only
Only in Jordan!! I have a feeling the guys at JT don’t even know whats going on… and that’s another serious problem.
lol.. its funny how we can “Jordanize” Twitter with all caps, angry tone and sensorship
this is really funny..
Mish Ma3uul.
And a perfect example of why some things will stay the way they are.
KEEP PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
so you want me to believe, that you believe on freedom of speech ?
let us know where are comments made by other people on your blog !
plus i had to go all down with jordan times tweets to see what they said or he /she said was not offense ! plus should not you be happy that you have newspaper care enough to be on twitter !
i will say it : i don’t even think you are that loyal to your country !
mike is that your real name? cause you and your English sound like the JT twitter guy
Ok. The issue was solved. Please read my update on the post above. This was the action of a person who went beyond his mandate. The JT is new to this Twitter thing and I think this incident opened their eyes on how their account should be managed.
Was really interesting to follow this story.. thanks for sharing. Exciting times ahead for social media.
You got to be kidding me man,, Several times I have written comments on your blog and you have chosen to delet my comments and now youre complaining about jordan times. It’s nice to see somebody treating you as you have treated me in the past ,maybe you will learn you lesson now