@berniesanders just pushed @trevonjb OFF Steemit! However...

in #steemit7 years ago


Woke up this morning to see that @berniesanders has successfully pushed this scammer off Steemit!!

Now that he has no way to earn money via Steemit anymore, he's powering down. I guess expect about 700k worth of Steem to hit the markets within the next 13 weeks.

Was this right?

However, this got me thinking, is this the right path to take? Is this (somewhat) decentralised way of decision making better than the centralised decision making other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter has? In the end, if @trevonjb had enough Steem Power to fight back, he could've pushed @berniesanders and myself off Steemit by constantly flagging our stuff, so it's not necessarily who's more right, just who has more power, or which collective side of the argument has more power.

You could say, the more right your point of view is, the more supports thus power your side would have. Thus making it a somewhat democracy, but Steemit was designed to be a meritocracy.

Is this the right direction for Steemit to head down? The side with the most money decides who is welcome here? Honestly, I'm not sure... At least in our ecosystem the people gets a say, rather than just the employees of a social network.

A bit more about him

I'm super glad to see @trevonjb gone because of personal grudges against him and his scammy ass face, I can't sit through a single video of his because of his cringey facial expressions. However, i listened to his podcast here on Dsound.

He sees nothing wrong in what he did, he isn't sorry nor will he ever be. He gives advice to us saying to focus on one thing to make money, for him it was bitconnect, and now it (was) Steemit. Although his story of starting from his humble beginnings to his new life of luxury is inspiring, he did it on the back of a scam, which he refuses to admit. He doesn't admit BitConnect is a scam, not sure if it's for legal reasons so he doesn't go to jail or to make sure his supporters don't him but @trevonjb is actually a smart guy, there's no way he didn't know it was a Ponzi to begin with.

Censorship on Steemit; a necessity?

Steemit is meant to be a platform free of censorship, yet anyone who supported @trevonjb was flagged by @berniesanders. However, I can also see it as @berniesanders protecting the naive from getting scammed.

When I first saw @trevonjb, I was a bit sus but after seeing comments of so many supporters, I too joined bitconnect because it was literally my first week in crypto and it seemed too good to be true. I (luckily) made my money back and I earned about 40% profit, but if I just held bitcoin like a normal person I would've earned over 200% profit, that's considering the fact that bitcoin has taken a heavy hit recently. Many of my friends did not make their money back.

Discussions

  • Are you happy to see @trevonjb gone?
  • Is pushing someone off the platform the right thing to do?
  • Did we (the community) handle this situation well?
  • So is this censorship healthy? Is bernie trying to protect innocent people that are at risk of being scammed or is he just "playing God" on a platform where he has too much power??
  • Should people disliked by the community be pushed off the platform in the future?
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I think @beeniesanders was just trying to help people understand that @trevonjb was giving false information and trying to save their time and money. I support what he did, but for this kind of situation. It's scary to think that a person in this platform has all that power and can push anyone off. If he uses the power rightly, I see no problem.

well said! i agree with that uncertainty of knowing someone has the power to just knock you off is scary but i trust that no one would do that unless you've done something wrong.

In my opinion it's definitely a good thing. Trevon taught me a few things but I hate the fact that he is indeed not sorry for anything. I think if this youtuber would at least be sorry about pushing so much investors in to this ponzi scheme and show some regret, the reactions would have been way less dramatic, but indeed he does not feel any regret and continues to profit on others behalf...

Also I can't stand the lies he tells all his viewers... He got hacked for 111 bitcoin?! Yeah right, in my opinion this is a simple tax evasion move.
During yesterday's stream he even said: "People who are taking money from the bank and putting it in crypto are stupid" ... Where else should the money come from Trevon?!

Conclusion: Bye bye TJ!

yeah, i agree. his lack of remorse is what hits me hardest. After following his advice, i too referred some of my friends because i was new and stupid and they lost their money. I was incredibly apologetic and offered to reimburse their money but they didn't take it.

And yeah, i remember seeing that and it was obviously a lie lol... at the time I forgot if i believed him or not but honestly I might have haha

How can you even stand to watch his streams LOL, he is so cringey to watch
I guess he doesn't understand not everyone is okay with promoting a ponzi scheme to get rich LOL

I think if someone is renowned for dishonesty, unscrupulousness such as he is, then they should be targeted for community action.
I don't think pushing him off the platform is right though. I'd much rather see an overwhelming multitude of people going after him with solid counter-factuals and having those peoples contributions upvoted - i.e. seeing the better ideas / contributions win, rather than have him sent away.

Silencing of bad actors may be good in the short term, but in doing so we are sacrificing a master value of freedom of speech.

I agree that he should be targeted for his actions and also a discussion is normally the way to go.
However, it's hard to argue with someone who sees nothing wrong with scamming the innocent.

Furthermore, he lies and defends his innocence in an overwhelming sea of guilt.

Despite all that, I'm still not sure if pushing someone off the platform is the correct move haha

yeah he seems to have very few redeeming features.