A Shero Will Rise

Her @girlsreallyrule account has been suspended from Twitter, but SHERO creator Amee Vanderpool isn't going anywhere

“My former account with 339,000 followers may be temporarily gone, but I’m gonna pull an epic President Biden move and do the work to build back better,” tweeted SHERO editor Amee Vanderpool on March 17th.

As readers of this newsletter know from my interview with Amee last October her Twitter account was then known as @girlsreallyrule.

Her St Patrick’s Day tweet, though, came from a new Twitter address—her mom’s.

Like many Twitter accounts recently, including Chicago’s “beloved” Music Box Theatre account, @girlsreallyrule was shutdown over music copyright issues.

It’s a new era of social media enforcement that recently got one musician banned from Twitch for playing his own music. Amee wrote more about her Twitter suspension here on Substack on March 9th.

I checked in with her to find out more about what happened, what comes next—and what other Twitter users need to know about the videos they may be sharing.

Q&A with Amee Vanderpool

You wrote on March 9th about your suspension from Twitter for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). You’re still suspended—is it permanent? Do you have any idea what happened?

Hi, Richard—thanks for getting in touch with me about this unfortunate fiasco. Yes, my @girlsreallyrule account is still temporarily suspended and I am actively working on correcting the situation. I have filed letters contesting the actions and I believe a resolution should occur within the next ten days. Until then, I have continued with my exact same type of feed at a temporary account, which is my mother’s account at @mamasreallyrule. I wanted to provide continuity for all of my followers and that seemed like the best option. Plus, any new followers that I gain there will transfer to her, so it will not be an entire waste of effort and people can still access what they are used to seeing from me. But, my attorney has assured me that the account is not permanently gone and we should be able to correct the issue.

I have also heard, but not formally confirmed that Twitter has recently begun to make up lost time on acting on supposed copyright claims, primarily from the music industry. You can read more about it here. It’s my personal belief that Twitter has done a series of mass suspensions like mine recently and has included many larger accounts that remain unverified as an appeasement. This is yet another reason why the verification process needs to formally begin again.

I’m guessing violations of the DMCA are very common. A certain Former President got away with breaking copyright laws on Twitter for many years. You’re a lawyer and you got busted. What do other Twitter users need to know?

I can’t formally advise anyone from a legal standpoint on this issue, but I can explain what changes I have made in my habits. I stopped taking video and recompressing it to post-if I ever repost video, I use sources that have already posted and try to confirm that I am using the original poster when at all possible. I am also limiting my use to video that has been put out by verified news organizations that will likely have a “fair use” implication. This is my third infraction, and after the second one, I went through my account for days to pull down any content that might have been in violation of the vague policy that was given to me. This latest “infraction” includes music playing over the video, which is what has been targeted recently as I understand it. So, if you have any video posted on your account, if it is a re-tweet or embedded from another original poster, and it is playing any amount of music that has a copyright, you might want to rethink leaving it up. If you have never had a copyright infraction, you are likely safer, but if you have had a few strikes, you really need to recheck your content at this point.

You’re back on Twitter thanks to your mom. Where can people follow you—and her—now?

LOL, how great is that? Had I known several years ago that the very long time I spent helping her set up her first Twitter account would ultimately save my bacon like this, I probably would have had more patience over her technical challenges. She is currently using @sheroeditor as her main Twitter account, but honestly, my mom only really uses Twitter to help promote my work, check up on me to see where I am and to re-tweet videos of cute animals.

For those who’ve missed your Twitter commentary lately, what do you think of Biden’s progress to date—and the united GOP opposition he’s facing?

I think he’s doing a commendable and very steady job so far, which is exactly what we need. He was not my first choice as a candidate, but I have to say that I think slow and steady is serving our country extremely well in this current climate. I am also incredibly impressed with our new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and her ability to directly and honestly answer pressing questions. She is helping his administration considerably. I think the best answer to this question can be found in my recent interview with The Lincoln Project’s “We’re Speaking” video podcast where I discuss being wrong about some pre-judgements about Biden and I talk about his current performance. You can watch that conversation here:

Seeing how things are going, what are your thoughts now on ending the filibuster and the future of the Supreme Court?

I tend to side with the argument that it is only hurting our cause as Democrats, and we may only have this small window to enact all of the crucial policy changes that are desperately needed by so many Americans. But, I have also learned the lesson from the Harry Reid mistake of opening the floodgates and the danger when the tables get turned and Democrats are no longer in power. If we get rid of the filibuster entirely, we have to be prepared for the inevitable reality that Republicans will also be able to use that tool to withhold any defensive power from Democrats when they retake the majority, which will happen again at some point. I see the benefit, but the consequences may be too much to bear down the road and outweigh the benefits we can garner now, even if they are so big and important.

For people who aren’t yet subscribing to SHERO here on Substack, what are you trying to offer that they can’t read anywhere else?

I try to cover topics that are important and being discussed everywhere, but in a different way that brings in the legal ramifications and focuses more on the impact on women and people of color in our country. I also make a point to do as Beto O’Rourke asked the press to do, which is “connect the f-ing dots” and draw the necessary conclusions that the average reader needs but is not getting from more traditional journalistic outlets. My goal is to use the veracity and standards of traditional journalism to provide articles that often draw a conclusory take-away and talks about the proper legal issues involved as well. My tag line is: “covering the issues facing women, but affecting everyone.” I also do one hell of a lightning fast Sunday Recap every week, that synthesizes all of the big news items of the week very quickly so that you can stay in the know without getting too saturated. I also think my style of op ed writing is appreciated and I am working to do that more in my SHERO posts as well. It’s worth checking out SHERO, I promise.

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