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Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

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Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#31

Post by username223 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #14
methou wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently a Chinese copy of twitter, Weibo, decided to implement similar functionality, but their ability in machine learning is very limited, so their lame work has only promoted paid members and threads. In the first week of its introduction, most users has noticed that there's roughly 50% less threads were read by other users. Actually I think theres's big future for this kind of censorship, if performed well, can…

Is this censorship or editorial/curation? I've been infuriated by Facebook because I have a local events group on high priority in my feed, but FB has decided I only want to see about one post in five. So I miss a lot of news I want to see. Meanwhile I still get porn posts on the various technology groups I read, even though I keep asking not to see similar content. I'd have no objection to a good AI editor curating…

Does switching it from "top posts" back to "most recent" still fix it, or is even that filtered? They clearly want you to use their "curation," but a bit of fast scrolling and skimming still does a much better job.

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#32

Post by SFLemonade »

guelo wrote: post #22
0x49 wrote: post #5

Im more concerned with social censorship and the mob mentality that seems to be determining justice. If you say something that is not politically correct or against the current narrative, you will get fired/bullied/harrassed/silenced/all three. Without honesty, there will be no progress. I shouldnt be afraid of posting my opinions and expressing my freedom of speech because i might lose my livelihood. But its the sad…

It is incomprehensible to me that someone would be more concerned about being able to, for example, make fun of fat people without being treated as an asshole, than censorship of our mass media on issues of national security. Sorry but that's like first world dumb teenager problems to me.

You're talking about two different issues / results of censorship here, both of which are legitimate and need to be discussed. Don't silence one with the other.

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#34

Post by learning_still »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #26
learning_still wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of people who are oversensitive to speech don't care about what's being said; they care about how it's being said. I don't think there should be social consequences for saying something that isn't PC. And I think OP falls into the same category. This is far from something so general as "consequences for speech" which would include things as abstract as judging the level of education of the speaker. I don't m…

Its all about context. With your bro's after the game, sure. But in Twitter, where the whole world (anybody who cares to look anyway) can see it? Its expected to have a different voice there. Folks who get all chummy on Twitter are forgetting where they are.

"Its expected to have a different voice there."

Expected by who? The "expectation" you think everyone has, everyone does not have. In this discussion we're referring to this expectation as "PC" or "political correctness".

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#35

Post by SFLemonade »

ogig wrote: post #2

One of my main concerns with mainstream social networks is this kind of subtle censorship/filtering. Some people think their Facebook stream is an accurate representation of their friends and surrounding reality, they are ignorant of the algoritms that decide what they will see and what not.

This so true and a major concern. The next wave of highly effective propaganda and thought control could very easily manifest itself through this. Today, people know better than to blindly believe the news media. If information is coming from a single entity, it could be pushing an agenda, so take it with a grain of salt. We all know that. But when it appears to come from a community, that's entirely different. It seems completely genuine and trustworthy.

But what happens when Zuckerberg meets with German political leaders to discuss the silencing of anti-refugee posts on Facebook? We know that the technology exists. If you've ever advertised on Facebook, you've seen how easily one piece of content can be given massive priority while others can go quietly ignored. But that's not how it seems to the user. It just seems like all of their friends are thinking one way....so they should too.

There are massive implications to this.

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#36

Post by SFLemonade »

marcosdumay wrote: post #27
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this censorship or editorial/curation? I've been infuriated by Facebook because I have a local events group on high priority in my feed, but FB has decided I only want to see about one post in five. So I miss a lot of news I want to see. Meanwhile I still get porn posts on the various technology groups I read, even though I keep asking not to see similar content. I'd have no objection to a good AI editor curating…

The difference is completely in the eye of the beholder. But a huge centralized curator that decides what everybody reads is something people feared for centuries. It does not really matter if its intention is benign.

Absolutely. And even more dangerous is the perception that there isn't a curator, when there really is one. That is the case with Facebook today.

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#37

Post by itistoday2 »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #7
ogig wrote: post #2

One of my main concerns with mainstream social networks is this kind of subtle censorship/filtering. Some people think their Facebook stream is an accurate representation of their friends and surrounding reality, they are ignorant of the algoritms that decide what they will see and what not.

Don't use networks that don't share their code. Don't use networks that hold your data and don't give you raw access to it. Share directly with your friends instead of a large corporation. Edit: Instead of downmods, please post reasons why you should use networks run with secret codes and which suck your data into their proprietary databases.

HN is known for its inability to downvote properly. Gave you an upvote. :)

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#38

Post by itistoday2 »

ogig wrote: post #2

One of my main concerns with mainstream social networks is this kind of subtle censorship/filtering. Some people think their Facebook stream is an accurate representation of their friends and surrounding reality, they are ignorant of the algoritms that decide what they will see and what not.

I've documented evidence of Twitter censorship; what likely amounts to millions of tweet-replies. This seems to be used to shape perceptions and opinions on twitter in at mass-scale:

https://twitter.com/taoeffect/status/651215054235242497

I've now registered my username on Kloak as @greg, and am recommending to all my friends to move off of Twitter to similar networks.

Here are some networks to ditch twitter for:

- SpiderOak's Kloak (in beta): https://spideroak.com/solutions/kloak

- Indie's Hearbeat (in alpha): https://ind.ie/

- Twister: http://twister.net.co/

- Vole: http://vole.cc/

Bye Orwell, won't be seeing you in the land of free speech!

Re: Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]

#40

Post by krapp »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #7
ogig wrote: post #2

One of my main concerns with mainstream social networks is this kind of subtle censorship/filtering. Some people think their Facebook stream is an accurate representation of their friends and surrounding reality, they are ignorant of the algoritms that decide what they will see and what not.

Don't use networks that don't share their code. Don't use networks that hold your data and don't give you raw access to it. Share directly with your friends instead of a large corporation. Edit: Instead of downmods, please post reasons why you should use networks run with secret codes and which suck your data into their proprietary databases.

I didn't downvote you, but I'm not aware of any "network" (by which I assume you mean website or application) that matches the requirements you set. Open source websites simply don't exist - as it's impossible to actually validate that the code running on a server matches whatever source code a company might distribute, and every site and application attempts to limit or control access to your data in some way.

Hacker News itself explicitly doesn't share their fork of the Arc forums, and don't allow raw access to your data.

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