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How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

nytimes.com

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Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#11

Post by WillPostForFood »

ue_ wrote: post #8
wand3r wrote: post #3

NYT is being gamed to feed misinformation so this is ironic to read; like the BuzzFeed article on fake news. I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary. It's owned by a Billionaire Mexican communications mogul[1] and is pretty much leftist & big business propaganda. The only difference on Twitter is that a lot of little voices parrot 1 message instead of one…

>leftist & big business propaganda These seem to be at odds with each other, which makes me doubt that either or both of them is actually the case.

Been to silicon valley? It is about 80% liberal big business, with a smattering of rogue libertarians.

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#12

Post by epistasis »

wand3r wrote: post #3

NYT is being gamed to feed misinformation so this is ironic to read; like the BuzzFeed article on fake news. I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary. It's owned by a Billionaire Mexican communications mogul[1] and is pretty much leftist & big business propaganda. The only difference on Twitter is that a lot of little voices parrot 1 message instead of one…

> I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary.

Yes, of course you do, these have been well documented by the same sources that produced the models. Why would you feel the need to screen cap them? Why would you put this statement next to fake news?

Do you not understand what was in your screencap?

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#13

Post by wand3r »

epistasis wrote: post #12
wand3r wrote: post #3

NYT is being gamed to feed misinformation so this is ironic to read; like the BuzzFeed article on fake news. I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary. It's owned by a Billionaire Mexican communications mogul[1] and is pretty much leftist & big business propaganda. The only difference on Twitter is that a lot of little voices parrot 1 message instead of one…

> I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary. Yes, of course you do, these have been well documented by the same sources that produced the models. Why would you feel the need to screen cap them? Why would you put this statement next to fake news? Do you not understand what was in your screencap?

538 was being laughed at for 70/30 or greater and HuffPo and NYT had Hillary dancing on stage with Jay Z. I screen capped various organizations refusing to update polls, refusing to post WikiLeaks info and above all refusing to do the fucking news.

NYT broke Watergate which was embargoed by the president. I will never forgive them for how shameful and cowardly they have become. I am sure there are great men and women who work there, and for them I feel the worst.

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#15

Post by visakanv »

pillowkusis wrote: post #2

a suprisingly self-aware and perceptive piece from a member of the media "digestive tract" that produces this problem day in and day out. I think this sheds too much blame away from major news media outlets, whose whole job _should have_ been to fact check the stories they hear on the "ground" (twitter). But it assesses twitter's role correctly. The piece I think people forget is that twitter has absolutely no financ…

> Nothing will change (significantly) until twitters bottom line (user engagement as a proxy for ad money) changes.

This has been a problem for media since the dawn of man, I wonder if we can really solve it within our lifetimes. Seems improbable.

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#16

Post by Quequau »

eridius wrote: post #7
wand3r wrote: post #3

NYT is being gamed to feed misinformation so this is ironic to read; like the BuzzFeed article on fake news. I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary. It's owned by a Billionaire Mexican communications mogul[1] and is pretty much leftist & big business propaganda. The only difference on Twitter is that a lot of little voices parrot 1 message instead of one…

> like the BuzzFeed article on fake news Is the implication here that BuzzFeed is itself fake news? Because that's certainly not true. Some of the best real news reporting I've seen lately has come out of BuzzFeed News.

Yeah, BuzzFeed has a frustrating business model. Produce great volumes of worthless clickbait, wrapped with adverts and use the revenue to fund actual legit journalism.

Clearly it works to some degree but I expect they're going to struggle to ever move beyond their clickbait reputation.

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#17

Post by nfRfqX5n »

fairly easy to spot the bots, but they all follow each other and have at least one (usually only one) picture of "themselves" to seem legit. the content of their twitter is all retweets or harsh responses. click on any political trending topic and see for yourself.

this has been going on for well over a year now, really surprised twitter can't figure out a decent solution like shadowbanning

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#18

Post by ue_ »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #11
ue_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>leftist & big business propaganda These seem to be at odds with each other, which makes me doubt that either or both of them is actually the case.

Been to silicon valley? It is about 80% liberal big business, with a smattering of rogue libertarians.

"Liberal" doesn't mean left, though. What's 'left' about big business? Or capitalism? Just because "liberal" ideas are frequently found around leftist ones, it doesn't mean that leftism is liberal, nor does it mean that liberalism is leftist.

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#19

Post by ajflkjasdf777 »

wand3r wrote: post #3

NYT is being gamed to feed misinformation so this is ironic to read; like the BuzzFeed article on fake news. I'm no Trump supporter but I have screen caps of single digit election predictions; e.g. 90/10 Hillary. It's owned by a Billionaire Mexican communications mogul[1] and is pretty much leftist & big business propaganda. The only difference on Twitter is that a lot of little voices parrot 1 message instead of one…

Personally, I look at all of it as rigged and treat their narratives as such up front, regardless of the source.

The media in the US has been gamed by one power broker or another since its beginning. The Founding Fathers wrote and distributed propaganda anonymously.

The government invented an entire group to handle modern propaganda operations and worked with the media to peddle their narratives for the last generation.

This is all documented plainly, often via government record itself.

I don't think measuring these things is all that useful, given this.

The premise of "it's gamed for partisan gain" is firmly established by history. How much either way is a quibble, IMO. Let's focus on equitable outcomes for all, and stop diving into these overly customized data holes.

Re: How Twitter Is Being Gamed to Feed Misinformation

#20

Post by eridius »

Quequau wrote: post #16
eridius wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like the BuzzFeed article on fake news Is the implication here that BuzzFeed is itself fake news? Because that's certainly not true. Some of the best real news reporting I've seen lately has come out of BuzzFeed News.

Yeah, BuzzFeed has a frustrating business model. Produce great volumes of worthless clickbait, wrapped with adverts and use the revenue to fund actual legit journalism. Clearly it works to some degree but I expect they're going to struggle to ever move beyond their clickbait reputation.

Well, I mean, this is why they have the BuzzFeed brand and the separate BuzzFeed News brand, right? They even show up as two different channels (and different colors) in the Apple News app. A lot of people still don't seem to realize that there is a split like this, but changing people's perception of them is really just a matter of time.
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