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Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

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Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#11

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

That's a point I hadn't thought of before. It may not be the companies themselves, but the user bases that are "censoring" views

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#13
post #9

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

> it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter ... censorship from other users of social media sites How, exactly? Is Facebook doling out admin privileges to random users? Or are we confusing "receive criticism" with "censorship" here?

They are confusing the two yes

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#14

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter

That's probably a big contributor to the perception.

The leaders of many of the big tech companies are very public in their support of certain views, and steer their companies to publicly support those views, as well. So it makes sense for people with differing views to believe that that companies which don't share their views would be against them.

If the tech companies were to focus solely on being good technology companies and not trying to re-shape society, the public might have a different perception.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#15
post #9

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

> it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter ... censorship from other users of social media sites How, exactly? Is Facebook doling out admin privileges to random users? Or are we confusing "receive criticism" with "censorship" here?

Post an article in r/politics about anything positive Trump has done and you'll get a ban. On Facebook, a similar phenomenon might occur due to liberal users reporting conservative ideas they don't agree with as hate speech. Disclaimer: I'm not very familiar with how Facebook works so I could be way off

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#16
post #9

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

> it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter ... censorship from other users of social media sites How, exactly? Is Facebook doling out admin privileges to random users? Or are we confusing "receive criticism" with "censorship" here?

It may well be the case that one of the biggest practical problems with US politics is that large numbers of conservatives simply do not understand what censorship and robust debate look like, and think that deep disagreement from other people like themselves means their rights are being violated.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#17
post #9

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

> it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter ... censorship from other users of social media sites How, exactly? Is Facebook doling out admin privileges to random users? Or are we confusing "receive criticism" with "censorship" here?

People feel entitled to be wrong. Like the vaccines thing. Surely you have that one crazy person pm your facebook spouting crap about autism and the MRR and everyone flipping out at them.

That person is feeling 'censored'.

And now every other person is a 'bot' or a Russian troll.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#18
post #4

A bit of both-sides-ism here. The poll shows that Republicans almost universally believe that these companies censor their viewpoint, despite the fact that these companies have bent over backwards to accommodate those views and to give them platforms. Meanwhile only a small fraction of Democrats believe this is very likely, and they aren’t strongly sure about which side is benefiting from the supposed bias.

> The poll shows that Republicans almost universally believe that these companies censor their viewpoint, despite the fact that these companies have bent over backwards to accommodate those views and to give them platforms.

However, that belief isn't totally without basis. Facebook fired its entire trending topics curation team [1], after allegations that its members suppressed conservative stories [2]. Even though Facebook denied that any ideological suppression took place, their actions in firing the team could be interpreted as confirming them, especially considering how badly their algorithm performed without human oversight afterwards.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/29/facebook-...

[2] https://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-sup...

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#19

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

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Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#20

The interesting aspect is that conservatives think that it is very likely that social media sites censor their views at a rate double that of liberals. Even if the social media companies were strictly neutral in the matter, it's pretty common for conservatives to encounter left-wing hostility and censorship from other users of social media sites.

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