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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

#281

Post by sheepmullet »

pmarreck wrote: post #225
azborder wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Hate speech” seems to cover a pretty wide spectrum these days.

Fair enough because I agree, nevertheless it’s a stretch to accuse The Social-Network Powers That Be of essentially a left-wing conspiracy

The bias makes sense and I wouldn't call it a conspiracy theory. Where are the censors hired?

Californians have a different idea about hate speech than people from Alabama who have a different view of hate speech than someone from Bangalore.

So if you hire your censors from California you are going to see right wing rogue ideas considered hate speech.

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

#282

Post by jrs95 »

pvg wrote: post #87
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that there’s some middle area where the person doesn’t understand Bay Area culture but they’re not being rude or hot headed, and yet their genuine questions get downvoted. I do think there’s some kind of “you can’t discuss that” attitudes on here about certain topics. Diversity stuff is an area I can imagine reasonable and even good comments getting downvoted. Sadly I don’t have any sources, but this i…

Downvotes aren't 'censorship'.

No, because you can still read things that have been heavily downvoted. Flagging on the other hand can actually make things unreadable.

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

#283

Post by [deleted] »

moduspol wrote: post #74
nascar_is_bad wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the biggest contributor is just that left-leaning people are more likely to be offended by right-leaning views. More likely to have empathy is another way to phrase that.

“More capable of selective application of empathy” is how I’d describe it usually, but that’s neither here nor there.

[deleted]

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

#284

Post by TaylorAlexander »

Andrex wrote: post #186
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve observed a similar phenomena on articles about the wrongdoings of the US government. Well cited high quality articles about historical or contemporary US aggression overseas disappear quickly even when they had been getting upvotes. I noticed a similar trend on Facebook. My posts about the tragedy occurring right now in Yemen got almost no traffic on Facebook, despite being worded and cited similarly to my other…

Isn't it possible that what's happening in Yemen, just but its nature, is a turn-off for most of FB's user base?

Yes and that’s the rub. Previously a journalist decided what stories people should hear. Now an algorithm tuned to people’s engagement levels decides what we should see. It may have the effect of burying important stories that make people uncomfortable, which a journalist might not do. Just because people would rather not know about Yemen doesn’t mean we’re better off if people don’t know about Yemen.

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

#285

Post by protomyth »

I'm starting to think that the problem is Facebook sets the importance of politics much, much higher than the users of Facebook. It really seems like the folks doing the programming are political animals, and most of us are more concerned with the personal connections we have made. I think they are really bad at understanding our circle of people we deal with and are using a variety of factors that just aren't as important to us.

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

#286

Post by TaylorAlexander »

josteink wrote: post #275
adbachman wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> middle area where the person doesn’t understand Bay Area culture... > genuine questions get downvoted The problem is these "genuine questions," for other people, are received as: bad faith questions, "sea lioning", poorly researched questions (e.g., simple query would find the answer), microagressions, dog whistles, sock puppet arguments, or other incendiary social media argument techniques. Whether every instance…

> microagressions Anyone who claims to have been exposed to "microagressions" simply because they have been talking to people of a different view-point, are exactly the people who need more "microagressions". This kinda thing here is exactly what is killing the current political left. I honestly think they mean well, but with stuff like this it's hard to take them seriously. Had they only harmed themselves, it might…

I disagree. I think a lot of people not familiar with the term micro aggression think it’s all stupid. But I have been feeling as though I understand better what people mean when they use the term micro aggression. They’re talking about people being rude, inconsiderate, or mean and not even realizing it. And the term micro aggression is used to communicate that they feel uncomfortable and they want the other to recognize that and change their behavior.

I think if someone is making you feel uncomfortable you have every right to tell them. Now if they decide not to change that’s up to them, and you two may choose not to have a relationship moving forward, but it’s okay to share how you feel and ask for change.

However some people decide they are the victim of aggression and they then yell at the other person, and that’s obviously absurd. If you don’t want people to be aggressive at you, don’t be aggressive at them.

But what you’re proposing is that, when someone is feeling uncomfortable, we should make them more uncomfortable. I think that’s shitty behavior and I don’t believe it is helpful. Do you?

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

#287

Post by codyb »

vzqx wrote: post #270
satsuma wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that concept of 'boxes' is pretty interesting -- is there a way for me to check that for myself without handing them a wad of cash? i rarely use facebook aside from messenger (because getting friends and family to use something like telegram/signal/etc is a pain in the ass when fb just works) but i've had it for about 8 years now so it'd be interesting to see how accurate of a profile they've built on me

http://facebook.com/ads/preferences/behaviors Apparently I'm 'very conservative'... probably because of my friend group, since I've never posted anything political on Facebook.

Wow, the amount facebook knows about me is staggering little.

The four groups I’m in are all related to using a mobile device or wi-fi.

I’m pleasantly surprised but it appears deleting all of my content, unfollowing every person on my feed, not logging in except on incognito windows and very infrequently at best, and using ad blockers has effectively stymied facebook’s ability to establish a good notion of who I am beyond the most extreme basics.

I still use messenger although I try to use encrypted messages when I can, but they don’t mine that for advertising information according to their user policy. Not sure if they mine it for anything else.

Either way, good.

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

#288

Post by jrs95 »

hueving wrote: post #107
moduspol wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“More capable of selective application of empathy” is how I’d describe it usually, but that’s neither here nor there.

Everyone applies "selective empathy". People on the left in the US care very little about employees of coal miners, oil companies, etc because of larger environmental concerns. In every case, there is some "more important cause" that someone prioritizes that makes it look like they don't have empathy.

> People on the left in the US care very little about employees of coal miners, oil companies, etc because of larger environmental concerns.

Or to be more honest, they think white rural Americans dying of drug overdoses is funny. I mean these stupid rednecks deserve it right? Fewer white births than deaths in many states? (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/white-minority-populat...) It's about fucking time!

Now I'm being a bit unfair to the left here partly because I'm more pissed at them, as I'm a liberal who would have thought this was "my team" just a few years ago. Of course there are people that would say all that and probably worse regardless of their politics. But something seems very wrong. IMO it's been a long time since this large of a number of people on either side truly think their political opposition ought to be killed. I've seen people on the left say Trump voters should be shot, he should be assassinated, etc., and I've seen similar shit coming out of the right as well. Not even on the internet; I have heard this things IRL. Maybe modern society/technology has done something really fucked to our empathy? I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't been like this as long as I've been alive.

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

#289

Post by cblades »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #148
criley2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article isn't a "smoking gun", it's quite literally biased propaganda by a paid member of a campaign! A blog post (not journalism!) by a paid member of a political campaign infamous for its loose relationship with fact and truth, quoting other paid members of the Campaign, to push a particular message that the campaign has been aggressively pushing... I mean, dude, what the fuck . How can you call what is litera…

It's a recounting of conversations and negotiations between executive level Twitter people and the ad agency. Your response is overblown and strident.

It is most certainly not a smoking gun. That is a dishonest descriptor.

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

#290

Post by cblades »

fortythirteen wrote: post #97

This isn't opinion, it's provable fact. Twitter and Facebook were on a tear last year, actively shutting down the accounts of conservative pundits, under the guise of rules violations, while turning a blind eye to the same actions from pundits and personalities on the left.

Could you point out some of those examples?
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