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Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

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Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#81

Post by krapp »

PorterDuff wrote: post #43
diveanon wrote: post #32

So they finally banned Trump's account?

Trump's account is a beautiful example of how useless Twitter is. Typically it goes... Trump: CONGRATULATIONS ON FIREFIGHTERS FOR MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. THIS ADMINISTRATION IS FOR FIREFIGHTERS! Followed by 1k responses of YAY TRUMP! and 50k responses of people vomiting up any old thing that's just as insulting as they can cook up. Why on Earth do people waste their time on this sort of thing? It has evolved from…

>Why on Earth do people waste their time on this sort of thing? It has evolved from keyboard warriorhood to some sort of internet Tourette's.

Because the President of the United States has decided that shitposting on Twitter shall be his primary means of communicating with the people, and the courts have decided this means he's not allowed to block anyone from his feed, because the people have a right to hear their governments' words and to petition it with grievances.

What's happening on Twitter is the platform being used as intended by everyone but Trump - it's not supposed to be used for deep, nuanced, complex discussion. It's for posting links and blogging about your food - nonsense that can fit into a couple of sentences. But thanks to him elevating it to a higher status than it deserves, it's now become the nexus for American political communication and debate with this administration.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#82

Post by vkou »

WhatIsDukkha wrote: post #69
vkou wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How on Earth is pointing out the hypocrisy of censoring paid propaganda by a state actor, but not by a corporate actor whataboutism? This is an incredibly relevant issue. And we're not even trying to 'deal with the problem of Coca Cola being on Twitter'. The whole raison d'etre for Twitter's existence is dissemination of paid propaganda by corporate actors. It's what keeps the lights on at Twitter! Ads, promoted twee…

If the difference between a State and a Corporation is that muddled in your mind it's your issue not the rest of ours. It's a critical part of being a discerning person to be able to BOTH say how things are similar and how they differ. You seem to have no test for discerning how Coca Cola and the Russian government differ.

For someone who doesn't live in Russia, the difference is academic, and they are far more similar, than they are different.

Actually, now that I think about it - one key difference is that shitty sugary drinks have killed more Americans then the Russian government did.

Another is that corporations buying candidates, by virtue of sponsoring their political campaigns have done more to undermine, subvert, and corrupt democracy than the Kremlin could ever dream of. You say the Russians have improperly 'influenced' elections? China astroturfs their global image? Please contrast that to to both the effort expended by, and the rewards gained by the fossil fuel industry, in 'influencing' elections, and astroturfing its global image.

Everyone's getting their knickers in a twist because some Trump staffer had some meetings with the Russian government - yet half the politicans in Washington are regurgitating talking points straight from a corporate press release.

But I suppose propaganda from the former is kosher, because they have a clear profit motive for it, eh?

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#83

Post by excursionist »

dymk wrote: post #68
excursionist wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see anything in the snippet you reference that makes it clear that these are bots being banned.

FTA: > Saudi Arabia’s state-run media apparatus were found to be “engaged in coordinated efforts to amplify messaging that was beneficial to the Saudi government.” The person you're responding to didn't say anything about bots. These are state-funded efforts to manipulate the platform.

What is the methodology for determining that an account is part of a state-funded manipulation campaign? Also, is 'state-funded' necessarily worse than 'privately-funded'? How does twitter know who funds an account? Twitter has a history of banning people simply because their opinions are unpopular, so these claims don't hold much weight.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#84

Post by Porthos9K »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #63
Porthos9K wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, and I think some of that could be eliminated if ISPs were required by law to allow people to self-host Web and gopher sites (and properly secured SMTP) on residential connections and do a full IPV6 rollout so that you can have your server directly accessible without NAT if you want. Then you can just give out your IPV6 address if domain registrars refuse to serve you because they find your site's contents obj…

So instead of forcing Twitter we forces the ISPs? I'm not sure if that's an improvement.

We should be smacking around ISPs anyway, just to remind them that as limited-liability corporations with government-issued charters they exist in their current form on public sufferance and must remember their place while they still have one. We the people are sovereign and have the right to demand that the officials we elect to govern on our behalf regulate corporations to serve the public good instead of pursuing shareholder value uber alles.

This being the case, I don't see any reason why ISPs be permitted to say that individuals should not be allowed to run internet-accessible websites or gopher holes out of their homes. I think enacting reasonable legislation to force ISPs to allow residential customers to use their service to publish content as well as consume it will create a richer and more robust internet.

Now, if you still find the notion of forcing corporations to do things objectionable, it might help to remember that corporations are not human beings. They have no inherent rights, only powers defined by law. They are like governments in that regard.

You have the right to run a business and work for a profit. You do not have the right to do so from behind the aegis of a LLC. That is a privilege.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#86

Post by cameronbrown »

vkou wrote: post #82
WhatIsDukkha wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the difference between a State and a Corporation is that muddled in your mind it's your issue not the rest of ours. It's a critical part of being a discerning person to be able to BOTH say how things are similar and how they differ. You seem to have no test for discerning how Coca Cola and the Russian government differ.

For someone who doesn't live in Russia, the difference is academic, and they are far more similar, than they are different. Actually, now that I think about it - one key difference is that shitty sugary drinks have killed more Americans then the Russian government did. Another is that corporations buying candidates, by virtue of sponsoring their political campaigns have done more to undermine, subvert, and corrupt de…

> Actually, now that I think about it - one key difference is that shitty sugary drinks have killed more Americans then the Russian government did.

The difference is agency. The people that chose to drink those drinks were able to make that decision, not helpless to some corporation.

You don't get to choose not to be assassinated by a Russian agent.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#87

Post by Porthos9K »

belorn wrote: post #77
Porthos9K wrote: post #29

If you really cared about preserving your right to freedom of speech, you'd have your own website. You check your rights at the door the second you log in to a platform you don't own or control. Twitter isn't a government agency, but a private corporation protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. They have the right to reject any content you contribute without being liable for any user-generated con…

A company is located in a physical place and has to follow the laws in that place. I am 100% sure that if youtube started to reject all content from Muslims then they would get hit by a discrimination law suit and end up in court over it. The argument would be that google, youtube server, or the user is located in a physical place with anti-discrimination laws, and based on that users has rights.

As I mentioned earlier, my understanding is that as a corporation based in the US, Twitter is governed in part by Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act of 1996[1], which consists of the following:

"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

How a conflict between Section 230 and hypothetical anti-discrimination laws barring a social networking from imposing a blanket ban on right-wing content should be adjudicated is way above my pay grade since I'm not a judge, let alone a lawyer.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communicati...

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#88

Post by ipython »

newsreview1 wrote: post #85

Sounds a bit Orwellian to me, trying to control/disallow what others may or may not think or voice

But if you would think of the activity instead as a DDoS attack on your mental attention span would you come to a different conclusion?

I was downvoted before for suggesting that DDoS protection would constitute a limit on free speech, so clearly this community feels that DDoS protection is a "good" thing.

I think we can all agree that human attention span is a limited resource, much like network bandwidth.

If we make a simple analogy between network bandwidth and human attention span, then how is an automated bot (or army of humans) sending out mass propaganda to overload your attention any different than an automated bot transmitting junk data to overload your network bandwidth? Why would you control one but not the other?

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#89

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

Porthos9K wrote: post #53
jstewartmobile wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

literature and history be damned, we should all stand in obedient awe of some lisp nerd's rules for meaningful conversation

This is what we get for pushing a "STEM uber alles" educational agenda and deriding the liberal arts as an expensive path to a lifetime spent asking people if they'd like fries with that. We get techies who read satire literally and get upset when told that the sonic boom they just heard was the point getting ready to skip past light speed and ridiculous speed in favor of going to plaid .

I wasn't aware heavy-handed sarcasm appreciation was the domain of the liberal arts grad. Being one myself my education allows me to craft my thoughts in a manner whereby I can both express myself effectively and maintain decorum.

Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord

#90

Post by Porthos9K »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #89
Porthos9K wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what we get for pushing a "STEM uber alles" educational agenda and deriding the liberal arts as an expensive path to a lifetime spent asking people if they'd like fries with that. We get techies who read satire literally and get upset when told that the sonic boom they just heard was the point getting ready to skip past light speed and ridiculous speed in favor of going to plaid .

I wasn't aware heavy-handed sarcasm appreciation was the domain of the liberal arts grad. Being one myself my education allows me to craft my thoughts in a manner whereby I can both express myself effectively and maintain decorum.

Being a college dropout, I got just enough education to recognize satire when I see it and effectively express myself most of the time, but not quite enough to hide my working-class roots or be ashamed of them.

If I fail to maintain decorum, use the downvote button. That's apparently why HN has one.

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