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Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

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Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#121

Post by HenryBemis »

chance_state wrote: post #101
bronipstid wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article says 50,000 accounts were "linked to Russia". Do you know who linked them to Russia and by what criteria? They weren't actually controlled by the Russian government because the article cites that figure at only 3,000. The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point.

>The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point. You're calling it "hysteria" to dismiss facts you don't like. "The Russian Hoax!", where have I heard that before? But, to your second point, I completely agree that many on the left want to pretend it was _mostly_ because of foreign interference. I tend to think that had a pr…

I 'like' it so much (not really) when people from the USA say/write "left" when they have absolutely no idea what left/communism is, apart from what they HEAR. I don't think that more than 1mil people in the USA have lived in the USSR block or the countries of their influence, or have studied communism thoroughly.

And you can recognize the trolls when one says/writes "Left" in the most capitalistic country on this planet. And by "Left" they mean the very minimal/basic social services, such as don't let people lose two legs but only one because the $1k insurance per month doesn't cover that. I wonder how failed is the USA when countries in EU have achieved that with $100 contributions per month. Miracle!!!

Americans live with the dream that they are all billionaire but somebody is blocking them (the commies, the socialists, the left, the Cubans, the anarchists, and in general "they" some without ID).

Russia always plays the looooong game, they try and succeed to sabotage a little bit every step of the way (antivaxers, interference with elections, oil price), you name it, they are in it.

I think I vented/ranted enough. I sometimes feel sorry for the 30-40% of USA citizens, they are confused and haven't read more than 10 books in their lives.. it's a potty for such a prosperous coubtry to suffer like this.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#122

Post by pax »

deminature wrote: post #44
biznickman wrote: post #40

I've been writing about this for years but it's insane to me that Twitter is not stopping this. They are contributing both to group psychosis and the destruction of democracy through the spread of disinformation.

They have conflicting incentives, it's the same problem all social networks have. Bot accounts qualitatively detract from the real user experience, but substantially inflate quantitative activity metrics, if artificially. Policing bot accounts improves the quality of the site, but hands Elliot Management and others more ammunition that social isn't growing to expectations. Unfortunately these sites continue to pick t…

it might be awesome, if the signature is somewhat obvious, to have an independent entity flagging / creating a suspected bots database?

_maybe_ that would put some pressure on Twitter?

    https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/botslayer
    https://duo.com/assets/pdf/Duo-Labs-Dont-At-Me-Twitter-Bots.pdf 
    https://sparktoro.com/tools/sparkscore

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#123

Post by chance_state »

HenryBemis wrote: post #121
chance_state wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point. You're calling it "hysteria" to dismiss facts you don't like. "The Russian Hoax!", where have I heard that before? But, to your second point, I completely agree that many on the left want to pretend it was _mostly_ because of foreign interference. I tend to think that had a pr…

I 'like' it so much (not really) when people from the USA say/write "left" when they have absolutely no idea what left/communism is, apart from what they HEAR. I don't think that more than 1mil people in the USA have lived in the USSR block or the countries of their influence, or have studied communism thoroughly. And you can recognize the trolls when one says/writes "Left" in the most capitalistic country on this pl…

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#124

Post by datashow »

catalogia wrote: post #111
datashow wrote: post #22

Why would I follow someone with only 73 followers in the first place? I wish twitter can let me choose to filter out any information from accounts with less than 10000 followers, with exception of my own followings.

> Why would I follow someone with only 73 followers in the first place? Because not all your friends are rich famous celebrities? (Or maybe they are, I don't know you, I'm just spitballing here..)

I meant random accounts. Friends are definitely not bots, no?

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#125

Post by catacombs »

biznickman wrote: post #40

I've been writing about this for years but it's insane to me that Twitter is not stopping this. They are contributing both to group psychosis and the destruction of democracy through the spread of disinformation.

> I've been writing about this for years but it's insane to me that Twitter is not stopping this.

If it doesn't impact shareholders' profits, it goes to the bottom of the to-do list.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#126

Post by Mirioron »

HenryBemis wrote: post #121
chance_state wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The hysteria over Russia as an excuse to ignore the concerns of Americans who support populist positions is pretty transparent at this point. You're calling it "hysteria" to dismiss facts you don't like. "The Russian Hoax!", where have I heard that before? But, to your second point, I completely agree that many on the left want to pretend it was _mostly_ because of foreign interference. I tend to think that had a pr…

I 'like' it so much (not really) when people from the USA say/write "left" when they have absolutely no idea what left/communism is, apart from what they HEAR. I don't think that more than 1mil people in the USA have lived in the USSR block or the countries of their influence, or have studied communism thoroughly. And you can recognize the trolls when one says/writes "Left" in the most capitalistic country on this pl…

>And by "Left" they mean the very minimal/basic social services, such as don't let people lose two legs but only one because the $1k insurance per month doesn't cover that. I wonder how failed is the USA when countries in EU have achieved that with $100 contributions per month. Miracle!!!

This isn't really true. You're going to get medical help with an urgent medical issue in any developed country, even if you don't have a penny to your name. Doctors/hospitals cannot turn you away for not having money.

There are also very few countries in the EU where insurance payments are $100. The only country I could think of would be Bulgaria and that's because they're the poorest EU country. Virtually everywhere else you're going to pay more than that and everybody has to pay it, including the poor. Depending on the country, if you don't pay that then you won't get medical care (other than the urgent kind) in those countries either.

The US has a lousy health insurance system. The cost is too high, insurance paperwork is ridiculous, and insurance doesn't always even cover you. But healthcare really isn't as amazing in most EU countries as you want to think. Many of them have similar problems.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#127

Post by mikedilger »

The bot panic is IMHO overblown.

This comment is however NOT a defense of bots. I think bot detection and deletion of bot accounts would be a good thing.

But the concern seems out of proportion.

Society is full of disingenuous message amplification systems: a large subset of advertising (TV, magazine, billboards, direct marketing, etc), biased news media, spam, and now twitter bots.

Twitter bots are a bit worse than the others because we can no longer tell what opinions are actually popular and which ones are manipulated... via Twitter. But the ability to make such judgements via Twitter has only been with us since 2006. The basic problem is not a novel one.

The bot problem cuts both ways because people will overly compensate. I've been accused of being a bot, signalling to everyone that it's perfectly OK to ignore the content of my argument. I fear many other right-leaning people are getting the same treatment. This treatment further divides society (actual bots do too, which I am NOT defending; I'm just showing that the issue cuts both ways). Other commenters in this thread have been flagged and their comments are dead apparently because (if you believe surrounding comments) they are seen as a bot.

The day that Twitter becomes a voting platform, or voting platforms allow bots... that is the day that I will panic about bots.

All that being said, carry on. Let's squash the bot problem. Let's also fix advertising. Let's also fix news media bias. And spam.

Re: Signs you're following a fake Twitter account

#130

Post by jvagner »

vertis wrote: post #59
DrNuke wrote: post #8

Got out of Twitter after seven years using it like a breaking news website from few vetted sources: bots, venom, ads and shameless plugs just made the experience more and more unsufferable, so good riddance. Also unfollowed any contact on LinkedIn, the amount of motivational fluff and plain gibberish just astounding, something like facebook for professionals. Am I happier? Nope, but the void will be somehow filled by…

I am incredibly close to getting rid of my twitter account. Already most of my meaningful interactions have moved to private group chats on Slack (etc).

I unfollowed all accounts, deleted all my tweets and just login periodically to see what's trending or to follow a hashtag associated with a sporting event I'm interested in. And since I do that from home, I have the twitter app on my iPad but not my phone.

Nice way to keep it but throttle it.

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