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Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

blog.twitter.com

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Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#61

Post by blhack »

Twitter keeps running themselves into a trap, and it is unbelievable to me that they don't see it: they cannot be the arbiters of truth. It will not work, because inevitably they'll miss something, and then people will assume that that missed thing is true.

The solution is NOT to do censorship based on truth. The entire system needs to be unreliable, because it is unreliable. People need to read things on twitter (and elsewhere on the internet) with skepticism, and they need to evaluate wether those things are true or false individually.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#62

Post by 3np »

haunter wrote: post #34

Maybe sites like Twitter, Facebook etc should be US only. I mean only US users allowed to use it. If they do this with the US election then which will be the next? UK? Australia? And why not really? People would even cheer for it

Or, better, the inverse: non-US only. How well do you think either will work?

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#63

Post by gotodengo »

notatoad wrote: post #8

>Second, we will prevent “liked by” and “followed by” recommendations from people you don’t follow from showing up in your timeline and won’t send notifications for these Tweets. These recommendations can be a helpful way for people to see relevant conversations from outside of their network, but we are removing them because we don’t believe the “Like” button provides sufficient, thoughtful consideration prior to amp…

>"we're gonna turn it back on in four weeks"

This is my recurring issue when I see most "changes we're making for the election" posts. Sure this seems like a good step for this election.

Fake news and the destabilization it can bring isn't just an American phenomenon though. Are they going to apply these precautions to elections in Brazil, or Myanmar?

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#64

Post by [deleted] »

JPKab wrote: post #52
roughly wrote: post #47

I'm fascinated by the comments here, which seem to be assuming that Twitter is operating in an environment in which the predominate source of trending information is well-meaning individuals and not motivated state-level actors intent on disrupting an election.

"predominate source of trending information is well-meaning individuals and not motivated state-level actors intent on disrupting an election." What evidence do you have that the predominant source of trending information is motivated state-level actors? That is an incredibly bold statement, and the framing you chose is such that there needs to evidence to the contrary, rather than evidence to support such a claim. E…

[deleted]

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#65

Post by MarkSweep »

notatoad wrote: post #8

>Second, we will prevent “liked by” and “followed by” recommendations from people you don’t follow from showing up in your timeline and won’t send notifications for these Tweets. These recommendations can be a helpful way for people to see relevant conversations from outside of their network, but we are removing them because we don’t believe the “Like” button provides sufficient, thoughtful consideration prior to amp…

Nothing shows Twitter’s contempt for their users like the “Show less often” button on these sorts of notifications.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#66

Post by scubbo »

_qulr wrote: post #2

I'm not sure why Twitter thinks that quote tweets are better than retweets. Propaganda exists to be spread, and it's long been obvious that "This is wrong/bad [quote]" just serves to further spread the propaganda and raise the propaganda artist's profile. Also, you can disable retweets on accounts you follow but not quote tweets.

> it's long been obvious that "This is wrong/bad [quote]" just serves to further spread the propaganda and raise the propaganda artist's profile.

This has never been obvious to me, and I continue to be confused by it as a position. It seems similar to "don't respond to anyone making blatantly false/harmful claims on discussion forums, because engaging with them just encourages them and spreads their message". In fact, in the Twitter case, it's even _more_ nonsensical to me - because the audience in a forum is general (and so, is likely to contain folks who are "on the fence" or who agree with the troll), but your Twitter followers are, by definition, those who hold similar opinions to you (and so, are likely to agree with your "takedown").

I'm not saying that you're wrong (I've seen enough apparently-smart people espousing this opinion to convince me that I'm the one missing something), I'm saying that I don't understand it. Can you help me understand what I'm missing?

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#67

Post by _qulr »

tpmx wrote: post #38
googthrowaway42 wrote: post #24

Reading these headlines is like living in a dystopian waking nightmare. This is not remotely at all the role that Twitter or any other Silicon Valley tech company should play in society.

This is what the outsized tolerance for internal political activism inside SV companies has resulted in. (European observer)

Why do you think the pressure is coming from inside? There are billions of people watching these platforms. Even governments scrutinizing them. Unruly employees are fairly easy to handle, as long as there's not outside pressure too, but in this case the outside pressures are immense.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#68

Post by cameldrv »

notatoad wrote: post #8

>Second, we will prevent “liked by” and “followed by” recommendations from people you don’t follow from showing up in your timeline and won’t send notifications for these Tweets. These recommendations can be a helpful way for people to see relevant conversations from outside of their network, but we are removing them because we don’t believe the “Like” button provides sufficient, thoughtful consideration prior to amp…

I’ve noticed that they’ve replaced this with surfacing tweets from your lists. This is really annoying to me as I’ve moved political follows to a politics list so that I’m not inundated with politics and have to explicitly check the list to see that content. Now I get it all the time.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#69

Post by isk517 »

googthrowaway42 wrote: post #24

Reading these headlines is like living in a dystopian waking nightmare. This is not remotely at all the role that Twitter or any other Silicon Valley tech company should play in society.

Welcome to the future, where we must chose between either drowning in a sea of misinformation or sustaining ourselves on a puddle of information that a "benevolent" third-party has deemed safe.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#70

Post by bleepblorp »

googthrowaway42 wrote: post #24

Reading these headlines is like living in a dystopian waking nightmare. This is not remotely at all the role that Twitter or any other Silicon Valley tech company should play in society.

I vehemently agree with this .... however I think platform intervention against potential incitement is the best of a very bad set of choices available for how to handle the next six months.

The ability of social media platforms to spread malicious propaganda intended to incite division is incredibly dangerous. The moment where a US president has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election is absolutely not the moment to test how well society can withstand the use of social media as a propaganda platform.

Society needs a long term solution for social media--my take is that it should be shut down completely--but this is a short-term emergency and now is not the time to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Being cautious is not a virtue when erring on the side of caution may lead to tanks in the streets.

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