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

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

#251

Post by landryraccoon »

blhack wrote: post #61

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 (an…

Why doesn't that cause Wikipedia to completely break down then? Wikipedia tries to be in some sense an arbiter of truth, they do get it wrong frequently, and yet it still holds together.

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

#252

Post by thaumasiotes »

iso947 wrote: post #229
reaperducer wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you run into the problem of "What is authoritative?" By limiting it to just two, Twitter can say, "We like these guys. They're reputable." Instead of having to line up and vet thousands of other sources, and task people with monitoring all those thousands of authoritative sources around the world.

I’ve never understood the dewy beats Truman calling system. In the UK each constituency announces results after being counted (and recounted). Those results arrive during the night, polls close at 10, first results at 11, a good idea of who will win in most elections by 5, andthe last few results might stretch into 9 or 10 am if ferries are having issues. But aside from a national exit poll at 10pm, there are no real…

> It seems that different US elections predict who will win a given state far earlier in the process - before the votes are counted even the first time. Is that right?

Yes.

At least in Dewey / Truman, they counted the votes and Truman won. Under the current system, Truman would be expected to concede gracefully after somebody predicted he would lose, removing the need to count the votes entirely.

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

#253

Post by AI_WAIFU »

Fellshard wrote: post #100

1. 'Misleading Information' is a targeted category, specified only by manual intervention, leaving the door wide open for selective enforcement and biased enforcement. 2. The 'context' they put in the 'Trending' section is often highly editorialized and skewed. An example from yesterday: > Celebrities · Trending > Mel Gibson > People are expressing disappointment that Mel Gibson has been cast in a new film. > 18.2K T…

Also "Misleading information" is whatever the mechanical turk being used to put together the training set says it is. You can be almost 100% certain that they are not even going to bother to do a google search on the topic because that will lower the performance metrics that are used to pay them.

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

#254

Post by shadowgovt »

konjin wrote: post #228
tpmx wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European looking at this spectacle from a distance: SV is eating itself. Well, good for Europe, I guess. Edit: but also good for China, and they're a lot better positioned to take advantage of this.

As a citizen of the world with several passports including a US one: this happens every 10 years. The last time was conservatives doing it so people are shocked that liberals are just as insular. The 90s PC culture wars are a thing that went in the memory hole really fast when Clinton needed the women who were accusing him to be sluts and harlots again. On the bright side social media is becoming so unbearable that w…

And hard to get people to show up when you run your own forum.

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

#255

Post by Karunamon »

sangnoir wrote: post #227
ValentineC wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, thanks, this seems to work for now.

You are right to say "for now" - the app will periodically force you back to "Home" view (after a seemingly random period) and then you have to manually switch back - I'm guessing Home view has better "engagement" metrics for the Twitter suits.

I believe they stopped doing that. The verbiage in the dropdown indicating that they'll switch back has disappeared, and my feed has been locked into the latest view for months now.

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

#256

Post by 1over137 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #199
gnome_chomsky wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does feel like there have been 48 months this year

Seen out front of a hotel in Santa Fe recently: "2020 has been longer than a CVS receipt"

For anyone else confused: CVS seems to be a chemist/pharmacy shop in the USA; this is unrelated to CVS (Concurrent Versions System) the software.

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

#257

Post by shadowgovt »

googthrowaway42 wrote: post #78
tpmx wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I completely agree with you and I used to work at Google and see this kind of activism first hand. It's not just activism though, the C-suites of these companies believe in this kind of thing.

People forget that SV companies being pro gay rights pre-dated the Obergefell decision.

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

#258

Post by lopmotr »

landryraccoon wrote: post #251
blhack wrote: post #61

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 (an…

Why doesn't that cause Wikipedia to completely break down then? Wikipedia tries to be in some sense an arbiter of truth, they do get it wrong frequently, and yet it still holds together.

Wikipedia requires sources for its information, especially anything contentious. If Twitter somehow obtained the manpower and speed to do that, then it might be OK but there's no hope of that ever being possible. The rate of content generation is too high, the demand for immediate publication is too high, and the effect of removing something a few days after it's posted is too little too late because it will have already had its effect. Nobody would use such a slow and boring service where almost every post gets automatically put on hold until someone can find a source. Users obviously won't do their own research - that's like schoolwork!

Wish somebody a happy birthday. Wait till tomorrow for Twitter's employees or crowdsourcing to verify it. And it only gets verified if that information is actually available to them.

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

#259

Post by shadowgovt »

deanCommie wrote: post #233
tpmx wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is literally the opposite of the conclusion you should be coming to. This is what a lack of will to clamp down on misinformation, and lies from the President on their platform, out of fear of being of subsequently being politically repressed has resulted in. Twitter is twisting and contorting itself in a million knots to avoid simply banning the president's account for the damage it is causing to society, the ec…

... and their terms of service. They changed the TOS to account for America electing an internet troll.

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

#260

Post by zionic »

bleepblorp wrote: post #70
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 el…

> The ability of social media platforms to spread malicious propaganda intended to incite division is incredibly dangerous.

No it’s not, this is propaganda. If Facebook/Twitter wanted to tomorrow they could limit stuff in your feed to people you know IRL. This would take less than 1 sprint for top tier engineers with the right access to implement and ship.

They’re only dangerous because the real problem is social media’s hypergrowth strategies are incompatible with policies that are good for society.

Any suggestion otherwise is like oil companies encouraging end users to recycle.

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