Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#91

Post by wwright » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

naiveprogrammer wrote: post #70

taxicab wrote: post #23

The story reeks from top to bottom. The owner of the repair shop that allegedly received the laptop from Biden is a super far right conspiracy theorist. To the point where he literally believes that the Clintons are out to kill him for the information he has [1]. The whole story is that this is Hunter Biden's laptop, but in reality some random dude dropped it off and the owner said that "he had a medical condition th…

The media has been pedaling the Russian collusion story for 4 years and you don't seem to care because it fits your priors and political agenda. The bigger lesson here is that everybody is ready to accept censorship as long as they are not bearing the (immediate) costs of it.

Well, multiple members of the Trump campaign have literally pleaded guilty to lying about involvement with Russia; that story does have that going for it :)

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#92

Post by Fellshard » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

cirgue wrote: post #85

Hot take: they should do more of this, not less. As a medium it’s fundamentally distortionary, what is popular on Twitter is as much a function of the peculiarities of its ranking algorithm as it is of the material significance of the information. The less people trust twitter popularity as an indication of importance, the better off society is, and the more diverse the online media ecosystem can be.

Mandating something to be unimportant probably won't have the effect you desire. But allowing them to dig their own hole is probably the best outcome, allowing people to see the consequences for themselves. Hopefully the side effects are not too disastrous in the process.

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#93

Post by zalkota » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

taxicab wrote: post #23

The story reeks from top to bottom. The owner of the repair shop that allegedly received the laptop from Biden is a super far right conspiracy theorist. To the point where he literally believes that the Clintons are out to kill him for the information he has [1]. The whole story is that this is Hunter Biden's laptop, but in reality some random dude dropped it off and the owner said that "he had a medical condition th…

Did you see the photos?

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#94

Post by caseysoftware » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

quantummkv wrote: post #31

Keep aside the accuracy of the NYPost story for a moment. With this move, Facebook and Twitter have effectively backed one political side over the other. Even if in the nitty-gritty they might not have, this is the perception that is sent out and is the perception that will be played to the hilt by the Trump camp. And timing of this is damning as well, with distrust of big tech and social media rising even before thi…

> And the knock-off effects of this will be even more damning. Even if Trump loses, many other countries will take a big, hard look at the possibility of regime change and political interference being done by a bunch of Western Activists. Especially in Asia and Africa, where the memories of Western Imperialism have not yet faded and the wounds are still raw.

Political interference isn't new or particularly hard. We decades of playbooks dedicated to that courtesy of the CIA, KBG/FSB, etc. In more modern times, we have the Obama State Department (led by Secretary Clinton) working with Twitter to support the protests and overall idea of regime change: https://www.mic.com/articles/10642/twitter-revolution-how-th...

The goals and tactics aren't different, just the target.

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#95

Post by benmw333 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

tengbretson wrote: post #14

I think the key mistake was that the NY Post didn't cite "anonymous sources." That would have made it bulletproof.

Serious question - How does that make it legitimate? In our eyes (the viewers) or twitter's terms&cond?

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#96

Post by zalkota » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

wwright wrote: post #91

naiveprogrammer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The media has been pedaling the Russian collusion story for 4 years and you don't seem to care because it fits your priors and political agenda. The bigger lesson here is that everybody is ready to accept censorship as long as they are not bearing the (immediate) costs of it.

Well, multiple members of the Trump campaign have literally pleaded guilty to lying about involvement with Russia; that story does have that going for it :)

You sir are the problem.

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#97

Post by cowmoo728 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

taxicab wrote: post #23

The story reeks from top to bottom. The owner of the repair shop that allegedly received the laptop from Biden is a super far right conspiracy theorist. To the point where he literally believes that the Clintons are out to kill him for the information he has [1]. The whole story is that this is Hunter Biden's laptop, but in reality some random dude dropped it off and the owner said that "he had a medical condition th…

A modern macbook pro has a T2 security chip and disk encryption on by default. It's possible that a random repair shop owner could read your emails if you turn off disk encryption or disable password auth, but that's even more far fetched.

edited It seems this particular mac doesn't have the T2 chip. It would still have disk encryption on by default.

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#98

Post by vehemenz » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

quantummkv wrote: post #31

Keep aside the accuracy of the NYPost story for a moment. With this move, Facebook and Twitter have effectively backed one political side over the other. Even if in the nitty-gritty they might not have, this is the perception that is sent out and is the perception that will be played to the hilt by the Trump camp. And timing of this is damning as well, with distrust of big tech and social media rising even before thi…

Pre- political cults, white nationalism, weakness, incompetence, immorality, corruption, laziness, and pettiness were not a "political side". If you want to call the Republican party a "side", then you need to disentangle these things first. Otherwise opposition to Republicans by any decent/educated person is easily explained.

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#99

Post by paul7986 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

naiveprogrammer wrote: post #70

taxicab wrote: post #23

The story reeks from top to bottom. The owner of the repair shop that allegedly received the laptop from Biden is a super far right conspiracy theorist. To the point where he literally believes that the Clintons are out to kill him for the information he has [1]. The whole story is that this is Hunter Biden's laptop, but in reality some random dude dropped it off and the owner said that "he had a medical condition th…

The media has been pedaling the Russian collusion story for 4 years and you don't seem to care because it fits your priors and political agenda. The bigger lesson here is that everybody is ready to accept censorship as long as they are not bearing the (immediate) costs of it.

Exactly all the sheep follow and believe what their side says.

To me from pizzaGate to RussiaGate to the impeachment to this Hunter Biden thing is all junk ... arbitrary distractions to the issues that are important ... the economy, healthcare, equality, etc.

Each side will do whatever it takes/strategy to try and win and too many sheep follow along/get soaked up in the soap opera drama.

For me it's all transparent and tiresome!

Re: Twitter and Facebook's action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

#100

Post by lanstin » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:24 PM UTC

quantummkv wrote: post #31

Keep aside the accuracy of the NYPost story for a moment. With this move, Facebook and Twitter have effectively backed one political side over the other. Even if in the nitty-gritty they might not have, this is the perception that is sent out and is the perception that will be played to the hilt by the Trump camp. And timing of this is damning as well, with distrust of big tech and social media rising even before thi…

Removing safe harbor will increase this sort of thing, because Twitter would be exposed to more law suits for not taking down harmful speech. (And yes, harmful speech is a legal concept in the US). And the internet is not social media - the internet and decentralized digital technologies don’t need Twitter to link people together.