Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#101

Post by cjjuice » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

quacked wrote: post #6

The Post publishes a lot of disreputable trash that's outright false or unproven, but more and more often, it seems that they release primary sources of information (especially videos) much earlier than other news outlets will, if the other news outlets do so at all. There have been multiple times when I've seen an insane video of something happening spreading around Twitter or WorldStar or some other "raw video" agg…

It should not be the job of the social media companies to be judge and jury for truth. Let the people decide for themselves what is true and false.

Basically the social media company argument is... we think people are too dumb to figure out what is "real" or not so we are going to censor. That to me is an extremely damning view of the common person.

But then, everywhere on the platform.. "make a plan to vote". So you trust people to vote but don't trust them with the unfiltered information so they can inform themselves without outside intervention?

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#102

Post by koenigdavidmj » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #64

quacked wrote: post #6

The Post publishes a lot of disreputable trash that's outright false or unproven, but more and more often, it seems that they release primary sources of information (especially videos) much earlier than other news outlets will, if the other news outlets do so at all. There have been multiple times when I've seen an insane video of something happening spreading around Twitter or WorldStar or some other "raw video" agg…

> The Post publishes a lot of disreputable trash that's outright false or unproven, but more and more often, it seems that they release primary sources of information (especially videos) much earlier than other news outlets will, if the other news outlets do so at all. Interesting... after reading this, I immediately thought: same as Zero Hedge (also often criticised). But then again, that shouldn't be a surprise - b…

ZH was talking about coronavirus way earlier than anyone else, which is bound to happen if you don’t validate as well—sometimes you do strike gold.

A comment I saw once about them was “ZH has reported five of the last three catastrophes”.

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#103

Post by dmurray » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #44

function_seven wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is not a utility. It is not common infrastructure. The Internet is, and I would not be okay with Internet access being terminated over political disagreements. But individual services? Sure, why not? For those who argue that Twitter is a de facto common platform, well these decisions are moving them away from that role. The more they exercise their own prerogatives in removing content, the more they're no lon…

Twitter is an infrastructure on top of which thousands of services are run. It's a notification service, it's a messaging server, it's an authentication/identify verification service, it's a news dissemination and discussion service, etc. But that actually doesn't even damage the argument: would it be okay if Google decided that they didn't like NyPost's politics, so they disabled the functionality of all of their ne…

Hopefully the Post would have signed a contract with their smart lock supplier that would detail the circumstances where the supplier could disable that function.

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#104

Post by core-questions » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #92

core-questions wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it's called the Overton Window, and it moves over time. Generally speaking in America it has moved leftward continually since the American Revolution, which was a left-wing act of protest against a monarchical government (which, on a flatness hierarchy view of the left/right axis, is among the furthest right political systems possible). Each successive major shift in American politics has been a shift towards t…

Mostly correct - however, the period after the Civil War moved the country distinctly back towards the right. Chinese Exclusion Act, among others, would not have been considered mainstream in the early 1800s. This continued well into the 1900s - which is when all the confederate hero statues were built (mostly by private funding). Many are being removed now. In this case it's possible the Overton Window may finally b…

Good points. I'm not American so my history of that era is spread pretty thin.

> it's possible the Overton Window may finally be shifting back leftward on race and history regarding the Civil War.

I think that the 1965 Hart Cellar Immigration Act began a leftward push on that front that has not really experienced meaningful pushback at all beyond a few small groups publicly acknowledging the quietly-held discomfort of a very large segment of the population.

Confederate statues and the defense thereof are just one of many small ways in which White Americans have tried to retain some sense of identity as their culture is perhaps irrevocably changed beneath them. Some try to make it all about slavery, but if you actually read what the more erudite examples of these folks think it's much more nuanced than that.

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#105

Post by OliverGilan » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #26

The Post still hasn't deleted the offending tweet. Those are the rules: on a first violation of posting someone's personal information without permission you get your account locked until you delete the tweet.

How do they delete the tweet if they're locked out of the account?

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#106

Post by dsaavy » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

rwoodley wrote: post #68

Well the fact is the NY Times story is probably accurate and the NY Post story is extremely suspect. Twitter made a journalistic decision not to spread trash, possibly from Russia, that could have a real impact on our election result. Tough call, but the right call. If twitter sees itself as having some sort of moderator role than it has to make these judgement calls. Other outlets didn't amplify the Hunter Biden lap…

It would maybe be more understandable if the Director of National Intelligence hadn't made the statement he did [1], which was only a few days after the incident. Why wouldn't Twitter unlock their account then?

So unless there is a huge conspiracy that you have evidence of where the DNI is straight up lying to everyone, I think it's fair to say that it's not misinformation from foreign parties.

[1] "Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday said Hunter Biden’s recovered laptop and emails, which purportedly show Joe Biden had involvement in his son’s foreign business dealings, are “not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”... "He continued: “Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress.”

https://news.yahoo.com/dni-ratcliffe-hunter-biden-emails-134...

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#107

Post by droffel » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #87

tomp wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Post publishes a lot of disreputable trash that's outright false or unproven, but more and more often, it seems that they release primary sources of information (especially videos) much earlier than other news outlets will, if the other news outlets do so at all. Interesting... after reading this, I immediately thought: same as Zero Hedge (also often criticised). But then again, that shouldn't be a surprise - b…

Yikes - I've found Zerohedge to be scarily accurate over time! Depends on your political allegiances I suppose but my mother taught me when i was kid to always read the financial press - 'follow the money to find out what the b@stards are thinking' was her old line. (she used to work for the UK tory party in the '50's, despised them). ZH is what many city of London and wall street minions read live on their bloomberg…

> scarily accurate

As the saying goes, Zerohedge has predicted 28 of the last 4 recessions. They have a consistently bearish bias (which rarely seems to play out), and ties to the Russian state, which brings into question the motivations behind their criticisms of the US (not that I'm the biggest fan myself).

All of that said, ZH introduced me to a lot of economic literature and concepts I likely wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. They touch on niche subjects constantly, and I have to give them credit for broadening my understanding of economics in general.

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#108

Post by gran_colombia » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

codegladiator wrote: post #4

r00fus wrote: post #2

Twitter is a private corporation and perhaps its best if we all realize that FB/Twitter/Google are biased agencies. That said, maybe it's best if NYPost stays off Twitter.

And suddenly twitter is a leftist corporation. Frankly I don't know whats the better way for twitter, its one of those doomed if you do, doomed if not.

Banning right wing conspiracy theories would not have been a political issue 5 years ago. There is nothing intrinsically leftist about this. It turns out that one political party and its propaganda outlets favour disinformation designed (by foreign adversaries) to provoke political violence. This party only has itself to blame.

Anything becomes political as soon as a politician talks about it. So things being 'political' do not transform them into sacred cows.

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#109

Post by _wmhc » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

core-questions wrote: post #45

recursive wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"centre leaning" Could you draw a diagram of this?

Sure, it's called the Overton Window, and it moves over time. Generally speaking in America it has moved leftward continually since the American Revolution, which was a left-wing act of protest against a monarchical government (which, on a flatness hierarchy view of the left/right axis, is among the furthest right political systems possible). Each successive major shift in American politics has been a shift towards t…

And compared to most other countries the US overton window is still very right on economics and foreign policy. Socialised health care, or economically left wing politics are still not mainstream and acceptable. Anything other than pure capitalism is called socialist, and socialist/communist is a term that can be career death for a politician.

Re: Twitter still hasn't unlocked the New York Post's account

#110

Post by esotericimpl » Mon, Oct 26, 2020, 6:59 PM UTC

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #70

blhack wrote: post #19

To the people constantly saying that twitter is a private company and should be allowed to do whatever they want: Would you support the same idea around electrical power? If the power company providing the power to the office at the NyPost decided that they had a political disagreement with them, would it be okay to just cut off their power? NyPost could just make their own power, of course, by purchasing a generator…

A better analogy: Twitter is like Fedex refusing to deliver your packages based on your politics, not the electrical utility company.

[dead]