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Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

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Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#201

Post by colpabar »

TAKEMYMONEY wrote: post #160
colpabar wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ah yes, because when a federal agency doesn't punish a multi billion dollar corporation, we all know it's because they definitely didn't do anything wrong. They're so trustworthy!

Please refrain from replies without content. Why did the FEC fine the DNC and Clinton for violating rules related to the Steele dossier? My understanding is that the DNC also has a few dollars. Did they forget their bias?

My point isn't about the FEC being biased, I just reject appeals to the authority of US federal agencies, because they aren't trustworthy. They don't (meaningfully) punish rich people, and they are usually staffed by various former/future C-level people from the organizations they're supposed to be regulating.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#202

Post by coryrc »

eberkund wrote: post #155
clumpthump wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hanlon's Razor is, I believe, a good rule of thumb, but people keep using it in situations such as this one where it's not just potentially malice (wanting to harm someone for little other reason than wanting to see them hurt or wanting to hurt) but also greed/self-interest. Hanlon's Razor as stated makes sense to me. I see a lot more stupidity in the world than I see people wanting to hurt for no other reason. But g…

Why do you think a bug is a "simpler" explanation for this behaviour? Maybe if all links were broken then sure, but if only specific sites that operate against the interests of Twitter stop working doesn't that point to something else going on?

Because Mastodon is not actually a threat.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#203

Post by dane-pgp »

mikeyouse wrote: post #114
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what section 230 repeal has to do with it. Companies would still be able to block random links like this if section 230 is repealed; they’d probably do it more often.

Repealing 230 would literally kill large swaths of the internet. If platforms like Twitter or Reddit were legally responsible for what their users post, they would need to institute white lists to avoid being bankrupted. Can you imagine the amount of low-level casual defamation across the entirety of Facebook? Or Reddit? The amount of copyrighted material stolen and posted? There would be an overnight industry of peo…

> It's literally the dumbest idea possible.

Unless the aim was literally to destroy these large left-leaning, people-empowering, highly profitable, internationally reaching businesses.

Now imagine which political party and which geopolitical adversary would like to make the internet less liberal, silence the powerless, make American tax revenue lower, and make more space for authoritarian voices on the world stage.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#204

Post by Kadin »

sequoia wrote: post #22

A lot of people here are jumping to conclusions based on what could simply be a bug. Why not wait 24hrs and see if this is actually some policy or just a mistake.

Because masquerading a controversial "feature" as a bug would be a good way to trial it, and see what the pushback from your users is like.

Twitter doesn't have enough credibility left to deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#205

Post by tehlike »

ctvo wrote: post #131
saurik wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please build a system with 100% availability under load and with no false positive. I'll wait. Seriously? This is absolutely trivial: you don't build a system like this in the first place , as whatever is failing here--and 100% if it is a system actively designed to prevent people from posting links to their own timeline--isn't providing value: it is just a bigger surface in which there are going to be random bugs…

A link preview adds value to those reading the posts. Because it can sometimes fail to process a link and prevent users from posting links is not a sign of sure malice, it's possibly incompetence (in the way the system was designed or implemented, in the business rules of requiring it to validate successfully before a link can be posted, etc.). I'm a little lost at what your point is because if you think the above is…

Actually, a fraudster can design their system such that when preview service is the one rendering the page, it returns an error, but when a legit user is making the request, it may proceed showing bad stuff.

This is known as cloaking.

Safe thing to do is to block the submission instead of letting it through anyway, or potentially downrank the tweet, or graylist or whatever, or put it into failed queue for investigation, or something along thoselines.

I think crowd here would be delighted when twitter allows spam links because they figured out a way to fool the preview service in some ways.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#206

Post by spicybright »

Osmose wrote: post #174
fartcannon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowadays, maybe let's assume malice. Maybe its a false positive and a bunch of people stop using twitter, Facebook, google, apple, or Microsoft as a result. That is less harmful (some might say it's good) than the opposite, where big corps use our collective desire to forgive as a tool to exploit us. You can apply that saying to your wife and kids. Or your neighbour. Big corps that make money off exploiting peoples n…

Not everything needs to be an absolute rule, this totally looks like a small bug on Twitter's part, and if it takes like weeks to fix then you can decide "okay that's a little more suspicious". What's the point of making this particular moment an immediate, gigantic moral issue?

It seems like people many people today aren't satisfied with saying "I don't know" when it's the most reasonable answer. Every little action apparently has to be blamed on something (usually based on very little or no evidence).

It doesn't even matter why as long as twitter is aware of it, and it gets fixed soon.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#207

Post by dane-pgp »

dfxm12 wrote: post #158
lapcat wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, how many government owned companies are there in the US? What's the point in saying "private company" if 99.99+% of companies are private?

What's the point in saying "private company" Different rules, laws, regulations, etc. apply to private sector vs public sector. Specifically in this case, OP is implying that a theoretical public sector social network wouldn't be allowed to block linking to mastodon because of the second (EDIT: no, wait, first amendment!) amendment, but that Twitter is well within its rights since they are in the private sector. Whet…

> wouldn't be allowed to block linking to mastodon because of the second amendment

I don't know how I feel about a well regulated Militia overthrowing the government to protect free software and open standards...

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#208

Post by TAKEMYMONEY »

colpabar wrote: post #201
TAKEMYMONEY wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please refrain from replies without content. Why did the FEC fine the DNC and Clinton for violating rules related to the Steele dossier? My understanding is that the DNC also has a few dollars. Did they forget their bias?

My point isn't about the FEC being biased, I just reject appeals to the authority of US federal agencies, because they aren't trustworthy. They don't (meaningfully) punish rich people, and they are usually staffed by various former/future C-level people from the organizations they're supposed to be regulating.

Yes you said that already. I asked why they meaningfully punished a very rich entity in response.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#209

Post by krallja »

dokem wrote: post #165
lapcat wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, how many government owned companies are there in the US? What's the point in saying "private company" if 99.99+% of companies are private?

The government controls some things. Companies control some other things. Gov things are 'public', company things are 'private'. I don't know what you are trying to argue. This is how the west works 101 stuff.

Helpfully, the US Government, specifically the SEC, defines the term “public company” for us:

“There are two commonly understood ways in which a company is considered public: first, the company’s securities trade on public markets; and second, the company discloses certain business and financial information regularly to the public.

In general, we use the term to refer to a company that has public reporting obligations.”

They’re talking about $TWTR, not Amtrak.

Re: Twitter Blocks Linking to Mastodon.social

#210

Post by bpalaskas »

dewey wrote: post #66

This is likely the same reason that sometimes links on FB can't be pasted. There's a spike in usage and some anti-spam mechanism blocks it. Which makes sense, but sometimes catches the wrong URL just like every spam filter. Give it a day, move along.

Yes, facebook does this a lot. However, I have noticed cases that are very possibly not ignorance. For example, if I post a link to a domain I own (meaning a reputable one), but the subdomain contains emojis, it cannot process it at all and lags out trying to redirect to the page. However, I have never had a single problem clicking on an (emoji).y.at link, a company that spends money almost entirely on facebook and instagram ads. I don't like to be conspiratorial, but it did get my gears turning. And I wanna market with my emoji urls!
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