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All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

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Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#51
post #4

How will this work when reality is partisan? The Hunter Biden laptop story was a debunked conspiracy by the “experts” until it wasn’t, and the recent Chinese election data stolen “conspiracy” (as declared by the NYT) turned out to be true. Yet day after day the stories about Trump and Russia were blasted by major media… until that was totally debunked. It’s like one side decides what is true and the other side is con…

Some of the conspiracies didn’t conclude the way you say they do, or at least not completely. As far as I can tell, the current “consensus” is that the Hunter Biden laptop, while real, can’t prove any unethical behavior on the part of the president. And the Russian stuff — while Muller couldn’t prove that Trump asked Russia for help (beyond the video of him asking for it in camera, perhaps as a joke), it is still tru…

> As far as I can tell, the current “consensus” is that the Hunter Biden laptop, while real, can’t prove any unethical behavior on the part of the president.

Completely immaterial. Polling shows that -- despite the guilt or involvement of President Biden -- many Americans would have changed their votes had they thought the story was real or been exposed to the story. That's dangerous.

There is no requirement that one ignore the possibility of crime when voting. Americans can base their vote on whatever criteria they want. Biden doesn't need to be indicted or convicted in order for Americans to decide the evidence is too much to vote for him.

So yes, if facebook and twitter's actions led to people not having the information that would have changed their vote and perhaps changed the election results (we can never know), then it is extremely concerning why the information was censored.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#52
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your post only highlights the points the parent was making - we pick and choose what "facts" we want to believe and then never change our opinion. When these "facts" are debunked days, weeks, months or years later, we just move on and pretend it didn't happen or talk out of the side of our mouth about how there's still some sliver truth there. If it doesn't help our team, then it can't possibly be true. Objec…

> We accused the Trump family of everything the Biden family is objectively involved with... except we had zero evidence against the Trump family (despite years of relentless investigations) Please, this is absurd. No president has had more of his associates go to jail than Trump [1], and Mueller's investigation found that Trump knew about Russian interference, chose to do nothing since it helped him, and obstructed…

> chose to do nothing since it helped him, and obstructed justice [2]

So then it's totally equivalent to the Hunter Biden laptop in that, while perhaps incriminating, there's no obvious criminal conduct (Mueller didn't press charges).

However, it still led to americans voting one way, which the polls show would have also been the case had Americans known about the laptop.

Either way, people deserve to know. Our vote isn't a criminal conviction.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#53
post #4

How will this work when reality is partisan? The Hunter Biden laptop story was a debunked conspiracy by the “experts” until it wasn’t, and the recent Chinese election data stolen “conspiracy” (as declared by the NYT) turned out to be true. Yet day after day the stories about Trump and Russia were blasted by major media… until that was totally debunked. It’s like one side decides what is true and the other side is con…

The same way democracy works. Shitty, but less shitty than any other way.

Democracy requires a free press and free distribution of ideas. Censorship of salient, truthful political information by private or public parties is dangerous to democracy.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#54
Who would agree to be an unpaid volunteer to moderate tweets? If you aren't getting paid then you have some other motivation to do the work. I suspect a lot of people who end up in this program will be motivated to promote an agenda.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#55
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This "feature" I see it in the same way as warning labels - "Caution: Hot" - treats people as if they can't practice critical thinking and common sense. History demonstrates that, for the most part, people can't. Even Hacker News - a community of people who should "know better" - is infested with conspiracy theories, disinformation and bullshit. And the general public trusts Facebook memes more than the mainstream…

Growing up I knew a kid who's leg had been run over by a lawn mower. He still had it, but half his calf was missing and he had horrific scaring. I never saw the lawn mower that chewed his leg up, but I'd bet it had warning stickers on it like all mowers do. Don't stick your fingers in the blades, and certainly don't run over your younger brother with it.. The warning stickers won't fix stupid, but everything dangerou…

These fact checks and warning labels are semantically different enough that arguments from equivalence only work to a point. We know that people can be influenced by what they read on social media, and social media platforms aren't (currently) legally liable for misinformation spread by their users.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#56
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We accused the Trump family of everything the Biden family is objectively involved with... except we had zero evidence against the Trump family (despite years of relentless investigations) Please, this is absurd. No president has had more of his associates go to jail than Trump [1], and Mueller's investigation found that Trump knew about Russian interference, chose to do nothing since it helped him, and obstructed…

A few guys going to jail for unpaid taxes decades before does not help your view that the Mueller Investigation was a smashing success. They ruined a bunch of lives for cheap political gain, found zero evidence of collusion with Russia, and proved the insinuation of collusion was fake from the beginning as we now know but won't admit. You only make this point even stronger. > And now we know that he stole Top Secret/…

> This is very much an unfinished story.

And the story about Hunter's laptop isn't? Do you see how you're giving yourself a pass but you want to "wait for the whole story" when the DOJ successfully executed a search warrant for top secret documents on the former president?

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#57
post #40

Errr. And how exactly does the general public know whether something is true in order to vote on it? If they knew it was false this wouldn't be an issue to begin with...

What do you think of Urban Dictionary?

90% of the terms and definitions in urban dictionary read like something a snickering teenager thought up on the spot, not real slang that is/was actually circulating prior to (or after) being added to the site.

It's fine because nobody should be taking urban dictionary seriously in the first place; it's just an online amusement. Real dictionaries, even crowdsourced ones like Wiktionary, don't use voting systems like urban dictionary's.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#58
Musk recent tweets would probably get the flag[0], so he'll probably remove this quite quickly once he is in charge.

[0] anything controversial will get the flag if it reaches the censors. in this case it's about Russia-Ukraine war and what Musk is saying is not on the pre-approved list of allowed phrases.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#59
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few guys going to jail for unpaid taxes decades before does not help your view that the Mueller Investigation was a smashing success. They ruined a bunch of lives for cheap political gain, found zero evidence of collusion with Russia, and proved the insinuation of collusion was fake from the beginning as we now know but won't admit. You only make this point even stronger. > And now we know that he stole Top Secret/…

> This is very much an unfinished story. And the story about Hunter's laptop isn't? Do you see how you're giving yourself a pass but you want to "wait for the whole story" when the DOJ successfully executed a search warrant for top secret documents on the former president ?

No, not at all. We have all of the content from Hunter's Laptop at this time, and there is no investigation that will happen. We know for a fact the story was buried deliberately, we even have the likes of Mark Zuckerberg corroborating as much, indicating the FBI directed Facebook to suppress "misinformation" about the Biden campaign.

We do not have all the content from the Classified Documents story - in fact it's in court right this very second being hammered out.

So no... this isn't a free pass of any sort.

> DOJ successfully executed a search warrant for top secret documents on the former president

I fail to see how this means there was wrong doing. Are we not waiting for the case to actually be litigated, or have we already made up our mind before the facts are known? AKA - what the GP asserted and you have fallen straight into.

Re: All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

#60
post #44

Oh wonderful. The state sponored proganda group will mark things in mass.

We need laws to ban the government and particularly the military from sockpuppetting online. Crowdsourced fact-checking with no accountability for those doing the voting makes this problem even more severe.
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