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“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

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Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#261
post #160

If you are exposed to things on Twitter that are tweeted by people not personally known to you, IMHO you are using Twitter incorrectly. I have no idea why anyone gives a damn what the content moderation policies might be. Speaking for my own account I have never once seen anything said by Trump, Kanye, the pillow guy, any neo nazis, any anti-vaxxers, or anything like that. In what way are people using Twitter that ma…

Anyone in the world can reply to your tweets. You see replies. Harassment is a huge problem on Twitter.

That's not an actual problem. Just restrict or disable replies.

https://www.techadvisor.com/article/741472/how-to-turn-off-r...

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#262
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of the “unbanned” accounts weren’t banned before and that didn’t change. They were in Twitter jail (or whatever the term is). The account is there but they couldn’t publish new tweets. That’s the change to watch for. He could unban Trump, say he kept his promise, but keep the account locked so that Trump couldn’t actually tweet. As a hypothetical example.

Why is banned vs Twitter jail (or whatever the term is) a meaningful distinction?

It only matters when you're trying to determine if Musk or someone else at Twitter actually un-banned or un-twitter-jailed someone. If the account was merely restricted then it's possible the account owner themselves did whatever is required to un-restrict their own account (i.e., deleted some offending tweet).

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#263
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think there's a straight line from this kind of lone-wolf domestic terrorism to civil war. A civil war happens when people who aren't mentally unstable, normal people just like you and I, decide that suchandsuch political objective is so important that our fellow citizens have to be shot in order to achieve it. If that seems like a crazy idea to you (it certianly does to me!) then a civil war isn't yet…

It's not lone wolf terrorism though, it's an organized + well funded movement to end US democracy. They control a bit over 50% of the Republican party, and a growing percentage of the courts (including the supreme court). Heck; Biden is would be considered right wing in most developing countries, and here's his take: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/20... > Donald Trump and the MAGA Republica…

> (including the supreme court)

This seems like paranoid thinking. The Supreme Court has shifted ideologically to the right, but I haven’t seen any evidence they are part of a conspiracy to end democracy.

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#264
I got a 7 day ban for a tweet that included “political suicide pact” as an idiom.

I then got permanently banned for including the line, “sending their children to die in Ukraine” in a tweet.

The “appeal” button causes me to get a denied email within one minute. This tells me no humans are in the loop on any of this.

I don’t think these tweets were controversial or require any diversity of viewpoints. They just require appreciation that you cannot automatically moderate anything accurately unless you are prepared to be very very VERY relaxed about the rules.

I’m not sure Elon is even interested in fixing this kind of problem. He seems focused on the politics and “cancel culture” type issues (whether they’re real or imagined).

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first policy is reasonable, but your second is definitely not.

Sure. But ultimately there is some level of arbitrary lines where you have a trade-off of overbanning or underbanning. Say you have a committee of 9 people? What's your cut-off? There isn't a clear answer - especially as norms change a bit and the committee members change.

I honestly don’t think it matters. The committee will answer to one person who can arbitrarily overrule the committee, whether formally or not.

It’s his company and he can do what he wants with it. Any rules can be changed at any time without recourse.

I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Well, it might be bad for Twitter the service, but as far as legal governance, it’s the way it works. The only limit will really be what advertisers will support. It is a business after all.

But any type of council should be considered advisory at best.

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#266

It’s amazing to me that the HN hive mind has decided that somehow one of the most successful people on the planet, who’s built a successful electric car company, a private rocketry company and was part of the people who laid foundation for a “payment system for the internet” is somehow doomed to fail in his new venture. The excitement for this new move seems not just low here but overwhelmingly negative. “It can’t be…

i've said it before, there's much easier money to be made than better against Musk. When presenting a big idea he's pretty much been laughed out of every room he's ever walked into. Then, much to everyone's dismay, he does it. I'm withholding judgment for a few years...

I too enjoy commuting to work using my city's hyperloop while charging my self-driving cybertruck with my solar roof.

An objective assessment of Musk's batting average requires considering the big ideas that flop, never materialize, or fall far short of what was promised. Once you do that, Twitter seems like it could go either way from here. That's not even considering how split his attention must be at this point.

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have the latter and have a echo chamber of a single narrative, which is exactly twitter was. Then pat your self on the back "OH we are so inclusive look at the the different skin tones!" Yeah but everyone has the same boring ideas so what the fuck does that matter?

If the same boring ideas of that diverse group of men, women, LBGTQ people and PoC are that we need to strive for equality between all of these groups... that is exactly the point.

> that we need to strive for equality between all of these groups

That is fucking terrifying and most centrality undesirable, unless you mean equality of opportunity, then absolutely. But equality of outcome is the worst possible thing anyone could ever strive for.

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of accounts like The Babylon Bee and Ye have been unbanned w/o input from any such committee of diverse viewpoints. I don't have much faith that Musk will not act unilaterally in service of his friends and allies.

I think one reasonable policy could be "form a council of diverse viewpoints and only ban someone if they all (or mostly all) agree the person should be kicked off" and another reasonable policy could be "form a council fo diverse viewpoints and ban someone if one (or a couple) think the person should be kicked off. I think its fair to say the committee will end up being a scapegoat - but to be charitable to the idea…

Twitter has become the de facto standard, so IMHO moderation should only ask one question: "is this tweet legal?" If the answer is 'yes' then it should be allowed.

Of course, a corollary is that they should be able to filter content on a per country basis because, obviously, what's legal differs from country to country, but I think there is no escaping that for any platforms which claim to be global.

Re: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints”

#270
post #7

This sort of justifies the viewpoint that despite all his bluster, Elon will probably run Twitter the way a "reasonable executive" would. Not just release the hounds. Keep the advertisers happy, but try to reduce the reliance on advertisers. Keep moderating content to reduce abuse, maybe eliminate the high profile banning but a person on the ground will have largely the same experience. (probably less action on more…

This is rather confusing to me. Earlier this year he seemed pretty set on the idea of allowing whatever's legal, making Twitter all about free speech. But now it'll just get some minor changes? If it's true, why the change of heart?

His money is now on the line: He has sunk $44B and has to get it back somehow. It is no longer a cute thought experiment, but cold, harsh reality.
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