How Twitter moderated the Covid debate • Hacker News Board

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#51

Post by jklm » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:23 AM UTC

refurb wrote: post #7

Great article to read if you want to know how the "sausage was made" at Twitter. I think most people knew it was an absolute dumpster fire, but it's even worse than that. As expected, the folks doing the policing of "disinformation" were entirely unqualified for the role (I love the banning of the Harvard School of Medicine epidemiologist who said "vaccines are for people at risk" - apparently the folks at Twitter kn…

Campaigns against disinformation are bound to fail because everyone has a different interpretation of the truth and assumes that everything else is “disinformation” (with quotes this time).

Much like social media generally, disinformation is now one of the chief scapegoats across the aisle for all that’s wrong in the world.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#52

Post by jakear » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:23 AM UTC

RyanShook wrote: post #20

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I think the longest lasting legacy of covid will be the distrust it created for big government, big pharma, and big tech.

> I'm not a conspiracy theorist

As told in my Middle Eastern history class, "it's reasonable to be a conspiracy theorist when you've been the subject of countless governments conspiring against you and/or your people -- in fact it would be unreasonable not to be one".

Iranians who claimed the US Government had orchestrated their elections were dismissed as conspiracy theorists, then 47 years later the US said "oh yeah, we totally did that".

Americans who claimed the US Government had lied to them about mask effectiveness, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine safety, lockdown durations, COVID severity, dangers of remote schooling, etc. were dismissed as conspiracy theorists, then 2 years later the US said "oh yeah, we totally did that".

Be a conspiracy theorist. To be anything else is to burry your head in the sand.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#53

Post by imwillofficial » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:24 AM UTC

batch12 wrote: post #16

A tangent: this domain seems to have an abnormal number of flagged articles. It made me wonder if there's something like shadowbans for domains here and if so, what are the criteria?

Unlikely, I feel the mods here take a personal touch.

Would be interesting to see what, if any, automated tools they use.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#54

Post by kodyo » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:24 AM UTC

laidoffamazon wrote: post #27

AustinDev wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a conspiracy theorist[1], and this was all well known since before we even did '2 weeks to slow the spread'. I'm just glad some of the mainstream folks are figuring it out now. [1]: The term "conspiracy theory" is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which claims the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them…

Indeed, I’m lead to believe Trump forced us to lock down. It’s good that now under the current president we no longer have lockdowns or restrictions.

Biden’s administration was ready to put people out of work if they didn’t get the shots. Red team vs blue team rhetoric is nauseating.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#55

Post by myko » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:24 AM UTC

flavius29663 wrote: post #39

myko wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> insane conspiracy bullshit If it's proven true, is it still conspiracy?

The biggest revelation from the previous dumps were that Joe Biden's team requested Twitter remove posts of Hunter Biden's nude body from the site, and they obliged. This is content moderation and completely reasonable.

The latest revelation is that Twitter tried to keep antivax shit off the site. Everyone paying attention knew that was the case already, and was the right thing to do (Hacker News should do that, too).

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#56

Post by mc32 » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:24 AM UTC

jakear wrote: post #15

mc32 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah so we took out alcohol advertising and replaced it with a different kind of evil.

Alcohol ads are definitely still a thing. Perhaps you’re thinking of tobacco?

I meant spirits but yeah you’re right tobacco is a better (worse) one.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#57

Post by AustinDev » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:24 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #47

RyanShook wrote: post #20

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I think the longest lasting legacy of covid will be the distrust it created for big government, big pharma, and big tech.

[flagged]

Did you even read the thread or listen to the discussions surrounding it. The point of the evidence supplied in the thread is that leading virologists and epidemiologists were actively suppressed by non-experts.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#58

Post by insanitybit » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:24 AM UTC

imwillofficial wrote: post #48

Conspiracy theory is just the news in 6 months. Hell at this rate I’d hear somebody out if they said the moon is made of cheese. What a time to be alive.

> Hell at this rate I’d hear somebody out if they said the moon is made of cheese.

Right. That's the problem.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#59

Post by mhh__ » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:25 AM UTC

RyanShook wrote: post #20

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I think the longest lasting legacy of covid will be the distrust it created for big government, big pharma, and big tech.

I don't know.

It should (and I think has) increase distrust in social media and big tech/gov but distrust in pharma? I don't know.

I'm still waiting for everyone to drop dead from vaccine related injuries (I've paid this more earnest attention than most people this glib at least) — most people, I think correctly for the most part, regard the nu-antivax thing that came about during covid to basically be the realm of internet weirdos and agitators.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#60

Post by imwillofficial » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 3:25 AM UTC

laidoffamazon wrote: post #28

xqcgrek2 wrote: post #21

What is the realistic legal recourse for those who were censored from pressure by the US government? Sue the relevant agencies or executive branch? Will anyone even go to prison or lose their job?

None because there was no censorship or pressure.

This is demonstrably false. As admitted by the government itself.