Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 352 posts

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#101

Post by dilap »

root_axis wrote: post #69
bitL wrote: post #22

Wonderful, so Twitter is now a tool for corporate propaganda, Google is providing Censorship-as-a-Service API, Facebook is removing links classified as "Fake News(tm)", Reddit is deleting whatever mods don't agree with etc. Seems like we are going full steam into a dystopian society. I think I should start reading Solzhenitsyn to prepare for what is coming...

> Seems like we are going full steam into a dystopian society Gonna have to roll my eyes pretty hard at this. These are privately owned servers, they can delete whatever content they want off of them, if you don't like it, you're totally free to host your own server and content.

Yeah, you can set up your own server and "content", but it ain't gunna be like Twitter, because that's where the people are. Network effects make it very hard to launch a competitor

Twitter is an incredibly important communication medium; as an example, it almost certainly was instrumental in electing Trump to the presidency. Just because it's privately owned doesn't mean we should be content to have it run like a petty authoritarian regime.

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#102

Post by chc »

root_axis wrote: post #69
bitL wrote: post #22

Wonderful, so Twitter is now a tool for corporate propaganda, Google is providing Censorship-as-a-Service API, Facebook is removing links classified as "Fake News(tm)", Reddit is deleting whatever mods don't agree with etc. Seems like we are going full steam into a dystopian society. I think I should start reading Solzhenitsyn to prepare for what is coming...

> Seems like we are going full steam into a dystopian society Gonna have to roll my eyes pretty hard at this. These are privately owned servers, they can delete whatever content they want off of them, if you don't like it, you're totally free to host your own server and content.

A lot of dystopias have involved visions of the future where important parts of society have been largely subsumed by corporations. Those two ideas don't really conflict.

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#103

Post by eli_gottlieb »

sillyquiet wrote: post #78
c4n4rd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tweeter and all others you mentioned are private corporations. Their goal is to turn profit to their shareholders - NOTHING MORE. He who believes these companies exist as a way for the mass population to voice their opinion and as a way to exercise democracy should rethink what these companies are all about. Note: I do not necessarily agree with that they do, just pointing out what they are all about.

The scary thing is when you realize the so-called news organizations, for the most part, have exactly the same motivations. NYT, WSJ, et al are, after all, corporations too.

Well of course. Who was enough of a sucker to believe that the means of education, information distribution, and public discourse should be privately owned and operated for profit?

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#104

Post by ino »

yoran wrote: post #60

I wonder why Twitter is doing this? What is their incentive for deleting negative tweets about another unrelated corporation? It's not like Twitter has a stake in United. And would they do it just for money? I know they are turning at a loss but this does not seem like a scalable business model...

Maybe somebody high up on twitter has a stake in united

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#105

Post by cheath »

dev_head_up wrote: post #88
cheath wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In short, because they think you'd engage less with Scott Adams' content. Filter bubbles are an algorithmic attempt to give you the content that you want the most. For example, Twitter might have identified at some level that you like and retweet sports related content more often than political content. Or even further, that you like left-leaning content more than right. So, they'll do everything they can to serve yo…

I've seen that and I'm sorry, but I really don't accept your explanation. I've never retweeted/liked/replied or tweeted, ever. I'm a passive consumer. I don't follow political accounts, or search out political views there. If anything, I reckon I was clicking a lot on his blog links via tweets, so (presumably) he should have been showing up more... rather than not at all. I don't mean to sound like I'm holding you ac…

Yeah, I see what you are saying. In that case, I am simply not qualified to answer your question.

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#106

Post by zeteo »

goatforce5 wrote: post #85
zeteo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if the local water or electric monopoly could vary your service by how much they liked your views. It's time for some antitrust regulation of the big tech companies. If you control a platform then you have an obligation to be fair to the general public.

It's like a privately owned shopping mall telling the anti-abortion protestors to move on. The mall owners probably like free speech as a concept and may even be anti-abortion themselves, but people yelling and waving objectionable banners around upset the other customers and are interfering with the business the mall owners are trying to operate.

Twitter is a platform for people to communicate and you can't easily move your followers. This would be more like the giant local mall booting out shop operators based on their political views.

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#107

Post by cmdrfred »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #103
sillyquiet wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scary thing is when you realize the so-called news organizations, for the most part, have exactly the same motivations. NYT, WSJ, et al are, after all, corporations too.

Well of course. Who was enough of a sucker to believe that the means of education, information distribution, and public discourse should be privately owned and operated for profit?

So much better if the media was owned and controlled by the government?

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#108

Post by drakonandor »

ythn wrote: post #84
nkkollaw wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still deserved, also for the comments they made afterwards. At least pretend, and say something like "this will not happen again".

> Still deserved, also for the comments they made afterwards. Maybe, maybe not. We don't have all the facts yet. We still don't even know the identity of the victim - only hearsay from other passengers. This type of viral emotional response makes me weary. I see it happen so often - Michael Brown, Ahmed Mohammed, TSA Cancer Girl, etc. The lynch mob gets bloodlust and calls for complete destruction of the alleged perp…

Except we have tons of video, witness statements, responses from UA PR, and the CEO doing the old public "very sorry!, trying to contact the victim now and make ammends"/private "this guy is immature and beligerant!" positions.

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#109

Post by jerf »

zeteo wrote: post #98
c4n4rd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tweeter and all others you mentioned are private corporations. Their goal is to turn profit to their shareholders - NOTHING MORE. He who believes these companies exist as a way for the mass population to voice their opinion and as a way to exercise democracy should rethink what these companies are all about. Note: I do not necessarily agree with that they do, just pointing out what they are all about.

> Tweeter and all others you mentioned are private corporations. Their goal is to turn profit to their shareholders - NOTHING MORE. Not sure what that's supposed to mean. Would it be OK for a food company to use expired ingredients if it increased their profit, or for FedEx trucks to run over people if it helped their bottom line? Private corporations have various degrees of responsibility to the general public, depe…

You seem to have added to c4n4rd's post the assertion that this is OK. I don't think it was intended that way. The point is not "This is ok because it lines Twitter's pockets", it is more "This is why it is happening. What else did you expect?"

Re: Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident

#110

Post by Spooky23 »

andoon wrote: post #13
cheath wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beware the filter bubble

The entire point of Twitter was that there was no such filter, it would just show the tweets of everybody you followed in a chronological order. That's why we are all pissed.

Then a variety of trolls and other scum showed up and started ruining people's lives.
Post reply on HN