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Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

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Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#121

I think one of the issues with this will be how it is linking the correct information. I like the little inclusion before tweets, but there's no sources on them. Then when you scroll down on the tweets I see them in this order: The Hill, WaPo, CNN, a CBS News reporter, a Fortune Magazine reporter, a Vox reporter, Sr Political Reporter for Huffington, ACLU Nebraska, a CNN political correspondent. The issue here is tha…

This problem is turtles all the way down, there is no trusted apolitical arbiter of the facts, you either believe twitter is making a best-effort attempt to curtail misinformation or you believe they're exercising a political agenda under the guise of curtailing misinformation.

The issue here is that the people that already believe in these sources already think the president is lying. On the other hand, people that think the president is telling the truth aren't going to believe those sources. So what does this do? Are there that many people on the fence? Because everyone I know in the middle already thinks this is laughable (Utah votes by mail and every Republican in CA I know votes from home!), those on the left think it is about voter suppression, and those on the right think it is about voter integrity.

While I don't disagree with the program, I'm also not sure what it solves.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#122
post #33

I'm finding the response people are having to this mail in voting thing to be...puzzling. It's not a ridiculous thing to wonder about how susceptible mail in voting is to fraud, and it seems like some of us are putting blinders on simply due to our distaste for the current president. If we were to hold a hackathon with a $100,000 prize for the most plausible path to exploit mail in voting in order to swing an electio…

People have been voting by mail for decades, in the US and many other democracies. There haven't been any incidents. And, yes, I am convinced wide-scale fraud would be almost impossible to hide: you can't pull off any fraud without, for example, many voters turning up at polling places even though they have been mailed a ballot. Or people noticing the voter rolls show them having voted when they didn't. Or whatever scheme you are using to intercept thousands of individual letters addressed to individual residences being noticed. Or sudden, unexplained changes in participation being noticed. Or many dead people somehow voting because you can't possibly stay up-to-date with all recent deaths in the community.

And, of course, the discussion isn't actually about voting-by-mail, yes-or-now? Because that has been possible for a long time and isn't going to change. The discussion is about making it easier and/or the default to protect people from communicable diseases.

The issue, then, isn't even if voting by mail allows fraud. It's if the likelihood of fraud is significantly higher when, say, 50% instead of 30% choose that option.

This is yet another blatantly obvious attempt to stack the deck in Republican's favour. It's sickening to see people pretend to care about the integrity of democracy by engaging with all these phantom debates about voter fraud, in the complete absence of any actual fraud happening (except that Republican in South Caroline, of course).

Meanwhile, real damage is done to democracy by the unrelenting attempts to selectively make it harder for people to vote. Take a look at these changes in polling locations in Milwaukee for a blatant example (the red, suburban spots are predominantly Republican locations, while the urban core leans democratic) : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYoIrdZXQAILKlB.jpg

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#123
It's a strange decision by Twitter here, but they are in a strange position.

Donny, love him or hate him, does say a fair few things that are ... questionable. Jack has talked about this a bit, and their conclusion thus far has been that anything he says, by virtue of the office, is newsworthy enough. Policies for thee, but not for he. It's been a battle with users, but everyone seems to just grumble along.

That policy has worked up until today.

A lot of work went into this decision. They A/B tested the color of the note, likely the font, the positioning, the exact words, the fact check itself, etc. This thing went through meeting after meeting and was run past some good legal counsel. Twitter isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but it's also not a rusty shovel. They red-teamed this a fair bit, I'd imagine. They must have known that Donny would not view it favorably and would do exactly what he is doing currently.

All the same they went ahead and decided to make the move at the end of May, ~6 months before the 'fit hits the shan'.

Why?

Their stock is, well, fairly ok. Jack seems to be doing alright. Monthly users are flat-ish since 2015, but compared to FB, it's a bit of a wash.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#124
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump doesn't have a crystal ball. "NO WAY (ZERO CHANCE) THE YANKEES ARE GOING TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES!" Am I making a statement of fact, or stating an opinion here? Should twitter fact check this statement with some ambiguous "experts" who think that the yankees are the best team of them all and WILL win the world series?

I agree completely. Trump does not have a crystal ball. Therefore, he should not present things as established fact if they are merely unproven opinion. He is in a position of power and influence. His words have far-reaching consequences.

What is this thing established as "fact" and who established it?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#125
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought someone might interpret it that way, which is why I quickly edited to say "or rich" as well. However, you must admit that the ignorant poor vastly outnumber the ignorant rich.

The poor vastly outnumber the rich, so what point are you making exactly?

precisely that one, that the poor vastly outnumber the rich

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#126

I think one of the issues with this will be how it is linking the correct information. I like the little inclusion before tweets, but there's no sources on them. Then when you scroll down on the tweets I see them in this order: The Hill, WaPo, CNN, a CBS News reporter, a Fortune Magazine reporter, a Vox reporter, Sr Political Reporter for Huffington, ACLU Nebraska, a CNN political correspondent. The issue here is tha…

The problem for me, someone who really wants to be in the middle, is that the only conservative leaning news outlet that I believe (no facts in my reporting) does fact based reporting is the Wall Street Journal. If I want news with data and facts I have to go with the "left" leaning papers. The Washington Examiner and Fox News have been burning their credibility on a daily basis.

Why do you want to be in the middle?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#127
post #6

I'm glad we finally found a company to tell us what's true - no bias, no spin, just the facts! Thanks, twitter, you've saved the world!!!!

It is a link called "get the facts." It says nothing about the veracity of the statement besides which it appears. Why are you against people becoming more educated?

I'm not against people becoming more educated - I have 100% faith in twitter's superiority. I know that the talented and, frankly, superior human beings over at twitter are the best people in the world to educate the ignorant public.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#128
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jack Dorsey has spoken about this on Joe Rogan's podcast, and he basically says that it was a judgement call where they weighed the public interest in the tweets against the violations of the tweets. EDIT>> I dug up the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K571_jqnCpM

And by public interest he means the valuation of his company when all the Trump fans revolt and leave twitter.

That is inevitable. Trump will one day not be president. And one day while not president he will bitch tweet in a way that dramatically and clearly violates the terms of service. Twitter will have reached its Rubicon with respect to Trump and the public interest / head of state exception they've carved out, and they'll have to make a permanent decision.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#129

This is not going to end well. Every single aspect of life that cannot be rigorously tested under the scientific method is destined to become a partisan topic. There is no way to be sure if mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.

> Every single aspect of life that cannot be rigorously tested under the scientific method is destined to become a partisan topic. Remind me again how rigorously testing under a scientific method has quelled any misinformation these days??

Do you have a contrary example?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As part of the public, I would rather my President's tweets not be lies, half truths and flat out nastiness.

Alas, this is what The People democratically voted for; and with our current voting system, the will of us 49% who don’t want to hear it counts for nothing u_u

53.9% of us voted against Trump.
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