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

Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

utkusen.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 209 posts

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#131

Post by Quarrelsome »

graemep wrote: post #113
Quarrelsome wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're focusing too much on him personally instead of the impact of his platform and how he runs it. Twitter has had significant impact on UK politics and will continue to do so, especially in spreading disinformation[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Leicester_unrest

The platform does spread disinformation, but he does not have much ability to direct it. Yes, its a different issue from what influence he has personally.

> he does not have much ability to direct it.

This is like saying Steve Jobs didn't have much ability in making Apple devices so small you could fit them between your buttcheeks.

Compared to anyone else in the entire world: Elon Musk has the most agency in cultivating what people see on twitter because he owns it.

That your statement is so far divorced from reality as is possible, makes me think you are not taking this conversation seriously.

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#132

Post by [deleted] »

fsflover wrote: post #96
cryptoegorophy wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know you can just ignore politics? There are filters. When it comes to politics everyone seems to be a retard, even figures like Paul Graham being a genius in one field, while being a complete moron in all others.

Did you know politics won't ignore you? One day you wake up in a dictatorship that prohibits whatever you find important in your life.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#133

Post by eig »

xp84 wrote: post #97

I continue to be skeptical of hanging hopes for 'free speech' on expecting free-as-in-beer, ad-supported, privately owned websites to actively promote the things that you write. Irrespective of how Musk's overall social media posturing portrays "free speech" -- X is the only one whose speech matters and they are apparently choosing to 'speak' in ways that don't support him. They are technically doing this guy a favor…

It's possible to simultaneously believe that private companies should have control over what messages are shown on their own platform while also believing that exerting such control can be negative to the world.

It's the same reason libel and defamation laws exist: someone realized that countries operate better when spreading falsehoods to tarnish a party is illegal, and so laws exist to influence public discourse.

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#136

Post by SilverElfin »

halukakin wrote: post #135

Considering Turkey is an EU membership candidate. This should fall under the guidelines of Digital Services Act. This is a clear violation.

Is it? X just follows the country’s applicable laws right?

Also the EU is not exactly innocent or a better authority - see the interference recently in Romania’s elections, where they literally annulled the votes cast by citizens, banned a candidate, and reran the elections so they would get the desired result.

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#137

Post by kulahan »

hn1986 wrote: post #107
declan_roberts wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you measure viable? Twitter is still the best place to hear and read about breaking news.

Nah, it's been altered to point to his biases. Just like he has with Grok. He represents the opposite of free speech https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/technology/elon-musk-grok...

He didn't say it was good, he said it was the best. To counter his point, you would need to provide a sufficient alternative. I'm pointing this out because if there is one, I'd be interested in it as well. For now, I'm just browsing HN, Reuters, and AP every morning.

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#138

Post by SilverElfin »

panarky wrote: post #52
roughly wrote: post #8

I am not an Elon or X fan, and I don’t think this is Good, but Twitter’s policy pre-X to comply with national content laws was to geo-block content when a government demanded it be blocked. I don’t recall if the algorithmic shadow-ban was in that toolkit pre-X as well, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Again, I don’t think this is a good outcome, but it’s not substantially at odds with what Twitter pre-Elon would’ve done…

I happened to be in Istanbul during the Gezi Park uprising in 2013. I didn't participate in the protests, but I did manage to wander into the wrong place at the wrong time and got teargassed pretty good and hard. I sheltered from the gas and the water cannons and the soldiers with a group of protestors overnight and got to learn from them firsthand. They were using Twitter extensively to coordinate and to find out wh…

> Pre-Musk Twitter quite vigorously fought Turkish demands for censorship. Not every time, but many times.

I don’t think this is an accurate read. From the outside you don’t really know what they fought or didn’t fight, and why. It is possible Twitter/X chose not to fight certain situations based on prior experience or precedent. But in other cases, post-Musk, they have fought government censorship. For example they continued fighting the government of India even a year after Musk acquired Twitter/X. And they also had a showdown with Brazil’s government, where it was pretty blatantly violating Brazil’s own constitution.

Re: Twitter Shadow Bans Turkish Presidential Candidate

#140

Post by SilverElfin »

energy123 wrote: post #43
roughly wrote: post #8

I am not an Elon or X fan, and I don’t think this is Good, but Twitter’s policy pre-X to comply with national content laws was to geo-block content when a government demanded it be blocked. I don’t recall if the algorithmic shadow-ban was in that toolkit pre-X as well, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Again, I don’t think this is a good outcome, but it’s not substantially at odds with what Twitter pre-Elon would’ve done…

Elon fights UK, Brazil, Australia, Germany, and other democracies but turns a blind eye to every autocracy on the planet engaging in far more insidious censorship. Worse he will genuflect towards those autocrats. Interesting.

“Elon” is not fighting something. He is implementing a policy. In countries where the law protects free speech, Twitter/X fights illegal orders that try to coerce them into censorship. That happens to be freer societies. But authoritarian ones that have very clear laws enabling censorship, they follow the local law. That’s not genuflecting but just sticking to a principled approach that avoids them being outright banned in those countries.
Post reply on HN