Live data from Hacker News

Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

techdirt.com

211–220 of 352 posts

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that officially what got Kanye banned? My understanding is that Twitter did not specify what exactly (i.e. which set of tweets) Kanye is banned for.

I'm referring to pre musk ban. The exact tweet was “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” Someone was proposing incitement to violence has a threahold etc. This to me is clearly incitement to violence. Some have claimed he didn't know what "death con" (defcon) means to which I say what could he have possibly meant. It's on Jewish People.

Defcon levels are about preparing for defense not attack. I think your bias is showing.

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#212
post #202
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banning people who made fun of him also went against the whole free speech thing.

To be entirely fair it was in twitter TOS before acquisition that comedy account should be clearly marked and that putting that info in the bio is not enough. Just that Twitter didn't exactly consistently enforce it. So sure the bans were just sad rich man being offended but they were still technically breaking TOS

> To be entirely fair it was in twitter TOS before acquisition that comedy account should be clearly marked and that putting that info in the bio is not enough. Just that Twitter didn't exactly consistently enforce it.

The idea that Elon HAD to ban those people because of the TOS created by the previous ownership is absolutely hilarious.

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#213
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The swastika itself represents historical violence on the Jews. I would argue it alone is an explicit threat of violence because I can't see what other meaning today it could have?

Oh don't get me wrong, they are both unacceptable and I haven't and don't want to see the symbol tweet. I personally find words more impactful, revealing of intent and suggesting action than symbols. I say arguable because I don't which was worse, or if it's a worthy discussion, but the deathcon tweet is enough for me to see an unwell/dangerous person that needs a ban just to save them from themselves let alone anyon…

Defcon levels have to do with defense not attack.

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#214
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way would it enforce region-locking, and why would that be a good thing?

Usually your payment method is tied to your country of residence (bank/currency), and from the platform's perspective (as a business) region-verification locks on content/behavior are demanded by national governments.

Ah, so it would verify country of origin and then allow you to unlock some filter, while also applying a new one based on the country?

Finally a problem that bitcoin reliably solves! "Here's my money, I'm from the internet, we have no censorship laws".

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#215
There is no free speech absolutism. It is public record ("no freedom of reach"): Twitter is drowning out negative comments. It is shielding the public from criticisms of established enterprise, press, government.

Freedom of speech to people like J. S. Mill served a very vital purpose. It was not just some abstract negative right. Having access to this type of information isn't any less important as being able to publicize it.

It's a travesty.

Whether a fringe right-wing crank is at liberty to discuss the merits of Adolf Hitler is a minor issue at this point.

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not particularly relevant. Satire articles make jokes about all kinds of people. For example, SNL regularly has females portray cis males and males portray cis females. Politicians regularly (rightly or wrongly) attack their opponents as not living up to whatever gender ideals exist. As an example, SNL had a lady play Rudy Giuliani to make fun of him: https://popculture.com/tv-shows/news/snl-cecily-stron…

It's "not particularly relevant" except for the part where it was the reason they were banned . Deliberately misgendering someone is not the same as making fun of them. The Babylon Bee's entire punchline is just that they're using a hateful slur.

It was a satire on USA Today naming Levine as one of their Women Of The Year despite him not actually being a woman.

The message underlying this is: if men who, as the Bee put it, "dress like a western cultural stereotype of a woman" are now eligible for women's awards, then what does that leave for actual women to be honoured as women?

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unfortunately exactly what will happen. What is scary to me is how censorship has become completely accepted by the new generation, including software engineers here in their 20s. No true hacker (this is Hacker News after all) would be OK with corporation or government censorship. Slippery slope is real.

Censorship is a cheap and bad solution to a problem that a lot of people feel very real. We have a real issue of regular people and malicious actors using the unprecedented reach of social networks to spread falsehoods, conspiracy theories, attacks on certain groups... Yes, the usual response will be "it's the responsibility of adults to filter what they see" but the reality is that doesn't happen. We are not ready f…

> Yes, the usual response will be "it's the responsibility of adults to filter what they see" but the reality is that doesn't happen.

Let me stop you there.

Those platforms dont give you tools for that! You can't say "but people won't do it" if they don't have any good option to do that in the first place.

But yeah, shoving algorithmic garbage to get people to click would be bad enough, but now we have that with added tries of trying to manipulate politics with it.

> Personally, I think the solution is to limit reach, for everyone, full stop. Place legal limits on recommendations and pushed content, to incentivize people choosing their sources. Limit how many times a content can be easily shared (think of the ease of retweeting something you didn't even read) to incentivize organic spread. Limit the reach of unverified and new accounts to incentivize trust building. Increase fines and punishments (through courts, of course) for organizations that blatantly lie to the public to incentivize proper research.

I firmly believe that RSS model of people having to choose what to subscribe to get anything would be much better off. If someone wants to put collective vomit of the internet (which what pretty much twitter algorithm does) as a feed they are free to do so but nobody is shoved whatever algorithmic crap decides that will get reaction and ad views out of them.

And before someone says Mastodon/Fediverse, nope, they fucked it up. The fact admin can decide "no, I decide for my users that any updates from this @server.address are bad and nobody, not even someone who subscribed explicitly, can engage with it" disqualifies that because it have same problem of exacerbating bubbles decided upon by tiny minority

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The swastiska has had a very long history, before the Nazis misused it for their purpose. wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika So when kayne used it, of course he referred to the Nazi symbol and just wanted attention and strongly hint at his antisemitism. But other people can mean something very different: "In several major Indo-European religions, the swastika symbolises lightning bolts, representing the thunder god and the…

I'm aware, I'm sure most people are because this tidbit is always brought up when the swastika is discussed. The context is clear all around though

Should we be burning school books and cancelling movies about the Holocaust because they have swastikas? Like it or not it is free speech and shouldn't be banned.

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#219
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't as stupid as HN wants to think they are. Twitter will be judged based on how it actually evolves, not Musk's brand. Time will tell. Let's not pretend the site wasn't an absolute disaster before the acquisition though. If I clicked on even a single trending topic about a game or news item I'd often be presented with unfiltered hardcore porn. Then there would be topics of innocent things like landscapes t…

> If I clicked on even a single trending topic about a game or news item I'd often be presented with unfiltered hardcore porn. No, you wouldn't. Either you don't know what hardcore porn actually is, or you're exaggerating.

I've also had this happen to me. It doesn't happen every time, but I've had Twitter show me graphic penetration on topics that are just, like, a city name. (I've never seen it on the homepage or in someone's replies, only topics from the trending bar.)

Re: Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run the Content Moderation Learning Curve

#220
post #64

He probably got scared by advertisers or Apple or something. Ideally in my opinion, Twitter should have a setting by default that hides all of that content, but if you disable it you get 4chan-like moderation (so anything that's legal). In countries with a lesser degree of freedom of speech (I think swastikas are illegal in Germany for example), you wouldn't be able to disable that setting.

My idea, which I've posted before, is that you require users to pay to turn off the filter. (After all, if they're bad for ad revenue, they can't be "the product".) This also mostly enforces region-locking, at least requiring some effort to bypass.

Pay to access to people arguing rudely is terrible business model
Post reply on HN