Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views • Hacker News Board

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#291

Post by cblades » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:17 PM UTC

moduspol wrote: post #249

IIAOPSW wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the biggest contributor is just that left-leaning people are more likely to be offended by right-leaning views. This theory only makes sense if there's an asymmetry between left offended at right and right offended at left. I don't think that's true. At least I don't think its true in the direction of left-more-offended-at-right. A large fraction of right-wing media seems built around selling a feeling of in…

Well, we can debate the meaning of "offended," but for the purposes of this discussion, I mean "causing the user to react in a way perceived as negative for the end user experience and reflecting poorly in engagement metrics." As a conservative, it's tough to avoid seeing opposing points of view. You'd have to avoid all late night shows, nearly all TV stations and newspapers, and most social media. We're quite accust…

You do realize how regional this is right? I'm liberal and in a very red area. I have the exact opposite experience.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#292

Post by 0x00000000 » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:28 PM UTC

I have reported multiple facebook posts of friends making death threats against (conservative) politicians and every time it comes back "we reviewed the post and it is not in violation of community guidelines"

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#293

Post by blitmap » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:30 PM UTC

Declanomous wrote: post #175

nsxwolf wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once in awhile Facebook decides I shouldn't be friends with someone anymore and suppresses all of their posts from my feed. I start to wonder what's happened to them, so I make a point of searching for their page and find that they've been posting daily. Things I would have been interested to see and would have commented on.

It's entirely possible that Facebook found that your comments caused less engagement for other people on Facebook, and therefore doesn't want you to comment. It's also possible that Facebook determined that this person has substantially different politics than you, and has put you in different 'boxes'. You can actually check what groups Facebook thinks you belong in. For instance, Facebook thinks my peer group is 'St…

I love how you worded this and illustrated your point. I think you're exactly right. I joined Facebook to be connected to the people I wanted to see, not people they want me to see. I barely log in anymore for this reason.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#294

Post by skate22 » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:37 PM UTC

Ive conditioned my fb feed to be 95% memes. I go there every couple of days for some fresh memes

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#295

Post by pvg » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:39 PM UTC

jrs95 wrote: post #282

pvg wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvotes aren't 'censorship'.

No, because you can still read things that have been heavily downvoted. Flagging on the other hand can actually make things unreadable.

Flagging doesn't make things unreadable.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#296

Post by sheepmullet » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:40 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #124

josteink wrote: post #27

I can fully believe that. Try for instance to have a discussion here on hacker news about the less fortunate sides of diversity initiatives. Then see how many minutes it takes before your entire thread is flagged and effectively censored.

I’m not sure which bias you specifically mean. But in case it’s a pro-diversity sentiment you believe to be seeing, let me assure you: HN is the only social circle where I can /still/ find people insisting “affirmative action is racism”.

Perhaps your social circles lack diversity of thought?

Partly due the to recent news on Harvard admissions, most of my Asian friends think affirmative action is racist against them.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#297

Post by jrs95 » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:41 PM UTC

pvg wrote: post #295

jrs95 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because you can still read things that have been heavily downvoted. Flagging on the other hand can actually make things unreadable.

Flagging doesn't make things unreadable.

Interesting. Thanks for correcting me on that. I thought I had seen that before; but perhaps that always requires moderator intervention.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#298

Post by moduspol » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:46 PM UTC

cblades wrote: post #291

moduspol wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we can debate the meaning of "offended," but for the purposes of this discussion, I mean "causing the user to react in a way perceived as negative for the end user experience and reflecting poorly in engagement metrics." As a conservative, it's tough to avoid seeing opposing points of view. You'd have to avoid all late night shows, nearly all TV stations and newspapers, and most social media. We're quite accust…

You do realize how regional this is right? I'm liberal and in a very red area. I have the exact opposite experience.

Then I guess you're choosing to watch Fox News, read Breitbart, avoid any political discussion on here or Reddit, watch no late night or comedy TV shows, and work at a remarkably conservative workplace (especially for tech). Maybe you're choosing to read a more conservative local newspaper?

Very little of this is regional because most media consumed is not regional, and most reporters and editors lean left.

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#299

Post by pmarreck » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:47 PM UTC

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #273

pmarreck wrote: post #128

Lack of trust is a bullshit argument. It's basically the Conspiracy Fallacy: https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFalla... Is there any evidence to support this assertion and that Facebook isn't merely showing you information that is palatable to you? (Note that this greatly expands the use of this fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_repugnance ) I think we all have to answer these ques…

1) Yes. 2) Yes. Was that supposed to be hard?

In this day and age, apparently!

Re: Most Americans Think Facebook and Twitter Censor Their Political Views

#300

Post by pmarreck » Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 10:50 PM UTC

prolikewhoa wrote: post #248

pmarreck wrote: post #128

Lack of trust is a bullshit argument. It's basically the Conspiracy Fallacy: https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFalla... Is there any evidence to support this assertion and that Facebook isn't merely showing you information that is palatable to you? (Note that this greatly expands the use of this fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_repugnance ) I think we all have to answer these ques…

>Before the election, we also detected and took action on activity relating to hashtags that have since been reported as manifestations of efforts to interfere with the 2016 election. For example, our automated spam detection systems helped mitigate the impact of automated Tweets promoting the #PodestaEmails hashtag, which originated with Wikileaks’ publication of thousands of emails from the Clinton campaign chairma…

Is censorship of argumentum-ad-nauseam bullshit really censorship, though?