Live data from Hacker News

Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

bbc.com

31–40 of 311 posts

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#31

It seems like Trump is making a prediction rather than stating a fact, very very strange use of the phrase "fact-checking" by Twitter

Baseless speculation about the integrity of US national elections is a perfectly reasonable thing to fact-check and tag as misleading.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#32

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…

In what sense are CBS, CNN, and the Washington Post hard left?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#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 election, are people implying that there would be no entries? Or maybe no viable entries? That's ridiculous.

Here's some spitballing: (eh, I removed this. I don't think brainstorming how to committ election fraud is a good idea. I'm assuming that readers of hacker news can probably figure out some relatively obvious ways of casting doubt into the outcome of a mail in election)

How are people looking at what recently happened with 100s of millions of dollars of fraud being committed against various US unemployment systems, and not thinking that other systems might be at risk as well?

Remember the Iowa caucus? That was a hastily put together vote reporting system, not even meant for tallying, and look at what a disaster it was. Now we're expecting that states will radically alter their voting system, in 5 months, and that it won't be vulnerable to interference?

To be clear: I LIKE mail in voting. I have permanent mail in voting status in my state (Arizona), and my wife and I usually get breakfast at our favorite restaurant and spend HOURS meticulously researching every candidate and BI on the form. Being able to take that amount of time is fantastic, and a luxury I wish everybody could have.

But it doesn't have to be so polar. I like mail in voting, obviously, but I'm not so stupid as to think that it cannot possibly be criticized. I am a hacker after all.

Boo to twitter for this. This is twitter obviously putting their finger on the scale of an election, and after all of the drama surrounding the idea that foreign actors might have purchased a few 10s of thousands of dollars of facebook ads, I'd hope that Americans would have a distrust a company where foreign entities have a major stake doing such a thing. Not acceptable in my opinion.

Just to highlight my point a little further: here is an article from the nytimes highlighting that mail in voting is far more vulnerable to fraud than in person voting: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-...

Here’s a quote from the article:

>Yet votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth, statistics show.

and another:

> Election experts say the challenges created by mailed ballots could well affect outcomes this fall and beyond.

And another:

> The trend will probably result in more uncounted votes, and it increases the potential for fraud. While fraud in voting by mail is far less common than innocent errors, it is vastly more prevalent than the in-person voting

So who is to be believed here? Twitter? The New York Times? Why aren’t the experts from this article being listened to?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Dorsey clarify what he meant by public interests? That sounds like a vague distraction.

I think "preserving the words of the president" probably fits pretty squarely in the realm of public interest, even if they're blatantly false.

Giving him a platform in the first place is what necessitates the consequent fact checking. If they didn't distribute his lies they wouldn't need to contradict them. Many media outlets have stopped airing Trump's statements live, because doing so is essentially unethical.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#36
post #31

It seems like Trump is making a prediction rather than stating a fact, very very strange use of the phrase "fact-checking" by Twitter

Baseless speculation about the integrity of US national elections is a perfectly reasonable thing to fact-check and tag as misleading.

I'm glad at least you agree that his tweet is speculation.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#37
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't you? Life is way too short to pass up on the opportunity to ban a president. The lulz would last centuries.

Shareholder responsibilities. I would guess that a good chunk of Twitter users are there to read and interact with the president's tweets.

What do you mean "interact"? He virtually never posts any responses, the account is close to broadcast-only. There's also no real interaction in the replies: even if you manage to scroll past the kneejerk responses and product spam thriving on controversy, what are the chances you'll find anyone to actually interact with?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#38
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…

I think that only makes sense in terms of the delta between it, and the shitshow that is our current electoral system. In other words, we probably just don't want to admit how bad things are already.

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#39
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…

Trump isn’t really “criticizing” mail-in voting in a responsible and measured way here though, is he? He’s claiming that it is a scam by his enemies that will definitely result in massive voting fraud. Is there any evidence for him to make those claims at all? Is there any other way he could have responded, even if he did genuinely care about empowering citizens to vote?

Re: Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning

#40
post #27

If Covid second wave happens in November, large scale mail in ballot efforts could lead to the biggest voter turn out in American history.

And if that happens, take note of which political parties/groups fight tooth and nail because they know that voter turn out is bad for them. (It's not difficult to predict.)

Isn't too much voter turnout bad though? Do we really want every poor ignorant impoverished (or rich) American voting? Or just the people that take democracy seriously and vote after having puzzled it out? If you reduce the friction too much (or even force people to vote) you'll get a lot of voting based on who promised the most goodies/handouts or emotional appeal rather than rational reasoning.
Post reply on HN