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

Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

sucky.ninja

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 393 posts

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#311

Post by syshum »

Pfhreak wrote: post #187
syshum wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> epidemic abuse by trolls, I am soo tried of hearing this excuse for mass censorship First of it MASSIVELY over used to the point where people call anyone that disagrees with them "a troll" or a bot. Twitter is hurting their own brand by their obvious political bias and selective enforcement of rules largely dependent on outrage mobs to "report" rule violations. Like real names policies before it, these types of "v…

I'm guessing we'd agree that Twitter has an overt bias. I'd suspect we'd disagree about which way it leans. Which sort of suggests to me that we're both wrong.

the left bias of twitter is well documented and more or less admitted to by the execs.

There is zero evidence they would be right biased

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#313

Post by syshum »

anigbrowl wrote: post #286
syshum wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> epidemic abuse by trolls, I am soo tried of hearing this excuse for mass censorship First of it MASSIVELY over used to the point where people call anyone that disagrees with them "a troll" or a bot. Twitter is hurting their own brand by their obvious political bias and selective enforcement of rules largely dependent on outrage mobs to "report" rule violations. Like real names policies before it, these types of "v…

Having to provide a phone number isn't mass censorship. Twitter is hurting their own brand by their obvious political bias and selective enforcement of rules largely dependent on outrage mobs to "report" rule violations. Like real names policies before it, these types of "verification" scheme do little to curb actual abuse, and in many cases shuts out moderate voices Guess what, I just reported a guy with 106k follow…

Nice strawman you made there

You know full well that is not the type of reporting that I was talking about.

There are outrage mobs mass reporting people over jokes, things they find "offensive", and hurt feeling.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#314

Post by syshum »

nemothekid wrote: post #204
syshum wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> epidemic abuse by trolls, I am soo tried of hearing this excuse for mass censorship First of it MASSIVELY over used to the point where people call anyone that disagrees with them "a troll" or a bot. Twitter is hurting their own brand by their obvious political bias and selective enforcement of rules largely dependent on outrage mobs to "report" rule violations. Like real names policies before it, these types of "v…

1. It’s very strange for someone to both claim that they never use Twitter and also claim “abuse” is an overblown excuse. Twitter is currently the model platform for large scale mob justice and harassment. 2. The “real name” policy is effective on Facebook for the type of abuse Twitter is trying to curtail. It would help if you explain why you feel the real name policy is ineffective. In any case, only Facebook (the…

Facebook is a dying platform, but I would love to understand why you believe it was an effective policy.

It is not really enforced either, I know several people that have multiple accounts under fake names on Facebook

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#315

Post by syshum »

root_axis wrote: post #216
syshum wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> epidemic abuse by trolls, I am soo tried of hearing this excuse for mass censorship First of it MASSIVELY over used to the point where people call anyone that disagrees with them "a troll" or a bot. Twitter is hurting their own brand by their obvious political bias and selective enforcement of rules largely dependent on outrage mobs to "report" rule violations. Like real names policies before it, these types of "v…

What's "MASSIVELY overused" is the trope where getting banned from a website equates to mass censorship. You're not entitled to a platform on twitter. If you get banned from twitter go do something else on the internet or beg for forgiveness and use their platform under their terms.

I always fine is amusing when Authoritarians that support censorship all of a sudden love liberty when they can use it to support censorship

The fact that I do not have a "right" to use twitter has no bearing on if Twitter engages in mass censorship of their platform, I did not claim that I have a right to use twitter, or that twitter did not have a right to censor it

Twitter can come out tomorrow and say only left identitarians are welcome on twitter, and everyone else would be banned. That would be be mass censorship AND with in their rights as a private company

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#316

Post by nothal »

coldtea wrote: post #307
erikpukinskis wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> twitter is just sillines Would you say the same about your phone number? If not, why? If I run my business on Twitter (or YouTube, or Facebook) is it that different from a bank?

> Would you say the same about your phone number? No. > If not, why? Because a phone is a universal method of communication, for businesses, spouses, families, friends, and everything in between. Twitter is yet another social media gossip discussion site, just one with a gimmick (limited characters). > If I run my business on Twitter (or YouTube, or Facebook) is it that different from a bank? The only businesses run…

FWIW, there are far more businesses on social media than that. There’s an entire culture of chefs, makeup artists, and the like that advertises solely on twitter/instagram/etc. Social media is actually a really effective tool to reach your target audience in these cases.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#317

Post by C1sc0cat »

medof wrote: post #294
1over137 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many places I've been won't let you buy a SIM without showing id.

> Many places I've been won't let you buy a SIM without showing id. You don't need to show any ID in Europe to buy non-contract phone number. You can go into most stores and get free or pay 1-5 euro for a phone number.

Not in the UK you cant.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#319

Post by beaconstudios »

kingaillas wrote: post #271
gotocake wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of attacking the person who is making a fairly lengthy and supportable argument, and basing your stance on the notion of some nebulous value “people” find, maybe you could respond in kind? I have to say that I find myself in the camp of Twitter being silly, except when it’s being destructive. Instead of being dismissed as “empty-headed” I’d prefer some value proposition justifying the previous comparison to a…

Twitter is a Rorschach test - all those things you criticize Twitter for seeming to be (rage factory, shitty blog, etc.)? That would be entirely the fault of the users in those specific circumstances. The value proposition for me is receiving targeted news/information disseminated in a convenient format. As a concrete example, I'm crewing/pacing at a 100 mile trail run in two weeks, and I'm subscribed to that event's…

at the same time, the medium is the message. Twitter encourages this bad behaviour, not because of intent but because it's highly geared towards hot takes and doesn't provide the character space for the level of nuance required to take a serious look at real life. So people condense what could be a complex question into a strong statement, even better if it's provocative because as provocation draws eyeballs.

Re: Twitter forces all new users to enter a valid phone number

#320

Post by Nextgrid »

etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #227
dymk wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is, this has increased the cost of creating a Twitter spam account from practically zero cents to... what, 50 cents an number? A few dollars per number? That's a huge leap, and it sounds like requiring a phone number is a great way to increase the cost of spamming.

Especially considering your average user already has a phone number and its basically free to verify. It only has a cost for spammers.

It has a non-negligible privacy cost.
Post reply on HN