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Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

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Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#51

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

Hamuko wrote: post #46
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's different because it was written by a major American newspaper. Twitter should not be exercising editorial control over the news.

Isn't it distribution control rather than editorial control?

I don't think so. You could perhaps make an argument that banning all NY Post articles would be distribution control, although even then I'm skeptical. But if I picked up a physical copy of the New York Post, and found that the newsstand had snipped just this one article out with a pair of scissors, I'd call that an unambiguous act of editorial control and censorship.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#52

Post by Hamuko »

koolba wrote: post #50
Hamuko wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it distribution control rather than editorial control?

Limiting distribution to filter out what you don't want to rise to the top has the same effect as explicitly picking winners. Think of it like shooting the tires of all the cars you want to lose in a race. Sure you didn't push the winner across the finish line, but you made it damn near impossible for anyone else to even get there.

Yeah, but that's still not editorial control. And maybe we do actually want Twitter to pick some winners. I don't think the platform needs any more death threats, Russian-backed misinformation campaigns or other bullshit.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#53

Post by davismwfl »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #32
Hamuko wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? Because the factuality of the story seems like a pretty big deal here. If it's completely bogus, how is it different from any of those Russian trollfarm posts that the US government was worried about?

It's different because it was written by a major American newspaper. Twitter should not be exercising editorial control over the news.

It could be easily argued while they are not rewriting the story they selectively choose the facts they present as "fact checked" information. In the recent past both FB and Twitter have linked to "fact checked" articles/sources that represented only the narrative they wanted you to read. If they wanted to show neutral behavior they could have linked to articles that represented both sides of an argument which would keep their independence and educate their audience better since rarely is one side 100% correct.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#54

Post by hirundo »

There's a recurring argument on social media censorship that goes: "you wouldn't want the telephone company censoring phone conversations would you?" And the response is along the lines: "these are hardly private conversations, any tweet can go viral and be seen by millions".

This story breaks that mold in that it involves social media censoring private conversations via DM. If you think that's OK for Twitter on its platform, is it also OK for AT&T on its phone network? For Google on Gmail?

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#55

Post by drcongo »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #32
Hamuko wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? Because the factuality of the story seems like a pretty big deal here. If it's completely bogus, how is it different from any of those Russian trollfarm posts that the US government was worried about?

It's different because it was written by a major American newspaper. Twitter should not be exercising editorial control over the news.

Is the NY Post considered a serious newspaper over there?

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#56

Post by Barrin92 »

throwawa3495 wrote: post #29
Barrin92 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is perfectly within their rights to remove content they consider to be spam or not fit quality guidelines as is the case here. Not really sure since when Twitter is required to host and aid in the spread of garbage

Oh, i definitely agree that as a private company Twitter is well within its rights to censor what it believes is "misinformation" but an important line has been crossed today by Twitter and Facebook. A story about potential corruption of a candidate for the US president has been censored by two of the largest information brokers in the world. Also interestingly, no denial from Joe Biden about the authenticity of thes…

>Wouldnt that be the first thing you'd do if this wasnt true?

If i was Joe Biden and the yellow press came after me honestly I'd do exactly what Joe Biden does and ignore them rather than giving them oxygen.

If people like Biden or Clinton responded every time someone tries to capitalise on some bullshit attached to their name they'd not be doing anything else

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#57

Post by djsumdog »

WalterGR wrote: post #40
djsumdog wrote: post #35

Facebook, Twitter, Reddit et. al. are now in Orwell's land of "Ministry of Truth" .. they are telling the people what is reliable "news" and what is not. It's getting pretty insane out there.

No. The Ministry of Truth and the protagonist of 1984, it’s employee, were engaged in revising the written record to make it match what the Party wanted in the present. They were also the only source of information. Twitter is not doing the former and isn’t the latter, so equating it with Minitrue is 100% factually incorrect.

Sure not everything matches up. The Ministry of Truth was government, but in America the same type of group exists and it's private. They don't have to rewrite history. They're rewriting the present.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#58

Post by collective-intl »

bgorman wrote: post #25

The fact that this article is flagged is alarming. This is a relevant news story directly related to how technology companies influence public perception. Like it or not, the New York Post is a widely distributed newspaper in the US. Once the precedent for censoring a newspaper has been established there is nothing stopping facebook for censoring more "upscale" conservative newspapers like the WaLl Street Journal or…

+1

I don't know why you are being downvoted, I think HN's flagging system is another way we are being censored.

Just this summer, I remember multiple articles with important, true contributions to our understanding of covid that got flagged.

We are losing the ability to consider multiple sides of an issue.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#59

Post by ojnabieoot »

jimbob45 wrote: post #43
rmrfstar wrote: post #13

Robert Graham [1] pointed out that if the emails are authentic, they can be trivially verified via DKIM. That the email metadata was not released implies the emails are either inauthentic, or that the post did not contact someone with basic competence in computer forensics. Either possibility seriously undercuts the article's credibility. [1] https://twitter.com/ErrataRob/status/1316407424648179717

I wrote the story off this morning. The Ukraine stuff didn’t stick to Trump and there’s no reason to think it would be any stickier on Biden. If Twitter is censoring DMs of it though, then there must be something to it.

> then there must be something to it.

That "something" is almost certainly "the NY Post story has profound credibility problems, to the point that it may very well be a hoax, and Jack Dorsey is still reeling from his personal moral complicity in the flawed 2016 election."

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#60

Post by [deleted] »

jimbob45 wrote: post #43
rmrfstar wrote: post #13

Robert Graham [1] pointed out that if the emails are authentic, they can be trivially verified via DKIM. That the email metadata was not released implies the emails are either inauthentic, or that the post did not contact someone with basic competence in computer forensics. Either possibility seriously undercuts the article's credibility. [1] https://twitter.com/ErrataRob/status/1316407424648179717

I wrote the story off this morning. The Ukraine stuff didn’t stick to Trump and there’s no reason to think it would be any stickier on Biden. If Twitter is censoring DMs of it though, then there must be something to it.

[deleted]
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