Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#71

Post by influx » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:04 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #44

DanAndersen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really that hard to understand? At its simplest level, the NPC meme is an extension of "I'm a member of [insert outgroup here], look how dumb I sound" trolling.

I guess? It's so self-invalidating that I'm having trouble seeing the point. Do they understand that they're engaging in the exact behavior they're criticizing? If they do and see it as clever irony, it hasn't come across in the bits I've seen. If they don't then it seems a vigorous self-own.

I see your point, but what’s weird is Twitter is banning these accounts and the press is freaking out about it. Why not let these npc memers continue to self own? Why interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake?

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#72

Post by ericdykstra » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:04 PM UTC

7dare wrote: post #61

> Evidence suggests that these are mostly just attention-starved gamers looking to impress one another What is the link with gaming I'm missing here? Is 4chan simply associated by gaming defacto? I don't see anything else about video games or any evidence of these people being gamers in the article...

"Gamers" and "Gamergate" is a generic boogeyman that media outlets can use to direct their anger at. See "Why Young Men of Color Are Joining White-Supremacist Groups" [1] for another example.

The obvious answer to "Why are non-whites joining white supremacist groups" might be "They're not white supremacist groups, they're just mislabeled by people who call everyone they disagree with nazis."

The article explains that it is, however, Gamergate and Ayn Rand that are turning non-white people towards white supremacy, even though Gamergate and Ayn Rand don't have an opinion on racial superiority as far as I know.

edit: It looks like I triggered the NPC downvote algorithm. I hope the next patch gives them dialogue choices.

[1] http://archive.is/P0X3D

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#73

Post by malvosenior » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:04 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #33

malvosenior wrote: post #13

> Last week, a trolling campaign organized by right-wing internet users spilled over onto Twitter. So Twitter bans a bunch of satire accounts for political reasons and the New York Times applauds the decision. This makes me incredibly sad but I guess it's to be expected. If your political position is so weak that some jokes can damage it, maybe it's time to take a deep inward look. I don't see anyone calling on SNL t…

For spreading incorrect election information. Plenty of far right twitter accounts, these where designed to get banned for publicity.

> these where designed to get banned for publicity.

I don't think they were. I think they were designed to be funny and characterize a particular ideology.

As I said in the other comment, this article gives one extremely mild example of incorrect election information and says "a few" of the accounts were participating in that. Why would you ban all of them, including the accounts not spreading misinformation?

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#74

Post by LoSboccacc » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:04 PM UTC

rhema wrote: post #14

A long time ago, I was told "don't feed the trolls". It's hard to see how this publicity (e.g. the NYT) is not feeding the trolls. There is no doubt that this campaign, whatever motivations, was successful. At the same time, social media platforms are more at the ready to ban pranksters, bots, etc. That might be the only approach that works when the majority of society participates. (1) don't feed the troll, but it g…

> don't feed the trolls

Absolutely, but it's still interesting to dissect and debate on why this campaign spread like fire compared to all other running trolling campaigns

What also make it interesting is how quickly social media reacted to it, seems unprecedented in speed and efficiency.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#75

Post by michaelflux » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:04 PM UTC

anjc wrote: post #54

michaelflux wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Originally yes, that was the joke, people just repeating the same buzzwords and catch phrases in response to anything as game NPCs do. However as with all the memes over the last few days, it quickly turns from that into 'well those people are reacting exactly how we thought they would, just keep posting it if it triggers them'. e.g. take Pepe - the only reason it caught on was because the left took the bait and lost…

> "well those people are reacting exactly how we thought they would" Almost like NPCs...

Exactly that.

Right: Hey you guys just keep repeating the same thing.

Left: You're a racist

Left: You're a racist nazi

Left: You're a nazi racist

Left: You're dehumanising us you racist

Right: Well hell, make 5000 more of these if they're getting such a great engagement rate.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#76

Post by eyeinthepyramid » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:05 PM UTC

michaelflux wrote: post #43

wpietri wrote: post #5

I confess this campaign is a puzzlement to me. There are a bunch of people all repeating the same idea as a way of critiquing people they believe are... all repeating the same ideas?

Originally yes, that was the joke, people just repeating the same buzzwords and catch phrases in response to anything as game NPCs do. However as with all the memes over the last few days, it quickly turns from that into 'well those people are reacting exactly how we thought they would, just keep posting it if it triggers them'. e.g. take Pepe - the only reason it caught on was because the left took the bait and lost…

>take Pepe - the only reason it caught on was because the left took the bait and lost their shit over it.

Pepe was popular way before it was a political meme.. Pepe comes from a book released in 2006, and according to KYM feelsbadman became a meme in 2009.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#77

Post by kirykl » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:05 PM UTC

These should be treated as similar to political cartoons.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#78

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:05 PM UTC

andun wrote: post #35

This is HN so you might appreciate this version: (SFW) https://i.imgur.com/aPaBYCt.png

[deleted]

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#79

Post by qubax » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:06 PM UTC

7dare wrote: post #61

> Evidence suggests that these are mostly just attention-starved gamers looking to impress one another What is the link with gaming I'm missing here? Is 4chan simply associated by gaming defacto? I don't see anything else about video games or any evidence of these people being gamers in the article...

You aren't missing anything. It's just a far left propaganda outfit keeping with the message - "alt right", "right wing", "far right", "gamer", "incel", etc.

Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v.

Also, this story is like a week old. It's funny how it only reached HN via a nytimes post.

Re: Twitter has barred hundreds of accounts for posing as liberal activists

#80

Post by jf- » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:06 PM UTC

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’d prefer if this culture war crap were kept off HN. There are plenty of other places to discuss this, just because Twitter is involved doesn’t mean it’s related to tech.