The Twitter Files • Hacker News Board

Re: The Twitter Files

#831

Post by kryogen1c » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

andreyk wrote: post #108

It does not seem like this really exposed any new information - Twitter publicly justified its actions as being about its hacked data policy back when this all happened ( https://www.nationalreview.com/news/twitter-cites-hacked-mat... ). All this shows is some internal disagreement as to whether that was the right call. By the way, Facebook also suppressed the news story citing its misinformation policy ( https://www…

> doesn't seem like a big deal, this is just confirming what was already known?

This story kept me up last night. I think it's the biggest news story I've seen in my lifetime, and everyone seems to be missing the point. Forget Snowden, Lewinsky, or traunched CDOs.

The failure mode for capitalism is not national farming quotas starving 10 million people to death or a national ethnosocialist genocide. We have to worry about the unregulated concentration of power/capital; monopoly busting is one critical aspect of this. Another related aspect is capital's effect on the regulators, on politics.

What we see here is both parties, and the white house proper, with a direct and open line to executives of some of the biggest multinational tech companies in existence. This is not consulting jobs following an exit from politics, or hundred thousand dollar speaking deals at business conventions. Sitting members of congress are emailing corporate execs from their cell phones. They're discussing congressional polling data in a near real-time way. Theyre asking twitter (and presumably meta and others) to selectively moderate partisan political posts. DURING ELECTION SEASON.

This is insanity. Forget Russian interference, this is real, documented, American interference. The regulators and regulated are publicly in bed together.

We must grab an axe and sever these ties immediately. This is the formation of a true ruling class. Get the money out of politics NOW.

Re: The Twitter Files

#832

Post by lapcat » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:30 PM UTC

xtalx wrote: post #308

sidibe wrote: post #34

So the journalist gets access to the emails in return for promising to dribble the story on Twitter over 30 minutes? Would be a much better experience if he wrote an article or at least tweeted faster, but not as much refreshing I guess.

He’s writing an article. “ Dear TK Readers: Very shortly, I’m going to begin posting a long thread of information on Twitter, at my account, @mtaibbi. This material is likely to get a lot of attention. I will absolutely understand if subscribers are angry that it is not appearing here on Substack first. I’d be angry, too. The last 96 hours have been among the most chaotic of my life, involving multiple trips back and…

> What I can say is that in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions.

In other words, Musk made him do it.

Re: The Twitter Files

#833

Post by erlich » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:32 PM UTC

alsodumb wrote: post #300

imnotjames wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean this? https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23490863/elon-musk-twitte...

Why does Verge try so hard to show that Elon did something bad? A congressman has to change his email address? Seriously? And these are journalists making these titles? A quick Google search reveals that his Gmail address is everywhere. In fact, he tweeted his personal Gmail address a while ago: https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/802758241570541568?s=20&...

The obvious answer is revenue. Most of tech is left. The more outrage the more clicks.

I don't think people realize how desperate these news orgs are.

Re: The Twitter Files

#834

Post by tibbydudeza » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:36 PM UTC

So it is a big do nothing like everything Elon has claimed his entire life. What did you expect from a serial liar and bs artist.

Re: The Twitter Files

#835

Post by hairofadog » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:38 PM UTC

thelock85 wrote: post #829

So interesting to see if this will affect politics since midterms have passed. At least at the moment I don’t think free speech (esp via Twitter) is a priority over guns, crime, economy and reproductive rights for the average voter, or that any candidates want to seriously hold that mantle. I wonder if and how that will change going into the next election cycle.

I expect the new Republican Congress will drag this out Benghazi-like for as long as they hold the majority, and it will become tiresome to all except congressional grandstanders and my late father who will somehow find a way to forward me emails about it from wherever his happy place is beyond the grave.

Re: The Twitter Files

#836

Post by saboot » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:44 PM UTC

newZWhoDis wrote: post #344

Dem_Boys wrote: post #127

Most concerning thing here is that this proves political parties (including the white house[0]) have a direct line to Twitter[1] to get stuff they dislike removed. One would have to assume that there was also a direct line to other social medial platforms. It's so wild to have the slimy-ness of our American political system be revealed in yet another way. So in America you cannot say negative things about political l…

Quoted post unavailable.

Yeah, no. The jan 6 people are in jail for a lot more than just protesting.

Re: The Twitter Files

#837

Post by hk__2 » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:45 PM UTC

smoyer wrote: post #822

"4. Twitter in its conception was a brilliant tool for enabling instant mass communication, making a true real-time global conversation possible for the first time." How can you trust anything else in the thread if the author really believes this? IRC was more than 20 years old when Twitter was founded!

> How can you trust anything else in the thread if the author really believes this? IRC was more than 20 years old when Twitter was founded!

IRC is mean to chat within communities; It’s just forums over chat. It’s not the same thing as instant mass communication.

Re: The Twitter Files

#838

Post by yucky » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:48 PM UTC

zzzeek wrote: post #293

Dig1t wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598827602403160064 Biden team asking Twitter to "handle" tweets they don't like. This rubs me the wrong way, nobody in government should be telling Twitter to remove speech.

Funny story, Biden was not "in the government" at that time. You're thinking of Trump. That's who was president in 2020. Does it still rub you the wrong way that Trump was "the government" telling Twitter to remove speech?

Biden was Vice President at the time of the emails in question, which is what the Hunter Biden story was always about. That the story was suppressed by Twitter while Trump was in office isn't relevant. The suppression of the story is what matters, since if those emails were reported as accurate it would have wide ranging impact on the election. In fact if the story had been allowed to come out in a timely matter, the Democrats likely would have put forth a better candidate in the primary.

Re: The Twitter Files

#839

Post by micromacrofoot » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:51 PM UTC

runsWphotons wrote: post #763

romellem wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read your own source? The Biden team never asked Twitter staff to “handle” anything. They forwarded tweets that [violated twitter’s ToS][1], a Twitter staff member forwarded them for review, and at that point the reviewer said they “handled these.” That’s what content moderation is supposed to do! [1]: https://twitter.com/parkebench/status/1598841731763810304

throughout the replies here people are making this argument but it still seems insane to me. like if you got photographed with prostitutes and someone tweeted that out would you expect the DNC to lobby directly w Twitter to get those down or would you just report the tweets in the app

I would email twitter and ask them to remove the photos in addition to reporting them, personally - might not work, but i’d try

Re: The Twitter Files

#840

Post by hk__2 » Sat, Dec 03, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

taolegal wrote: post #54

encryptluks2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The political bias from either party is unreal most of the times. It isn't exclusive to the left or right.

Except every important cultural institution and practically every tech space is left-biased.

> Except every important cultural institution and practically every tech space is left-biased.

This is because progressism is associated with the left. The tech space lives on the edge of innovation, so of course it leans toward progressism.