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Isn't that the intention of these far-right wackos? The "official" campaign is over, so they can attempt to influence the results without worrying about the Ma

Isn't that the intention of these far-right wackos? The "official" campaign is over, so they can attempt to influence the results without worrying about the Macron campaign being able to deny the rumors? Twitter needs to decisively put a stop to these bot armies. It can't be that difficult to detect them through ML. The bot armies are not only responsible for propagating outright lies, they also frequently target people for online harassment. I've heard from many people that were almost unable to use Twitter due to information/message overload once they were targeted. Twitter seems to not only allow the harassment, but requires users to wade through the post spam. I would imagine at some point the usefulness of having a Twitter account approaches zero for many of these people that have been targeted.

omginternets 9y ago
>It can't be that difficult to detect them through ML. Show us the code. >far-right wackos It's also a mistake to put Le Pen in the same box as the likes of Trump. For one, she's a highly educated, and secondly, the far right in France has a rather long history of being the only party to say anything substantive on the topic of immigration and security. (It's worth noting that the immigration situation in France is very different from the US). I'm not a huge fan of Le Pen, but dismissing her as a "wacko" is exactly why she has maintained a growing electorate; each time media in France has tried to label her as a nutcase, they've essentially refused to address the very real concerns that motivate her electorate.
- illumin8 9y ago
  I'm not talking about Le Pen. I'm talking about the army of far-right wackos on Twitter that openly spout nazi memes and unleash bot armies on anyone who disagrees with them. Le Pen is probably a far right wacko as well, but I don't know enough about her to form an opinion.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  > the far right in France has a rather long history of being the only party to say anything substantive on the topic of immigration and security. That is the sad part about European politics. The (champagne) Left is so enamored by the notion of EU as a peace project, that they can't see that they are undermining their very voting base (the working class) in the process. This has left the doors wide open for the far Right to wrap their xenophobia in terminology that claims they worry about workers rights and livelihood, when they really want to see every last "foreigner" (anyone with enough skin color or other feature that makes him stand out from across the street) tossed over the border (at best).
  - omginternets 9y ago
    >they really want to see every last "foreigner" (anyone with enough skin color or other feature that makes him stand out from across the street) tossed over the border (at best). Frankly I was with you up until this point. I think this attitude is essentially the same as the one you're condemning, albeit on the topic of immigration rather than the EU project. To use your turn of phrase, the (champagne) Left is so enamored by the notion of the "friendly foreigner" and "global society" that they can't see that they are undermining their very voting base in the process. More specifically, said Left is unable to engage in a serious discussion about border security and immigration without accusing everybody of racism. This has left the doors wide open for the far Right to monopolize the conversation on immigration. The net effect is that anyone who cares about security and identity politics has only one party to turn to. I mean no disrespect, but this attitude is a large part of what got us here. Wanting to reduce immigration and harden border security is not equivalent to xenophobia.
mhneu 9y ago
Twitter is the easier one - the data is mostly open. Facebook is much harder and a much bigger influence. More Americans get their news from Facebook than Twitter, and all the Facebook data is inside a walled garden. We're soon as a society going to need to deal with disinformation and political targeting on Facebook and Twitter. And the role of that disinformation in our politics. And when I saw "our" I mean US, UK, France and most of their allies.

omginternets 9y ago

>It can't be that difficult to detect them through ML. Show us the code. >far-right wackos It's also a mistake to put Le Pen in the same box as the likes of Trump. For one, she's a highly educated, and secondly, the far right in France has a rather long history of being the only party to say anything substantive on the topic of immigration and security. (It's worth noting that the immigration situation in France is very different from the US). I'm not a huge fan of Le Pen, but dismissing her as a "wacko" is exactly why she has maintained a growing electorate; each time media in France has tried to label her as a nutcase, they've essentially refused to address the very real concerns that motivate her electorate.

illumin8 9y ago
I'm not talking about Le Pen. I'm talking about the army of far-right wackos on Twitter that openly spout nazi memes and unleash bot armies on anyone who disagrees with them. Le Pen is probably a far right wacko as well, but I don't know enough about her to form an opinion.
digi_owl 9y ago
> the far right in France has a rather long history of being the only party to say anything substantive on the topic of immigration and security. That is the sad part about European politics. The (champagne) Left is so enamored by the notion of EU as a peace project, that they can't see that they are undermining their very voting base (the working class) in the process. This has left the doors wide open for the far Right to wrap their xenophobia in terminology that claims they worry about workers rights and livelihood, when they really want to see every last "foreigner" (anyone with enough skin color or other feature that makes him stand out from across the street) tossed over the border (at best).
- omginternets 9y ago
  >they really want to see every last "foreigner" (anyone with enough skin color or other feature that makes him stand out from across the street) tossed over the border (at best). Frankly I was with you up until this point. I think this attitude is essentially the same as the one you're condemning, albeit on the topic of immigration rather than the EU project. To use your turn of phrase, the (champagne) Left is so enamored by the notion of the "friendly foreigner" and "global society" that they can't see that they are undermining their very voting base in the process. More specifically, said Left is unable to engage in a serious discussion about border security and immigration without accusing everybody of racism. This has left the doors wide open for the far Right to monopolize the conversation on immigration. The net effect is that anyone who cares about security and identity politics has only one party to turn to. I mean no disrespect, but this attitude is a large part of what got us here. Wanting to reduce immigration and harden border security is not equivalent to xenophobia.

mhneu 9y ago

Twitter is the easier one - the data is mostly open. Facebook is much harder and a much bigger influence. More Americans get their news from Facebook than Twitter, and all the Facebook data is inside a walled garden. We're soon as a society going to need to deal with disinformation and political targeting on Facebook and Twitter. And the role of that disinformation in our politics. And when I saw "our" I mean US, UK, France and most of their allies.