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Does Google not also display counter claims from tweets in its results? If it can't discern fact from fake, it's hard to see how it wouldn't.

by beaner 9y ago

ubernostrum 9y ago
Do you remember the bad old days of website SEO, way back at the dawn of time? Back then someone could have just asserted that "good" sites will obviously appear as often as "bad" ones in results, if the search engine is unable to tell them apart. But of course that presumes either the "bad" sites aren't doing anything to game the search rankings, or that the "good" sites are just as effective at gaming the rankings, and we know for a fact that neither of these was the case. It took serious effort on the part of search engines to weed out the "bad" results, promote the "good" ones and close off the most effective ways to game the system. We are going through that all over again now. Social media -- and yes, this includes important parts of Google search now, since they've decided to include social-media platforms prominently in results -- can be gamed the same way SERPs got gamed. And instead of just being gamed by people who want to sell you things (as in the bad old days of SEO), now they're also being gamed by political entities for the express purpose of swaying the course of nations. These platforms wield enormous influence; it's not out of the question that, say, Twitter could literally be in a position to prevent or allow a major war. But the people who own and run these platforms are absolutely convinced of their own brilliance, and absolutely convinced that they could only be beaten by someone who has better tech skills than they do, when they're currently being played like a fiddle by people who have old-fashioned media and PR skills.
makomk 9y ago
One of the fundamental social problems with Twitter is that counterclaims and retractions don't generally go viral in the same way that bullshit does. It's probably not one that you'll hear journalists talking about much, because it would make their own screw-ups look a lot more harmful and destructive.

Does Google not also display counter claims from tweets in its results? If it can't discern fact from fake, it's hard to see how it wouldn't.

by beaner 9y ago

Does Google not also display counter claims from tweets in its results? If it can't discern fact from fake, it's hard to see how it wouldn't.

ubernostrum 9y ago

Do you remember the bad old days of website SEO, way back at the dawn of time? Back then someone could have just asserted that "good" sites will obviously appear as often as "bad" ones in results, if the search engine is unable to tell them apart. But of course that presumes either the "bad" sites aren't doing anything to game the search rankings, or that the "good" sites are just as effective at gaming the rankings, and we know for a fact that neither of these was the case. It took serious effort on the part of search engines to weed out the "bad" results, promote the "good" ones and close off the most effective ways to game the system. We are going through that all over again now. Social media -- and yes, this includes important parts of Google search now, since they've decided to include social-media platforms prominently in results -- can be gamed the same way SERPs got gamed. And instead of just being gamed by people who want to sell you things (as in the bad old days of SEO), now they're also being gamed by political entities for the express purpose of swaying the course of nations. These platforms wield enormous influence; it's not out of the question that, say, Twitter could literally be in a position to prevent or allow a major war. But the people who own and run these platforms are absolutely convinced of their own brilliance, and absolutely convinced that they could only be beaten by someone who has better tech skills than they do, when they're currently being played like a fiddle by people who have old-fashioned media and PR skills.

makomk 9y ago

One of the fundamental social problems with Twitter is that counterclaims and retractions don't generally go viral in the same way that bullshit does. It's probably not one that you'll hear journalists talking about much, because it would make their own screw-ups look a lot more harmful and destructive.