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> By constantly playing on the offensive, they've put Facebook and Twitter on a constantly defensive posture worried about being called out as having 'liberal b

by qubax 8y ago

> By constantly playing on the offensive, they've put Facebook and Twitter on a constantly defensive posture worried about being called out as having 'liberal bias'. Jack Dorsey and Zuckerburg said their company had liberal bias. We know google does. > The fact that Jack had to personally intervene to stop his employees from banning Alex Jones (after numerous egregious violations) speaks to the power of this approach. Alex Jones got banned anyways. For things far more benign than say what sarah jeong wrote. Stop it. It's been proven that there is bias. The only question is what, if anything, should be done about it. What's with the blatant dishonesty here? How can there be an honest discussion when people outright lie?

dmix 8y ago
For anyone needing a source regarding @Jack: > Twitter is so liberal that its conservative employees ‘don’t feel safe to express their opinions,’ says CEO Jack Dorsey https://www.recode.net/2018/9/14/17857622/twitter-liberal-employees-conservative-trump-politics https://www.recode.net/2018/9/14/17857622/twitter-liberal-em... There is no way this hasn't trickled down to their moderation and banning policies.
- komali2 8y ago
  >“They do feel silenced by just the general swirl of what they perceive to be the broader percentage of leanings within the company, and I don’t think that’s fair or right.” I can't think of any reasonable solution to the problem as I see it: San Francisco is a city full of liberals, Twitter HQ is in San Francisco, therefore Twitter is full of liberals. I guess Twitter could try to import people from like Utah, but that may not work because they might just end up importing more liberals (tech workers willing to move to SF). Also, it's not necessarily Twitter's job to equalize the political beliefs of a city. They can't ask "are you liberal or conservative" on an application, it's currently comically illegal and also I'd say horribly unethical and therefore should not be made legal. Therefore, I think the only solution is the exact one that's in place - if a person at work feels threatened for any reason, they should be allowed to get a resolution, either via HR or the law if need be. That being said, "everyone else has a different political opinion than me" doesn't necessarily seem threatening to me, and I say that as a declared liberal that grew up in the deep South. I'd be very interested in learning more about why the Twitter employees that presumably reached out to Dorsey feel uncomfortable expressing their opinions.
  - Fede_V 8y ago
    Tech employees are, as a group: - Highly educated - Young - High % of foreign citizens - Urban - Wealthy If you take the general population and control for those covariates, you end up with a subpopulation that massively skews left. For example - the median age for people watching Fox news is nearly 70.
    - komali2 8y ago
      Right, so, not sure what exactly Twitter is supposed to do about it. I'm trying to think of some sort of affirmative action parallel, but unlike other protected classes, political disposition is a choice. The closest protected class I can think of is religion, which arguably is as much a choice as political disposition... But in any case, if someone is passed over for promotion or not hired or somehow damaged for their political leanings, they already can sue over it. I guess I'm having a hard time being conviced there's an actual problem here.

by qubax 8y ago

dmix 8y ago

For anyone needing a source regarding @Jack: > Twitter is so liberal that its conservative employees ‘don’t feel safe to express their opinions,’ says CEO Jack Dorsey https://www.recode.net/2018/9/14/17857622/twitter-liberal-employees-conservative-trump-politics https://www.recode.net/2018/9/14/17857622/twitter-liberal-em... There is no way this hasn't trickled down to their moderation and banning policies.

komali2 8y ago
>“They do feel silenced by just the general swirl of what they perceive to be the broader percentage of leanings within the company, and I don’t think that’s fair or right.” I can't think of any reasonable solution to the problem as I see it: San Francisco is a city full of liberals, Twitter HQ is in San Francisco, therefore Twitter is full of liberals. I guess Twitter could try to import people from like Utah, but that may not work because they might just end up importing more liberals (tech workers willing to move to SF). Also, it's not necessarily Twitter's job to equalize the political beliefs of a city. They can't ask "are you liberal or conservative" on an application, it's currently comically illegal and also I'd say horribly unethical and therefore should not be made legal. Therefore, I think the only solution is the exact one that's in place - if a person at work feels threatened for any reason, they should be allowed to get a resolution, either via HR or the law if need be. That being said, "everyone else has a different political opinion than me" doesn't necessarily seem threatening to me, and I say that as a declared liberal that grew up in the deep South. I'd be very interested in learning more about why the Twitter employees that presumably reached out to Dorsey feel uncomfortable expressing their opinions.
- Fede_V 8y ago
  Tech employees are, as a group: - Highly educated - Young - High % of foreign citizens - Urban - Wealthy If you take the general population and control for those covariates, you end up with a subpopulation that massively skews left. For example - the median age for people watching Fox news is nearly 70.
  - komali2 8y ago
    Right, so, not sure what exactly Twitter is supposed to do about it. I'm trying to think of some sort of affirmative action parallel, but unlike other protected classes, political disposition is a choice. The closest protected class I can think of is religion, which arguably is as much a choice as political disposition... But in any case, if someone is passed over for promotion or not hired or somehow damaged for their political leanings, they already can sue over it. I guess I'm having a hard time being conviced there's an actual problem here.