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Not Your Imagination: Twitter Treats Conservatives More Harshly Than Liberals

29 points by andrenth 8y ago

nrev 8y ago
I don’t use Twitter much, but I have noticed the reverse is true on Facebook.
- yesenadam 8y ago
  Doesn't that entirely depend on who your friends are, and what they post?
woah 8y ago
Very shaky methods. He doesn’t even tell us who is on his list of 21 unfairly banned trump supporters
- ethagknight 8y ago
  >> Very shaky methods. He doesn’t even tell us who is on his list of 21 unfairly banned trump supporters he provided his whole database of users tracked Edited to remove snark
  - woah 8y ago
    The link doesn’t work on my phone and he doesn’t spend any time discussing the cases. The article is not actually written about the “data”, it is simply there to add some kind of impression of rigor.
dev_north_east 8y ago
Not a big Twitter user (never tweeted and only follow a small amount of people/services) and I've seen this again and again. I didn't really think it was in dispute?
- globlist 8y ago
  If it doesn't fit the narrative, it's in dispute.
zimpenfish 8y ago
Anecdata: Given the number of left/liberal people I've seen on my timeline/lists suspended for innocuous replies to harassment, the number of posts about Twitter support not suspending conservative harassers (POTUS being a prime example!), and the fairly strong conservative bias of Quillette, I'll be needing a bag of salt and a lot more proof than this article provides.
- shard972 8y ago
  > Twitter support not suspending conservative harassers (POTUS being a prime example!), Thats a pretty poor example. The simple reality is that @potus won't be banned as it will immediately sow the seeds of twitters own destruction. If you think twitter is bigger than the president of the USA, then im not sure what else to say. If you want to point to examples as evidence, then what about Kathy Griffith? She can post herself holding a decapitated head of the president and sick mobs on school children because they smirked wearing a maga hat and yet shes not banned.
  - zimpenfish 8y ago
    > If you think twitter is bigger than the president of the USA Why would it not be? It's a worldwide thing, not just for some provincial colony. > She can post herself holding a decapitated head of the president Which was clearly a joke. > and sick mobs on school children Yep, I'd agree she should be suspended for that.
- ethagknight 8y ago
  It would be more helpful to provide substance to this claim rather than tossing a smoke grenade on the matter? Who are the left leaning people you’ve seen suspended?
  - zimpenfish 8y ago
    Here's a few to get you started. https://twitter.com/zozie_kicks/status/1078008088978956289 https://twitter.com/zozie_kicks/status/1078008088978956289 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-political-account-ban-us-mid-term-elections https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-political-account-ba... https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/twitter-suspends-krang-t-nelson/ https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/twitter-suspends-krang-t-ne...
benj111 8y ago
This is poor reasoning. The average Trump supporter may be no more likely to break Twitters TOS, we aren't looking at the average here, we are looking at the outliers. 22 bans is absolutely insignificant compared to the millions of users, you can't extrapolate that out to all Trump voters or even the average Trump voter, therefore his argument makes no sense.
- mc32 8y ago
  True, but let’s say a ridiculous ToS had any mention of Marxist ideology as a violation. That would have an inherent bias against people on the Democratic side.
  - benj111 8y ago
    Are you equating Marxism with Nazism??? I'd accept a Stalism/Nazism (or maoism) equivocation. Marxism is not like Nazism.
    - mc32 8y ago
      No. I’m saying _if_ they instituted an unfounded TOS against Marxism, that would have an inherent bias. I purposely left Maoism and Stalinism out due to their fascist nature. Let’s say they were owned by Exxon, their TOS had that talking the negative aspects of fossil fuels was a violation, that would have an inherent anti Democrat bias, even if they didn’t have a stated anti Democrat bias.
      - benj111 8y ago
        Ok, sorry. Was anyone accusing them of having an anti right wing TOS? In general I agree with you, but I think you'd have a hell of a time teasing apart the politics of it. Eg if a rule said all statements had to be scientifically proven, is that anti right wing? Is that even wrong in and of itself? How would you balance that out?
        deleted 8y ago
tonetheman 8y ago
I do not think this says much about Twitter the analysis is shaky at best. What it does clearly say is that Conservatives are much more likely to threaten/harass/abuse other online. It is the lack of empathy for fellow humans that is part of the makeup that comes with Conservatives... Twitter just amplifies it.
- zimpenfish 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_suspensions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_suspensions certainly seems to back up the harassment angle.
mcphage 8y ago
> Are prominent Trump supporters more likely to break neutrally applied social media terms of service agreements than other voters? Perhaps. But are they four or more times as likely? That doesn’t seem credible. That seems perfectly credible.
- shard972 8y ago
  If so, wouldn't that mean that twitter is credibly bias towards progressives?
  - krapp 8y ago
    The null hypothesis here is that Twitter is biased against users who violate their terms of service, and that if conservatives violate Twitter's terms of service more often than progressives, they appear to be subjected to "harsher" treatment, which is interpreted by conservatives as an organized campaign of anti-conservative bias and suppression, rather than Twitter simply enforcing its policies. What needs to be demonstrated, to me, is that the majority of banned provably conservative accounts were not banned for violating Twitter's terms of service, but for their political views, and that an equal or greater ratio of provably liberal accounts with equal or greater following which violated Twitter's terms of service were not banned, in order for political bias to be the more likely reason for the treatment of conservatives.
    - shard972 8y ago
      What if I told you that twitters TOS itself is bias against conservatives? Your whole argument seems premised on the idea that twitters TOS is completely neutral.
      - krapp 8y ago
        >What if I told you that twitters TOS itself is bias against conservatives? Here is Twitter's TOS[0], I'd ask you to prove it. [0]https://twitter.com/en/tos https://twitter.com/en/tos
ethagknight 8y ago
Call it paranoia, but I have long felt that twitter suppresses my own tweets on “hot” political topics (I.e. 0 interaction, 0 in-person comments or discussion), whereas literally every tweet a make gets some reactions. It’s just too uncanny to miss, yet I have no ability to prove. I’ve even paid considerably to promote tweets on a mildly controversial topic that got next to no interactions.. never again will I pay twitter like that. EDIT- re: the article and I don’t see this discussed elsewhere, I wonder if left leaning people are just 4x more likely to use the “flag as offensive” feature, leading Twitter to process and prosecute more conservative viewpoints?
- shard972 8y ago
  It's already quite known to a few people that there are many words that will trigger twitter to push your tweets under the "show more". For example: Tranny. If you say that word in any context, your tweet will not show up in many of your followers timelines and if it was a reply it will only show up if you hit show more at least once. Maybe thats a good thing overall, but I can't help think about the long term effects when the words you can and cannot say can't easily be understood and we end up in some kind of world where only the most sanitized advertiser friendly tweets are the only ones your able to see without having to dig around all the time.
  - mc32 8y ago
    Are you certain? In mechanics’ circles that has a completely neutral meaning. Doubt Twitter is so simplistic it can’t figure out people are talking about drivetrain transmissions.
timonoko 8y ago
It is worse in other countries without "free speech"-clauses in constitution. Twitter has very active role in general elections in many countries in Europe. Only in Deutschland this issue can be corrected by suing Twitter. Other countries do not even have suitable legislation, because only government (and elected spokespersons) have "free speech".

29 points by andrenth 8y ago

nrev 8y ago

I don’t use Twitter much, but I have noticed the reverse is true on Facebook.

yesenadam 8y ago
Doesn't that entirely depend on who your friends are, and what they post?

woah 8y ago

Very shaky methods. He doesn’t even tell us who is on his list of 21 unfairly banned trump supporters

ethagknight 8y ago
>> Very shaky methods. He doesn’t even tell us who is on his list of 21 unfairly banned trump supporters he provided his whole database of users tracked Edited to remove snark
- woah 8y ago
  The link doesn’t work on my phone and he doesn’t spend any time discussing the cases. The article is not actually written about the “data”, it is simply there to add some kind of impression of rigor.

dev_north_east 8y ago

Not a big Twitter user (never tweeted and only follow a small amount of people/services) and I've seen this again and again. I didn't really think it was in dispute?

globlist 8y ago
If it doesn't fit the narrative, it's in dispute.

zimpenfish 8y ago

Anecdata: Given the number of left/liberal people I've seen on my timeline/lists suspended for innocuous replies to harassment, the number of posts about Twitter support not suspending conservative harassers (POTUS being a prime example!), and the fairly strong conservative bias of Quillette, I'll be needing a bag of salt and a lot more proof than this article provides.

shard972 8y ago
> Twitter support not suspending conservative harassers (POTUS being a prime example!), Thats a pretty poor example. The simple reality is that @potus won't be banned as it will immediately sow the seeds of twitters own destruction. If you think twitter is bigger than the president of the USA, then im not sure what else to say. If you want to point to examples as evidence, then what about Kathy Griffith? She can post herself holding a decapitated head of the president and sick mobs on school children because they smirked wearing a maga hat and yet shes not banned.
- zimpenfish 8y ago
  > If you think twitter is bigger than the president of the USA Why would it not be? It's a worldwide thing, not just for some provincial colony. > She can post herself holding a decapitated head of the president Which was clearly a joke. > and sick mobs on school children Yep, I'd agree she should be suspended for that.
ethagknight 8y ago
It would be more helpful to provide substance to this claim rather than tossing a smoke grenade on the matter? Who are the left leaning people you’ve seen suspended?
- zimpenfish 8y ago
  Here's a few to get you started. https://twitter.com/zozie_kicks/status/1078008088978956289 https://twitter.com/zozie_kicks/status/1078008088978956289 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-political-account-ban-us-mid-term-elections https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-political-account-ba... https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/twitter-suspends-krang-t-nelson/ https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/twitter-suspends-krang-t-ne...

benj111 8y ago

This is poor reasoning. The average Trump supporter may be no more likely to break Twitters TOS, we aren't looking at the average here, we are looking at the outliers. 22 bans is absolutely insignificant compared to the millions of users, you can't extrapolate that out to all Trump voters or even the average Trump voter, therefore his argument makes no sense.

mc32 8y ago
True, but let’s say a ridiculous ToS had any mention of Marxist ideology as a violation. That would have an inherent bias against people on the Democratic side.
- benj111 8y ago
  Are you equating Marxism with Nazism??? I'd accept a Stalism/Nazism (or maoism) equivocation. Marxism is not like Nazism.
  - mc32 8y ago
    No. I’m saying _if_ they instituted an unfounded TOS against Marxism, that would have an inherent bias. I purposely left Maoism and Stalinism out due to their fascist nature. Let’s say they were owned by Exxon, their TOS had that talking the negative aspects of fossil fuels was a violation, that would have an inherent anti Democrat bias, even if they didn’t have a stated anti Democrat bias.
    - benj111 8y ago
      Ok, sorry. Was anyone accusing them of having an anti right wing TOS? In general I agree with you, but I think you'd have a hell of a time teasing apart the politics of it. Eg if a rule said all statements had to be scientifically proven, is that anti right wing? Is that even wrong in and of itself? How would you balance that out?
      - deleted 8y ago

tonetheman 8y ago

I do not think this says much about Twitter the analysis is shaky at best. What it does clearly say is that Conservatives are much more likely to threaten/harass/abuse other online. It is the lack of empathy for fellow humans that is part of the makeup that comes with Conservatives... Twitter just amplifies it.

zimpenfish 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_suspensions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_suspensions certainly seems to back up the harassment angle.

mcphage 8y ago

> Are prominent Trump supporters more likely to break neutrally applied social media terms of service agreements than other voters? Perhaps. But are they four or more times as likely? That doesn’t seem credible. That seems perfectly credible.

shard972 8y ago
If so, wouldn't that mean that twitter is credibly bias towards progressives?
- krapp 8y ago
  The null hypothesis here is that Twitter is biased against users who violate their terms of service, and that if conservatives violate Twitter's terms of service more often than progressives, they appear to be subjected to "harsher" treatment, which is interpreted by conservatives as an organized campaign of anti-conservative bias and suppression, rather than Twitter simply enforcing its policies. What needs to be demonstrated, to me, is that the majority of banned provably conservative accounts were not banned for violating Twitter's terms of service, but for their political views, and that an equal or greater ratio of provably liberal accounts with equal or greater following which violated Twitter's terms of service were not banned, in order for political bias to be the more likely reason for the treatment of conservatives.
  - shard972 8y ago
    What if I told you that twitters TOS itself is bias against conservatives? Your whole argument seems premised on the idea that twitters TOS is completely neutral.
    - krapp 8y ago
      >What if I told you that twitters TOS itself is bias against conservatives? Here is Twitter's TOS[0], I'd ask you to prove it. [0]https://twitter.com/en/tos https://twitter.com/en/tos

ethagknight 8y ago

Call it paranoia, but I have long felt that twitter suppresses my own tweets on “hot” political topics (I.e. 0 interaction, 0 in-person comments or discussion), whereas literally every tweet a make gets some reactions. It’s just too uncanny to miss, yet I have no ability to prove. I’ve even paid considerably to promote tweets on a mildly controversial topic that got next to no interactions.. never again will I pay twitter like that. EDIT- re: the article and I don’t see this discussed elsewhere, I wonder if left leaning people are just 4x more likely to use the “flag as offensive” feature, leading Twitter to process and prosecute more conservative viewpoints?

shard972 8y ago
It's already quite known to a few people that there are many words that will trigger twitter to push your tweets under the "show more". For example: Tranny. If you say that word in any context, your tweet will not show up in many of your followers timelines and if it was a reply it will only show up if you hit show more at least once. Maybe thats a good thing overall, but I can't help think about the long term effects when the words you can and cannot say can't easily be understood and we end up in some kind of world where only the most sanitized advertiser friendly tweets are the only ones your able to see without having to dig around all the time.
- mc32 8y ago
  Are you certain? In mechanics’ circles that has a completely neutral meaning. Doubt Twitter is so simplistic it can’t figure out people are talking about drivetrain transmissions.

timonoko 8y ago

It is worse in other countries without "free speech"-clauses in constitution. Twitter has very active role in general elections in many countries in Europe. Only in Deutschland this issue can be corrected by suing Twitter. Other countries do not even have suitable legislation, because only government (and elected spokespersons) have "free speech".