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Ask HN: Is Twitter Good for the World

2 points by quietthrow 7y ago

Dorsey says that twitter won’t censor demagogue leaders cos it promotes public conversation. While that is true it’s also being an avenue to spread hate, fear and divide people. There is only so much rational public conversation that can happen when public is stricken by strong emotions like hate and fear. If anything that states promotes more charged convos accelerating the divide even more. What’s the tipping point where twitter should consider banning such accounts? How is it fair that a few people at a company can decide on things that impacts so many people, governments and democracies in the world. As a thought experiment what would the world be like if there was no twitter or Facebook. On balance has their existence been positive for the world or negative?

lucozade 7y ago
I think it's very good of the management at Twitter that they have a policy of not censoring democratic leaders. I'm hopeful that there won't ever be a tipping point on the basis that it's probably a financially good decision as well as a politically fair one. There's no need for a thought experiment though. We know exactly what the world is like without the likes of Twitter and Facebook. What it looks like is a world where most information is very heavily filtered by a very small, self-selecting group. And through channels that were, usually, heavily editorialised and explicitly biased. I think it's too early to say whether they are a net force for good or not. My gut feeling is that they will push democracies to be much more direct than representative. I happen to think that this is likely to be a really bad thing but I don't know that for a fact.
- quietthrow 7y ago
  - the group may not be small here but the platform that enable this is run by a as you say small and self selecting group. In addition small self-selecting groups can exploit the masses as have been shown. -net net you are saying that twitter/fb will force democracies to be direct and in your personal opinion is a really bad thing but you are giving the benefit of doubt. Jury is out there but today we can see that because of these technologies democracies have been divided like never before and that is a fact.
luckylion 7y ago
> While that is true it’s also being an avenue to spread hate, fear and divide people. So is paper. Or language. Do you have the same stance on those two that you have on Twitter?
- quietthrow 7y ago
  True but its paper and language based dissemination of information takes time. and Time is a good catalyst of strengthening or weakening sudden emotions. It gives space for rational decision making. Realtime comms like twitter etc eliminate that space and hence in effect make it more easy to act emotionally without giving the space to rational behavior to provide a balanced action (individually and there by collectively).. There is a reason why gun sales usually have a waiting period.
  - luckylion 7y ago
    The time you need to send out counter-information is the same, though. If your information dissemination is slow then so is you correcting some fake news piece, or uncovering some government propaganda - if it's fast, then so is your ability to combat it. Since there's very little (besides actual lynch mobs which don't happen in Western societies any more) that has a very short time window, I don't see the momentary emotional uproar as a problem. Terrorists aren't attacking some target because they read a rumor on Twitter 30 minutes ago, they are immersed in an ideological framework that doesn't require real time communication. Remember, McVeigh didn't have Twitter.
krapp 7y ago
Twitter is neither good, nor bad. It's a platform, and given its size, most of what happens on it is completely banal. Twitter is also not a public utility, it's a private business whose owners have the right to manage it as they see fit, within the bounds of the law. The problem here is that Twitter has become far more important as a nexus for political communication and news than it should be. But television is also an avenue to spread hate, fear and divide people. So are newspapers. So is radio and the telephone. Every form of mass communication carries that potential - plenty of riots have been started with just pamphlets and word of mouth. Twitter is just one site on the greater web, and the web magnifies the rate at which information of all kinds spreads. Get rid of Twitter, or censor it, and you don't actually change anything but the specific channels through which information flows.

2 points by quietthrow 7y ago

lucozade 7y ago

I think it's very good of the management at Twitter that they have a policy of not censoring democratic leaders. I'm hopeful that there won't ever be a tipping point on the basis that it's probably a financially good decision as well as a politically fair one. There's no need for a thought experiment though. We know exactly what the world is like without the likes of Twitter and Facebook. What it looks like is a world where most information is very heavily filtered by a very small, self-selecting group. And through channels that were, usually, heavily editorialised and explicitly biased. I think it's too early to say whether they are a net force for good or not. My gut feeling is that they will push democracies to be much more direct than representative. I happen to think that this is likely to be a really bad thing but I don't know that for a fact.

quietthrow 7y ago
- the group may not be small here but the platform that enable this is run by a as you say small and self selecting group. In addition small self-selecting groups can exploit the masses as have been shown. -net net you are saying that twitter/fb will force democracies to be direct and in your personal opinion is a really bad thing but you are giving the benefit of doubt. Jury is out there but today we can see that because of these technologies democracies have been divided like never before and that is a fact.

luckylion 7y ago

> While that is true it’s also being an avenue to spread hate, fear and divide people. So is paper. Or language. Do you have the same stance on those two that you have on Twitter?

quietthrow 7y ago
True but its paper and language based dissemination of information takes time. and Time is a good catalyst of strengthening or weakening sudden emotions. It gives space for rational decision making. Realtime comms like twitter etc eliminate that space and hence in effect make it more easy to act emotionally without giving the space to rational behavior to provide a balanced action (individually and there by collectively).. There is a reason why gun sales usually have a waiting period.
- luckylion 7y ago
  The time you need to send out counter-information is the same, though. If your information dissemination is slow then so is you correcting some fake news piece, or uncovering some government propaganda - if it's fast, then so is your ability to combat it. Since there's very little (besides actual lynch mobs which don't happen in Western societies any more) that has a very short time window, I don't see the momentary emotional uproar as a problem. Terrorists aren't attacking some target because they read a rumor on Twitter 30 minutes ago, they are immersed in an ideological framework that doesn't require real time communication. Remember, McVeigh didn't have Twitter.

krapp 7y ago

Twitter is neither good, nor bad. It's a platform, and given its size, most of what happens on it is completely banal. Twitter is also not a public utility, it's a private business whose owners have the right to manage it as they see fit, within the bounds of the law. The problem here is that Twitter has become far more important as a nexus for political communication and news than it should be. But television is also an avenue to spread hate, fear and divide people. So are newspapers. So is radio and the telephone. Every form of mass communication carries that potential - plenty of riots have been started with just pamphlets and word of mouth. Twitter is just one site on the greater web, and the web magnifies the rate at which information of all kinds spreads. Get rid of Twitter, or censor it, and you don't actually change anything but the specific channels through which information flows.