9 ms·
Defining Public Interest on Twitter
- ng12 7y agoI'm confused. What's an example of a tweet from a government official which breaks the rules but deserves to be kept up?
- DSingularity 7y agoAny tweet from Trump which actively bullies his political opponents through name calling can probably be considered a violation of Twitter terms.
- judge2020 7y agohttps://twitter.com/Policy/status/912438046515220480 https://twitter.com/Policy/status/912438046515220480
- mrguyorama 7y agoHoly shit the responses to that tweet are basically all culled
- slg 7y agoThreatening violence is against Twitter's rules and yet world leaders have threatened war on Twitter. Those tweets deserve to stay up because they have public value, but Twitter needs some concrete policy on why a world leader saying they will "obliterate Iran" is different than a random person saying they will assault another random person. I am not sure this policy is a good answer to that, but they needed to do something.
- djrogers 7y ago> a world leader saying they will "obliterate Iran" It's also worth noting that saying they would "obliterate Iran" under a specific set of circumstances is completely different from saying they will "obliterate Iran". One is an (admittedly blunt) form of diplomatic and political threat, the other is a statement deliberately taken out of context to make someone look worse than they already do.
- slg 7y agoI disagree. One of the primary aspects of many threats is defining the specific criteria that would lead to violence. The point of a threat is usually not to actually inflict the violence but instead to use that possibility of violence as a motivation for changing behavior. It is roughly equivalent to preemptive terrorism. I therefore don't see how putting qualifications on the threat of violence should be enough to circumvent the rules. I would still expect to get in trouble for saying "I will kill you if you ever state that political opinion again" even though the threatened party could easily avoid any fear of violence by simply refraining from stating that opinion.
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y agoI suspect the answer is less “deserves to be kept up” and more “mustn't be pulled down lest we risk the wrath of or lose the attention caused by having the author”. Can you imagine if Twitter suspended the current President of the United States? They'd have the Republican political machine at their throats and lose a ton of attention and thus ad revenue that they currently get from his tweets.
- mrguyorama 7y agoMy understanding is that the president's tweets have also been found to be essentially public property, meaning twitter cannot take them down anyway
- vntok 7y agoTwitter can take them down as they wish. It is upon the office of the president to archive his tweets.
- ceejayoz 7y agoGiven that Twitter's removed tweets saying things like "go jump in a lake" (https://observer.com/2018/10/twitter-ban-adrian-benepe-donald-trump-double-standard/ https://observer.com/2018/10/twitter-ban-adrian-benepe-donal...), stuff like https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1021234525626609666 https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/10212345256266096... seem pretty clear violations.
- DSingularity 7y agoCritical. I applaud them taking leadership here. I feel like the climate of the internet has us in a nasty quagmire where these companies are find themselves in a “damned if they don’t but perhaps double-damned if they do” kind of impasse. So kudos to twitter for actually trying. I really hope they create a system whereby the public can audit their decisions and deliberations.
- creaghpatr 7y ago>When a Tweet has this notice placed on it, it will feature less prominently on Twitter, and not appear in: >Safe search >Timeline when switched to Top Tweets >Live events pages >Recommended Tweet push notifications >Notifications tab >Explore Getting out in front of the 2020 election, I see. Better conform to Twitter's code of conduct if you want to maximize reach! Edit: Good time to get to know who will be making the decisions on throttling exposure- do not cross these groups! https://about.twitter.com/en_us/safety/safety-partners.html https://about.twitter.com/en_us/safety/safety-partners.html
- neuronexmachina 7y agoWhich of Twitter's rules do you think are inappropriate? https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules
- malvosenior 7y agoIt's not that they're inappropriate, it's that they will be enforced selectively.
- creaghpatr 7y agoI do think the impact of this will be overstated, in the big picture. The vast majority of Americans (and people) don't use Twitter. An editorial tag from twitter isn't really going to change the impact of a tweet in my opinion, other than limiting its exposure on Twitter itself. But it would be hilarious if news orgs use this as a cue to give trigger warnings when they quote a tagged tweet. "Warning: the tweet we are about to show you violates Twitter's trust and safety rules; hide your children before we reveal what [prominent public figure] tweeted!"
- cameronbrown 7y agoThe words spoken on Twitter go far beyond the website's members. Tweets are plastered all over TV and news websites.
- creaghpatr 7y ago1 point by creaghpatr 1 minute ago | parent | edit | delete [-] | on: Twitter adds labels for tweets that break its rule... >When a Tweet has this notice placed on it, it will feature less prominently on Twitter, and not appear in: >Safe search >Timeline when switched to Top Tweets >Live events pages >Recommended Tweet push notifications >Notifications tab >Explore Getting out in front of the 2020 election, I see. Better conform to Twitter's code of conduct if you want to maximize reach! Good time to get to know who will be making the decisions on throttling exposure- do not cross these groups! https://about.twitter.com/en_us/safety/safety-partners.html https://about.twitter.com/en_us/safety/safety-partners.html
- dang 7y agoPlease don't cross-post like this. Repetition lowers the signal/noise ratio. Also, it makes merging the threads a nightmare.
- sergiotapia 7y agoThey are going _all out_ for this next election. Look for more and more censorship coming from these big corporations. Wolves in sheeps clothing. This political cartoon sums it up nicely. https://i.imgur.com/kLkMthu.png https://i.imgur.com/kLkMthu.png
- CapricornNoble 7y agoMigrate to an alternative app, such as Parler, ASAP.
- judge2020 7y agoWhy does this decision change anything? They've been allowing rule-breaking material from politicians for a while, they just now let the user know and prevent the rule-breaking content from spreading.
- CapricornNoble 7y agoI guess it shouldn't change when one migrates off of Twitter: the action should be undertaken regardless.
- rrggrr 7y agoThis is one big reason Twitter hasn't been (and may not be) acquired. Who needs this headache and expense? This isn't as disturbing as Vimeo's takedown of Project Veritas, or the bias exposed in their video, but the trend is seriously alarming.
- malvosenior 7y agoTwitter is a public company. They don't need to be acquired. I totally agree with the second part of your statement though.
- matchbok 7y agoProject Veritas is nonsense. Nothing they have ever reported has been factual. Good on them for removing it.
- eanzenberg 7y agoI never understood the blind obedience towards Google vs. pretty much every other tech company. Is it historical?
- aphextim 7y agoI do agree that their content is usually over-edited and over the top which tends to make them look not as professional. However if they were to always publish things like this which are factually incorrect and untrue they would be sued for libel. Oh look they have been sued for libel many many times. Try a google search for "project veritas libel suit" and see how many convictions you find.
- 6cd6beb 7y ago>We're not going to delete it but we're going to algorithmically prevent discovery Tech monoliths like facebook, google, and twitter are starting to show very obvious political biases. If we push them to be equitable to differing opinions, they basically get to continue enforcing their own political biases because we can only ever do blackbox testing. God knows what the backend is doing. If we push them to own their biases try to get more platforms representing differing political opinions, we create admitted echo chambers and further polarize a political climate (in the USA) where we're already arguing whether communists or nazis are trying to destroy the country. This is a complex problem without an easy solution but it's not unreasonable to bet twitter is going to abuse this new feature to either allow people they like to blatantly violate the rules (without actually algorithmically demoting the tweets, people will ignore the notice) or effectively shadowban people they don't like without explaining why a tweet doesn't follow the ToS until the subject matter is out of the news cycle.
- driverdan 7y ago> Tech monoliths like facebook, google, and twitter are starting to show very obvious political biases. How is this policy political bias? If one political group makes more calls to violence or for discrimination than another perhaps the problem is with the group, not Twitter.
- creaghpatr 7y agoBecause political advocacy groups consult Twitter on what constitutes violations: https://about.twitter.com/en_us/safety/safety-partners.html https://about.twitter.com/en_us/safety/safety-partners.html
- TheHypnotist 7y agoWhich specifically do you have a problem with?
- sdinsn 7y agoIf not political advocacy groups, who would be a better consultant choice? Isn't the entire purpose of advocacy groups to encourage the safety of certain groups?
- malvosenior 7y agoNo company should be attempting to define what's in public interest. Especially not Twitter. There's huge information asymmetry not to mention that they've already demonstrated themselves as being not even remotely politically neutral.
- orblivion 7y agoWhy the special treatment for politicians? I could imagine Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos saying something edgy and of similar significance.
- creaghpatr 7y agoElon already has the SEC getting on him for his tweets, I imagine they would go after Bezos too. Both would face shareholder lawsuits for anything sufficiently controversial, so it probably doesn't need to be as much of a priority for Twitter.
- Fjolsvith 7y agoOkay what about celebrities? Charlie Sheen has tweeted some far out stuff.
- 6cd6beb 7y ago>We're not going to delete it but we're going to algorithmically prevent discovery Tech monoliths like facebook, google, and twitter are starting to show very obvious political biases. If we push them to be equitable to differing opinions, they basically get to continue enforcing their own political biases because we can only ever do blackbox testing. God knows what the backend is doing. If we push them to own their biases try to get more platforms representing differing political opinions, we create admitted echo chambers and further polarize a political climate (in the USA) where we're already arguing whether communists or nazis are trying to destroy the country. This is a complex problem without an easy solution but it's not unreasonable to bet twitter is going to abuse this new feature to either allow people they like to blatantly violate the rules (without actually algorithmically demoting the tweets, people will ignore the notice) or effectively shadowban people they don't like without explaining why a tweet doesn't follow the ToS until the subject matter is out of the news cycle.
- Jerry2 7y agoIn the past few years, Big Tech has gone full Orwellian. I fear for our future.
- anarchy8 7y agoThis is hardly a serious example of being Orwellian. Out of all the good examples, this isn't one of them.
- m3kw9 7y agoWhen a offensive twit with 1 million plus followers that gets news about why it was not moderated, this will shut up those high horse talkers.
- chipperyman573 7y ago>When a Tweet has this notice placed on it, it will feature less prominently on Twitter, and not appear in [...] Timeline when switched to Top Tweets Oh good, another reason to always sort chronologically (until Twitter removes the ability to do so)
- Proven 7y ago> Over time, public interest and how it’s defined on Twitter may change as we observe different types of behavior. In other words, so-called public interest doesn't exist, it's just an excuse used by Titter to shape opinions and censor political opponents. Unlike around last election, this time Twitter will lose influence and users.