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I clicked on their 'Platform manipulation' link to find out what they mean by that phrase. Early on it says: "We want Twitter to be a place where people can ma
by 8bitsrule 7y ago
I clicked on their 'Platform manipulation' link to find out what they mean by that phrase. Early on it says:
"We want Twitter to be a place where people can make human connections, find reliable information, and express themselves freely and safely."
I don't see how bulk-created accounts are consistent with that 'mission' statement. What kind of 'human connection' might result from a bulk account someone paid Twitter to create? How 'reliable' might info from a bulk account be? Why else would someone create a bulk account, except to manipulate people?
Appears they're blind to their own hypocrisy? Further on, at the top of their manipulations list they mention "commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to ..."
Yeah. Uh, the Twitter feed contains a constant gush of paid-for spam that is intended to do exactly that.
- notatoad 7y agoI think you misunderstand. You cannot pay twitter (or facebook, google, or any other platform) to create accounts in bulk. that's not a service they provide. Spammers sell accounts in bulk that they have illicitly created or gained access to. Measuring how much those "bulk accounts" cost relative to accounts on other similarly desirable platforms is an effective way to measure how effective a platform is at rooting out spammers and preventing fake & bulk-purchased accounts.
- 8bitsrule 7y agoIt's easy to misunderstand; that was exactly my point. The statement about "commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to ..." applies perfectly to all of the paid-for advertising. Ever have a problem on Twitter finding your threads because of the 'commercially-motivated spam' of paid-for ads thickly laid on? Ever miss seeing a message someone left? The ads obviously and continuously break up the conversation between human beings to encourage them to visit promotional sites. The difference between paid and unpaid spam is an economical one for Twitter; for the user its a deluge of distractions. You could argue that the paid-for commercial advertising is 'saner' or 'nicer' or 'less damaging' than the agenda-pushing bulk accounts. But in the end, both are 'manipulating the platform'. 'Making human connections' has become an ancillary goal.