5 ms·

Ignore the NYPost for the moment. A US government website put the details on their website. Twitter is now blocking the US government webpage hosting the detai

Ignore the NYPost for the moment. A US government website put the details on their website. Twitter is now blocking the US government webpage hosting the details. They are blocking actual politicians linking these details. https://twitter.com/CongressmanHice/status/1316741807959572490/photo/1 https://twitter.com/CongressmanHice/status/13167418079595724... Worse yet, they have highlighted the exact opposite story. They are featuring washington post who are calling it false. https://twitter.com/i/events/1316398754883272704 https://twitter.com/i/events/1316398754883272704 I'm not an American. Any Americans want to weigh in on your views of this?

jchw 6y ago
Well, if it is false, then they are performing the stated goal of stopping the spread of “fake news”, which need not discriminate on whether the entity pushing it is associated with a government or not. Whether or not I want Twitter to be an arbiter of truth, some very basic research does seem to make it seem this story is a bit on the order of a conspiracy theory.
- sleepysysadmin 6y ago
  Just out of curiosity, what is your political persuasion? Do you tend to lean more democrat or republican? >which need not discriminate on whether the entity pushing it is associated with a government or not. I was ignoring the NYPost, to judge action taken by Twitter. Twitter should never ever censor a government website regardless for what it says. >Whether or not I want Twitter to be an arbiter of truth, some very basic research does seem to make it seem this story is a bit on the order of a conspiracy theory. Do you want Twitter to be the arbiter of truth? My usual source of Democrat/Left news is Msnbc. For whatever reason they are not covering the story at all. Can enlighten me on why it seems to be a conspiracy theory?
  - arcatech 6y ago
    The "arbiter of truth" argument is weak. I want the people at Twitter and other platforms to be able to make decisions about whether something is a fact or misinformation. If they get it wrong, fine. We can use other platforms if we don't like the decisions one makes. But I'm tired of the idea that they should NEVER be able to even try to recognize the difference between truth and lies.
    - luckylion 6y ago
      > But I'm tired of the idea that they should NEVER be able to even try to recognize the difference between truth and lies. But that's not what they are doing, is it? They are recognizing the difference between potential truths that would benefit whomever they are politically aligned with from potential truths that would benefit whomever they aren't politically aligned with. They don't ask for truth, proof or anything similar, they ask for consequences, and whether those consequences appear to be good for their political agenda.
- Simulacra 6y ago
  There’s a photo of Hunter Biden with a crack pipe in his mouth, and emails discussing his father while he was vice president and the exchange of money. That’s not a conspiracy theory.
- sleepysysadmin 6y ago
  Follow up. Twitter has come out saying they blocked this because of personal identifying information. Not because it's false, fake, or a conspiracy.
  - svrb 6y ago
    Which is odd, since they've also made definitive claims that they blocked it because it's "hacked" and yet more definitive claims that they blocked it because it's "leaked". They can't even get their story straight; and with their audience who will support their every move, they don't need to.
    - onepointsixC 6y ago
      If they are blocking it because it was "leaked" why did they not have as similar stand on Trump's taxes? That one was actually illegal to leak. They don't have a good excuse for what appears to be a wholly partisan action.
tt433 6y ago
Would not be the first time the US government has transparently tried to lie about and smear families of government critics.
- sleepysysadmin 6y ago
  >Would not be the first time the US government has transparently tried to lie about and smear families of government critics. While the leak is obviously timed to directly impact the election. They no doubt have been sitting on the information for months or longer. What do you think about Twitter outright censoring the entire subject? It only makes me want to know more.
  - tt433 6y ago
    I know the actors who advanced the theory into the public sphere, and I'm familiar with their past work. I'm content drawing my own assumptions about their bad faith.
ikeboy 6y ago
Note that the link you posted does not support your claim that twitter is blocking it - it shows a warning before posting but allows one to continue and post the link.
hackinthebochs 6y ago
I have been pretty vocal about being against censorship from social media companies. But with the stakes being as high as they are this close to an election (not just this particular election, but any election in general), I see no problem with social media companies deciding they will not be a party to the spread of misinformation intended to sway the election. These companies are not neutral communication platforms; they have no duty to neutrality. Although I agree they should remain neutral as much as reasonable, drawing the line at election manipulation is perfectly reasonable and consistent.
- holler 6y ago
  With the stakes being as high as they are, wouldn’t we want to know if there’s a crumb of truth to the allegations? A President beholden to shady foreign actors doesn’t sound like a good idea. Likewise if it’s false then let that come out. The bigger problem is that journalists/newspapers are no longer the arbiters of truth, and instead the distributors are.
  - hackinthebochs 6y ago
    >With the stakes being as high as they are, wouldn’t we want to know if there’s a crumb of truth to the allegations? Sure, but this will not be adjudicated on twitter. Letting the unverified and extremely suspicious story spread on twitter does nothing to bring us closer to the truth. On the contrary, the truth is harmed by the unchecked spread of misinformation because the truth doesn't have the same viral quality as lies.
    - holler 6y ago
      > Sure, but this will not be adjudicated on twitter. I agree with this, but I think Facebook & Twitter shot themselves in the foot by allowing rampant & salacious accusatory headlines to run across their platform unhindered during the past 4 years. There are numerous examples from alleged pee tapes to collusion, and general he said she said. That's the issue I see at least.
riffic 6y ago
If the US government wants to they could host their own ActivityPub[0] compliant application and do whatever it wants from its server infrastructure. The technology exists for the public sector to disentangle itself from these commercial platforms. I don't know why pols and journos are so blind to this. [0] This is a W3C Recommendation -- a protocol, by the words of Wikipedia that is in "the most mature stage of development. At this point, the standard has undergone extensive review and testing, under both theoretical and practical conditions. The standard is now endorsed by the W3C, indicating its readiness for deployment to the public, and encouraging more widespread support among implementors and authors." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium#W3C_recommendation_(REC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium#W3C_...

jchw 6y ago

Well, if it is false, then they are performing the stated goal of stopping the spread of “fake news”, which need not discriminate on whether the entity pushing it is associated with a government or not. Whether or not I want Twitter to be an arbiter of truth, some very basic research does seem to make it seem this story is a bit on the order of a conspiracy theory.

sleepysysadmin 6y ago
Just out of curiosity, what is your political persuasion? Do you tend to lean more democrat or republican? >which need not discriminate on whether the entity pushing it is associated with a government or not. I was ignoring the NYPost, to judge action taken by Twitter. Twitter should never ever censor a government website regardless for what it says. >Whether or not I want Twitter to be an arbiter of truth, some very basic research does seem to make it seem this story is a bit on the order of a conspiracy theory. Do you want Twitter to be the arbiter of truth? My usual source of Democrat/Left news is Msnbc. For whatever reason they are not covering the story at all. Can enlighten me on why it seems to be a conspiracy theory?
- arcatech 6y ago
  The "arbiter of truth" argument is weak. I want the people at Twitter and other platforms to be able to make decisions about whether something is a fact or misinformation. If they get it wrong, fine. We can use other platforms if we don't like the decisions one makes. But I'm tired of the idea that they should NEVER be able to even try to recognize the difference between truth and lies.
  - luckylion 6y ago
    > But I'm tired of the idea that they should NEVER be able to even try to recognize the difference between truth and lies. But that's not what they are doing, is it? They are recognizing the difference between potential truths that would benefit whomever they are politically aligned with from potential truths that would benefit whomever they aren't politically aligned with. They don't ask for truth, proof or anything similar, they ask for consequences, and whether those consequences appear to be good for their political agenda.
Simulacra 6y ago
There’s a photo of Hunter Biden with a crack pipe in his mouth, and emails discussing his father while he was vice president and the exchange of money. That’s not a conspiracy theory.
sleepysysadmin 6y ago
Follow up. Twitter has come out saying they blocked this because of personal identifying information. Not because it's false, fake, or a conspiracy.
- svrb 6y ago
  Which is odd, since they've also made definitive claims that they blocked it because it's "hacked" and yet more definitive claims that they blocked it because it's "leaked". They can't even get their story straight; and with their audience who will support their every move, they don't need to.
  - onepointsixC 6y ago
    If they are blocking it because it was "leaked" why did they not have as similar stand on Trump's taxes? That one was actually illegal to leak. They don't have a good excuse for what appears to be a wholly partisan action.

tt433 6y ago

Would not be the first time the US government has transparently tried to lie about and smear families of government critics.

sleepysysadmin 6y ago
>Would not be the first time the US government has transparently tried to lie about and smear families of government critics. While the leak is obviously timed to directly impact the election. They no doubt have been sitting on the information for months or longer. What do you think about Twitter outright censoring the entire subject? It only makes me want to know more.
- tt433 6y ago
  I know the actors who advanced the theory into the public sphere, and I'm familiar with their past work. I'm content drawing my own assumptions about their bad faith.

ikeboy 6y ago

Note that the link you posted does not support your claim that twitter is blocking it - it shows a warning before posting but allows one to continue and post the link.

hackinthebochs 6y ago

I have been pretty vocal about being against censorship from social media companies. But with the stakes being as high as they are this close to an election (not just this particular election, but any election in general), I see no problem with social media companies deciding they will not be a party to the spread of misinformation intended to sway the election. These companies are not neutral communication platforms; they have no duty to neutrality. Although I agree they should remain neutral as much as reasonable, drawing the line at election manipulation is perfectly reasonable and consistent.

holler 6y ago
With the stakes being as high as they are, wouldn’t we want to know if there’s a crumb of truth to the allegations? A President beholden to shady foreign actors doesn’t sound like a good idea. Likewise if it’s false then let that come out. The bigger problem is that journalists/newspapers are no longer the arbiters of truth, and instead the distributors are.
- hackinthebochs 6y ago
  >With the stakes being as high as they are, wouldn’t we want to know if there’s a crumb of truth to the allegations? Sure, but this will not be adjudicated on twitter. Letting the unverified and extremely suspicious story spread on twitter does nothing to bring us closer to the truth. On the contrary, the truth is harmed by the unchecked spread of misinformation because the truth doesn't have the same viral quality as lies.
  - holler 6y ago
    > Sure, but this will not be adjudicated on twitter. I agree with this, but I think Facebook & Twitter shot themselves in the foot by allowing rampant & salacious accusatory headlines to run across their platform unhindered during the past 4 years. There are numerous examples from alleged pee tapes to collusion, and general he said she said. That's the issue I see at least.

riffic 6y ago

If the US government wants to they could host their own ActivityPub[0] compliant application and do whatever it wants from its server infrastructure. The technology exists for the public sector to disentangle itself from these commercial platforms. I don't know why pols and journos are so blind to this. [0] This is a W3C Recommendation -- a protocol, by the words of Wikipedia that is in "the most mature stage of development. At this point, the standard has undergone extensive review and testing, under both theoretical and practical conditions. The standard is now endorsed by the W3C, indicating its readiness for deployment to the public, and encouraging more widespread support among implementors and authors." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium#W3C_recommendation_(REC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium#W3C_...