5 ms·

>”They have extremely rigid standards for people of one viewpoint and very loose standards for people of another.” It only seems that way to you because you’re

by pavlov 6y ago

>”They have extremely rigid standards for people of one viewpoint and very loose standards for people of another.” It only seems that way to you because you’re seeing only one side getting arbitrarily suspended. My left-leaning Twitter feed has for years been regularly full of people complaining about how Twitter censors black women, activists, feminists and sex workers, while not doing enough against white supremacists, etc. Probably the truth is that the standards are just unevenly rigid one day, loose the other, depending on who catches their attention. Policing hundreds of millions of active users is nearly impossible, and adding automated systems increases the risk of false positives.

chrissnell 6y ago
No doubt that's true on the level of the average user like you and me. What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me. Perhaps prominent members of other groups are targeted similarly--it wouldn't surprise me.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  To be honest, every single time I dig in to a conservative complaining "they are singling me out for my views!!" I do more research and find that it is 99% bullshit. Not 100% bullshit mind you, because it's that 1% that is nominally true so they can leave out the rest of the context. Here is a more complete discussion of Prager's charges of censorship, and in my opinion they are laughable: https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-billion-video-views-a-year-decries-youtube-censorship/ https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-bil...
  - orf 6y ago
    > "Respectfully, senator, that's not right," replied Bhatia, explaining that those videos contained mature topics—murder, rape, etc. He reiterated that they are still visible to the "98.5 percent" of YouTube users who do not opt for restricted mode. Who would have thought that another conservative story about censorship would turn out to be bullshit. It’s not like the people parroting them have the impetuous to check though, it’s much easier and more comfortable to drone on about “YouTube blocking a video about the 10 commandments” over and over until it becomes your reality, where you’re persecuted.
- wilsynet 6y ago
  Are you referring to Donald Trump?
- chandra381 6y ago
  Multiple studies have shown that Facebook and twitter do not censor conservatives. This has been well established and anyone who argues otherwise is either ignorant or arguing from a position of bad faith. https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again-that-facebook-doesnt-censor-conservatives/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again... > What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me I find this extremely ironic given that the slogan "facts don't care about your feelings" is attributed to conservatives in particular
  - xpaqui 6y ago
    All the "conservatives/libertarians" I've followed on youtube have been both demonetized and had videos suspended. It's a small sample size but all?!, what a coincidence. From the "left leaning" channels I follow I've not seen the same complain. I don't follow anyone on facebook or twitter I can't vouch for those, maybe it's just youtube who does all the censoring.
    - phatfish 6y ago
      Maybe if you name/link them we can decide if it was reasonable or not.
      - xpaqui 6y ago
        On youtube Joe Rogan, Sargon of Akkad, Viva Frey, Academic Agent, Thunderf00t, 1791
    - antris 6y ago
      In general "conservatives" seem to have a harder time following TOS on hate speech, bullying, racism, sexism etc.
      - collyw 6y ago
        https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click
- SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago
  It’s weird to claim that YouTube has a bias against right wing media and then shrug and say well I have no idea if left wing media suffers equally arbitrary censorship or not. That makes no sense as a stance.
roenxi 6y ago
What happens at the margins is probably random and depends on which moderator was having a bad day. But the Trump ban is quite different, especially since they gave a formal and thought-out justification [0]. The tweets that they quote are simply innocuous. The ban isn't justified based on the tweets, and was either a panicked response to the news with no investigation or a very thinly veiled political move. I think the right wing has reason to claim bias from that one. What is the closest parallel with that involving a left wing figure? [0] https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspensio...
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  It is disingenuous to say those tweets are "simply innocuous" without the context of what was going on and what the President did that very day. I've posted this before, and while I agree that those are far from his most egregious tweets, given the fact of the insurrection at the Capitol, the ban doesn't seem unjustified at all. Especially since there are now many videos coming out from the insurrection of the rioters believing they are acting in accordance with Trump's wishes.
  - roenxi 6y ago
    For the sake of argument, Ok. I'll not argue with that. I shall assume that the context of the situation justified the ban. But why then did Twitter quote two tweets? The tweets do not support the decision. They could just have said "based on context off Twitter, we are banning Trump". The fact that they didn't makes me think they were scrambling and not thinking clearly. Their reading of the tweets is bizarre. Or maybe they being dishonest about their reasoning.
    - _djo_ 6y ago
      Because those two tweets, and the video, were both offering tacit support to people violently attacking the US Capitol and continuing to promote the egregious lie and conspiracy theory of a stolen election that was driving the attack in the first place. What made those tweets untenable was the changed circumstances of the attack on the Capitol and the knowledge that those engaged in it were relying on Trump's support and encouragement.

by pavlov 6y ago

chrissnell 6y ago

No doubt that's true on the level of the average user like you and me. What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me. Perhaps prominent members of other groups are targeted similarly--it wouldn't surprise me.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
To be honest, every single time I dig in to a conservative complaining "they are singling me out for my views!!" I do more research and find that it is 99% bullshit. Not 100% bullshit mind you, because it's that 1% that is nominally true so they can leave out the rest of the context. Here is a more complete discussion of Prager's charges of censorship, and in my opinion they are laughable: https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-billion-video-views-a-year-decries-youtube-censorship/ https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-bil...
- orf 6y ago
  > "Respectfully, senator, that's not right," replied Bhatia, explaining that those videos contained mature topics—murder, rape, etc. He reiterated that they are still visible to the "98.5 percent" of YouTube users who do not opt for restricted mode. Who would have thought that another conservative story about censorship would turn out to be bullshit. It’s not like the people parroting them have the impetuous to check though, it’s much easier and more comfortable to drone on about “YouTube blocking a video about the 10 commandments” over and over until it becomes your reality, where you’re persecuted.
wilsynet 6y ago
Are you referring to Donald Trump?
chandra381 6y ago
Multiple studies have shown that Facebook and twitter do not censor conservatives. This has been well established and anyone who argues otherwise is either ignorant or arguing from a position of bad faith. https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again-that-facebook-doesnt-censor-conservatives/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again... > What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me I find this extremely ironic given that the slogan "facts don't care about your feelings" is attributed to conservatives in particular
- xpaqui 6y ago
  All the "conservatives/libertarians" I've followed on youtube have been both demonetized and had videos suspended. It's a small sample size but all?!, what a coincidence. From the "left leaning" channels I follow I've not seen the same complain. I don't follow anyone on facebook or twitter I can't vouch for those, maybe it's just youtube who does all the censoring.
  - phatfish 6y ago
    Maybe if you name/link them we can decide if it was reasonable or not.
    - xpaqui 6y ago
      On youtube Joe Rogan, Sargon of Akkad, Viva Frey, Academic Agent, Thunderf00t, 1791
  - antris 6y ago
    In general "conservatives" seem to have a harder time following TOS on hate speech, bullying, racism, sexism etc.
    - collyw 6y ago
      https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click
SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago
It’s weird to claim that YouTube has a bias against right wing media and then shrug and say well I have no idea if left wing media suffers equally arbitrary censorship or not. That makes no sense as a stance.

roenxi 6y ago

What happens at the margins is probably random and depends on which moderator was having a bad day. But the Trump ban is quite different, especially since they gave a formal and thought-out justification [0]. The tweets that they quote are simply innocuous. The ban isn't justified based on the tweets, and was either a panicked response to the news with no investigation or a very thinly veiled political move. I think the right wing has reason to claim bias from that one. What is the closest parallel with that involving a left wing figure? [0] https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspensio...

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
It is disingenuous to say those tweets are "simply innocuous" without the context of what was going on and what the President did that very day. I've posted this before, and while I agree that those are far from his most egregious tweets, given the fact of the insurrection at the Capitol, the ban doesn't seem unjustified at all. Especially since there are now many videos coming out from the insurrection of the rioters believing they are acting in accordance with Trump's wishes.
- roenxi 6y ago
  For the sake of argument, Ok. I'll not argue with that. I shall assume that the context of the situation justified the ban. But why then did Twitter quote two tweets? The tweets do not support the decision. They could just have said "based on context off Twitter, we are banning Trump". The fact that they didn't makes me think they were scrambling and not thinking clearly. Their reading of the tweets is bizarre. Or maybe they being dishonest about their reasoning.
  - _djo_ 6y ago
    Because those two tweets, and the video, were both offering tacit support to people violently attacking the US Capitol and continuing to promote the egregious lie and conspiracy theory of a stolen election that was driving the attack in the first place. What made those tweets untenable was the changed circumstances of the attack on the Capitol and the knowledge that those engaged in it were relying on Trump's support and encouragement.