4 ms·

If I check twitter in the morning, almost any "trending in Canada" topic that is political in nature is full of "firstnamebunchofnumbers" type accounts pushing

If I check twitter in the morning, almost any "trending in Canada" topic that is political in nature is full of "firstnamebunchofnumbers" type accounts pushing the trend. They are all very supportive of our right leaning political party...

throwaway894345 5y ago
Strange. I always get all far left-wing stuff, and it's not even high-quality left-wing argumentation but just the absolute sewer of left-wing rhetoric. I'm very curious whether Twitter's algorithm is designed (or exploited) to show us things that it thinks we'll agree with (I'm a moderate liberal, so maybe it thinks I'm a partisan and I'll just love extreme left-wing stuff?) or stuff it thinks we'll be angry about? Or maybe it shows everyone the same far-left drivel?
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  >I'm very curious whether Twitter's algorithm is designed (or exploited) to show us things that it thinks we'll agree with (I'm a moderate liberal, so maybe it thinks I'm a partisan and I'll just love extreme left-wing stuff?) or stuff it thinks we'll be angry about? Or maybe it shows everyone the same far-left drivel? My theory: There is no coherent theory of operations like "Show the leftists to the leftists"; rather, it's doing constant A/B-test-style optimization between drivel varieties to see which one best inspires the cohort matching your doomscrolling patterns to continue to scroll.
  - Fellshard 5y ago
    It's anecdotal, but my trending pane is usually filled with mostly hard left trends, the occasional right wing trend, with the left trends being frequently selected to be sloppily editorialized by Twitter staff. I'm certainly on the right wing. More likely, it'll show you what's likely to make you engage, and there's no quicker way than to show you things which make you angry.
    - pydry 5y ago
      What are some examples of hard left trends?
      - Fellshard 5y ago
        Usually directing attention to Twitter mobs by framing a given topic in a hard-left worldview. Usually this is done through passive voicing or bizarre whataboutism. Dug through some I've captured to share with others. https://imgur.com/a/8Ypqq4y https://imgur.com/a/8Ypqq4y Mind that most of these are going to be vague out of context, unless you recall the specific events surrounding them. They're there to stir the pot when it's already boiling, or to start a flame when they believe a subject deserves more outraged voices.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  Hmmm, I'm also a moderate liberal and my main Twitter stream reflects that, it's the trending topics that skew right for me. If you can call it "right", it's mostly invective, calls for resignation and skewed/unfounded criticisms of our Prime Minister. I mean, there is plenty of real stuff to criticize but the criticisms are mostly unfounded instead.
  - mandmandam 5y ago
    Are "moderate liberals" the ones who like Biden, don't mind the ongoing multiple wars in the ME, the incessant renewal of the Patriot Act, the treatment of Assange, etc? Not trynna antagonise, I'm genuiuely curious if all that bollocks is hiding behind the oh-so benign sounding "moderate liberal" label.
    - throwaway894345 5y ago
      Those are establishment politics, not moderate liberalism. But yeah, moderate liberal politicians (like politicians of all ideological brands) often act out of line with their professed ideology in favor of establishment interests. I'm a moderate liberal only in the sense that my politics tend to be moderately liberal, but "moderate liberals" aren't my tribe (indeed, I don't have a political tribe--I'm very independent in that regard). This is all to say that I don't take offense to criticism of other moderate liberals because how a few moderate liberals behave doesn't define me.
    - Ensorceled 5y ago
      I'm Canadian, so none of that crap applies to me ... The US democratic party platform is pretty "right" by Canadian standards.
  - jayspell 5y ago
    The Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma exposed the algorithms are designed to create "engagement" or clicks, that may look different for different people. If you happen to begin clicking links that make you angry you will have a feed that skews towards the kinds of posts that infuriate you (this is typical - rage really sucks most of us in). If you select links with puppies all day long, that is what you are going to get, puppies. I have personally seen this in my YouTube feed. If I select two or three videos on a particular topic all of the sudden my feed is filled with those videos. Personally it is really aggravating. I may want to watch one or two videos about JRR Tolkien, but I don't want to see a bunch of fan theory LOTR videos.
kevinmchugh 5y ago
FirstnameBunchofNumbers is I think just how Twitter creates new accounts these days. They removed the ability or requirement to come up with an @name, and just create it based on the first name of the user. What you're seeing is an artifact of when a certain demographic started using Twitter.
- Kye 5y ago
  It's just a return to numbernames. AOL did the same thing back in the 90s and 00s.
- jdashg 5y ago
  This is true, and while you can still change @name in the options, it is sort of buried in there.
can16358p 5y ago
I know another variant: alphanumeric usernames with exactly 8 characters. All lower, no underscores or other characters, always 8 characters, spamming around. Very common with Turkish fake news. Probably all generated by a bot.
duxup 5y ago
When I signed up for a twitter account I was immediately followed by some 'local' person who described themself as "a former libtard who saw the light". Her posts would often mention being at some local business, but describe it in a weirdly akward way...and of course fake news spam.

throwaway894345 5y ago

Strange. I always get all far left-wing stuff, and it's not even high-quality left-wing argumentation but just the absolute sewer of left-wing rhetoric. I'm very curious whether Twitter's algorithm is designed (or exploited) to show us things that it thinks we'll agree with (I'm a moderate liberal, so maybe it thinks I'm a partisan and I'll just love extreme left-wing stuff?) or stuff it thinks we'll be angry about? Or maybe it shows everyone the same far-left drivel?

InitialLastName 5y ago
>I'm very curious whether Twitter's algorithm is designed (or exploited) to show us things that it thinks we'll agree with (I'm a moderate liberal, so maybe it thinks I'm a partisan and I'll just love extreme left-wing stuff?) or stuff it thinks we'll be angry about? Or maybe it shows everyone the same far-left drivel? My theory: There is no coherent theory of operations like "Show the leftists to the leftists"; rather, it's doing constant A/B-test-style optimization between drivel varieties to see which one best inspires the cohort matching your doomscrolling patterns to continue to scroll.
- Fellshard 5y ago
  It's anecdotal, but my trending pane is usually filled with mostly hard left trends, the occasional right wing trend, with the left trends being frequently selected to be sloppily editorialized by Twitter staff. I'm certainly on the right wing. More likely, it'll show you what's likely to make you engage, and there's no quicker way than to show you things which make you angry.
  - pydry 5y ago
    What are some examples of hard left trends?
    - Fellshard 5y ago
      Usually directing attention to Twitter mobs by framing a given topic in a hard-left worldview. Usually this is done through passive voicing or bizarre whataboutism. Dug through some I've captured to share with others. https://imgur.com/a/8Ypqq4y https://imgur.com/a/8Ypqq4y Mind that most of these are going to be vague out of context, unless you recall the specific events surrounding them. They're there to stir the pot when it's already boiling, or to start a flame when they believe a subject deserves more outraged voices.
Ensorceled 5y ago
Hmmm, I'm also a moderate liberal and my main Twitter stream reflects that, it's the trending topics that skew right for me. If you can call it "right", it's mostly invective, calls for resignation and skewed/unfounded criticisms of our Prime Minister. I mean, there is plenty of real stuff to criticize but the criticisms are mostly unfounded instead.
- mandmandam 5y ago
  Are "moderate liberals" the ones who like Biden, don't mind the ongoing multiple wars in the ME, the incessant renewal of the Patriot Act, the treatment of Assange, etc? Not trynna antagonise, I'm genuiuely curious if all that bollocks is hiding behind the oh-so benign sounding "moderate liberal" label.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    Those are establishment politics, not moderate liberalism. But yeah, moderate liberal politicians (like politicians of all ideological brands) often act out of line with their professed ideology in favor of establishment interests. I'm a moderate liberal only in the sense that my politics tend to be moderately liberal, but "moderate liberals" aren't my tribe (indeed, I don't have a political tribe--I'm very independent in that regard). This is all to say that I don't take offense to criticism of other moderate liberals because how a few moderate liberals behave doesn't define me.
  - Ensorceled 5y ago
    I'm Canadian, so none of that crap applies to me ... The US democratic party platform is pretty "right" by Canadian standards.
- jayspell 5y ago
  The Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma exposed the algorithms are designed to create "engagement" or clicks, that may look different for different people. If you happen to begin clicking links that make you angry you will have a feed that skews towards the kinds of posts that infuriate you (this is typical - rage really sucks most of us in). If you select links with puppies all day long, that is what you are going to get, puppies. I have personally seen this in my YouTube feed. If I select two or three videos on a particular topic all of the sudden my feed is filled with those videos. Personally it is really aggravating. I may want to watch one or two videos about JRR Tolkien, but I don't want to see a bunch of fan theory LOTR videos.

kevinmchugh 5y ago

FirstnameBunchofNumbers is I think just how Twitter creates new accounts these days. They removed the ability or requirement to come up with an @name, and just create it based on the first name of the user. What you're seeing is an artifact of when a certain demographic started using Twitter.

Kye 5y ago
It's just a return to numbernames. AOL did the same thing back in the 90s and 00s.
jdashg 5y ago
This is true, and while you can still change @name in the options, it is sort of buried in there.

can16358p 5y ago

I know another variant: alphanumeric usernames with exactly 8 characters. All lower, no underscores or other characters, always 8 characters, spamming around. Very common with Turkish fake news. Probably all generated by a bot.

duxup 5y ago

When I signed up for a twitter account I was immediately followed by some 'local' person who described themself as "a former libtard who saw the light". Her posts would often mention being at some local business, but describe it in a weirdly akward way...and of course fake news spam.