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I hope Elon opens up the Twitter API and lets fully-powered 3rd party clients flourish. Ideally, moderation policies and enforcement actions can be client-spec

I hope Elon opens up the Twitter API and lets fully-powered 3rd party clients flourish. Ideally, moderation policies and enforcement actions can be client-specific to some degree. Ultra woke or righty twitter can implement their own policies without losing out on the network effect of the greater network. Ben Thompson has been crusading for this direction and it’s gain traction in free-speech circles

stanislavb 5y ago
#hopes I don’t believe Musk put those billions for the greater good… I won’t be surprised at all if Trump is welcomed sooner than later on Twitter again.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  Does it really matter if Trump is on Twitter? It's mainstream news outlets which amplified his every word. They'll be doing the same thing if he runs for office again, no matter where he speaks.
  - kcplate 5y ago
    > It's mainstream news outlets which amplified his every word They do more than that…they intentionally feed him to keep him in the spotlight . I have seen certain “left leaning” news outlets actually try and prompt commentary out of him on topics he hasn’t really fixated on yet just to try and manufacture news and more controversy. If you keep saying his name he’ll never go away. Maybe that’s what they want.
- lern_too_spel 5y ago
  Musk saw how Russia got its way by trolling social media websites. Then Facebook and Twitter shut them out. Now Musk sees an opportunity to control the narrative. It's that simple. https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1487168671269203968?lang=en https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/14871686712692039...
  - gorwell 5y ago
    After Russia was shut out, who took control of the narrative and is running it now?
    - lern_too_spel 5y ago
      Normal people who dislike harmful propaganda that could as a side effect destroy their social media business along with the rest of the economy instead of an army of paid trolls trying to fill western governments with corrupt officials.
femiagbabiaka 5y ago
The problem of third-party clients has always been more complicated than optimism of the will can solve IMO. Client specific moderation sounds like fodder for another set of messy congressional hearings. It can be done well of course. It would be interesting to hear the blockers the team sees internally and what is higher priority in their opinion.
laurencei 5y ago
The problem is everyone has been burnt by this before. The moment you build a 3rd party solution, then they pull the API away from you 1-x years from now, your dead in the water. Thats not to say people wont give it a go, but I wonder how viable you can build an eco system onto of someone else's API?
throwaway82652 5y ago
Twitter already works that way, the block feature is available to everyone. It doesn't make any difference to any small groups or to the greater network, moderation from the platform itself still has to happen to prevent damage to it. You can just ignore what's being said in "free speech circles", those people have no idea what they're talking about. If they were actually trying to solve these problems they wouldn't be pursuing a solution that we already know doesn't work.
- hstan4 5y ago
  > You can just ignore what’s being said in “free speech circles” The irony here is hilarious. This is the exact point people arguing against social media censorship are pointing out: if you don’t like it and the speech is protected under law, use your little block button and ignore it (rather than asking a social media company to ban it because it hurts your feelings).
  - philistine 5y ago
    What if it makes Twitter look bad that nazis/violent communists are organizing rallies on the platform? After all, it's Twitter's servers after all.
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      Then twitter is not a public square. It's disney world where you are allowed fun with parameters.
      - noTooMooch 5y ago
        300 million monthly active users including noise on Twitter. Last I checked there are 7+ billion humans. It’s a town square in Elons hyperbolic narcissistic imagination. It’s where westerners shit post at each other, not a town square
      - nemothekid 5y ago
        The argument is whether Twitter should be a public square. It's pretty ironic people are obsessed with the public square metaphor when American try their damned hardest to eliminate any public square via zoning. I doubt, and not really concerned that Twitter will become a den for Nazis. If you look at the actions of the Twitter moderation team, you will find that they don't do all that much and in fact Twitter is pretty much self moderated. You get cancelled by the mob, not Jack Dorsey. It's this fact that should be watched - will Elon enforce free speech by silencing the mob of dissenting opinion? This is how public squares actually operate. If I begin hollering at the top of my lungs in the middle of a public square either (1) everyone leaves or (2) I'm violently removed. I don't know what free speech haven people are looking for; even 4chan has rules.
teeray 5y ago
Filter bubbles should just be a platform-wide thing applied to your experience. Everyone gets a mandatory set of filters for illegal things in their geo. Then you can add whatever you want and share the filter set with other like-minded people. “No conservatives” can be one filter pack, “no liberals” another. “No politics at all” could be yet another. Filters can be as simple as grep, could include ML stuff, or even have moderators.
dbbk 5y ago
The Twitter API is already opening up.

stanislavb 5y ago

#hopes I don’t believe Musk put those billions for the greater good… I won’t be surprised at all if Trump is welcomed sooner than later on Twitter again.

pmoriarty 5y ago
Does it really matter if Trump is on Twitter? It's mainstream news outlets which amplified his every word. They'll be doing the same thing if he runs for office again, no matter where he speaks.
- kcplate 5y ago
  > It's mainstream news outlets which amplified his every word They do more than that…they intentionally feed him to keep him in the spotlight . I have seen certain “left leaning” news outlets actually try and prompt commentary out of him on topics he hasn’t really fixated on yet just to try and manufacture news and more controversy. If you keep saying his name he’ll never go away. Maybe that’s what they want.
lern_too_spel 5y ago
Musk saw how Russia got its way by trolling social media websites. Then Facebook and Twitter shut them out. Now Musk sees an opportunity to control the narrative. It's that simple. https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1487168671269203968?lang=en https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/14871686712692039...
- gorwell 5y ago
  After Russia was shut out, who took control of the narrative and is running it now?
  - lern_too_spel 5y ago
    Normal people who dislike harmful propaganda that could as a side effect destroy their social media business along with the rest of the economy instead of an army of paid trolls trying to fill western governments with corrupt officials.

femiagbabiaka 5y ago

The problem of third-party clients has always been more complicated than optimism of the will can solve IMO. Client specific moderation sounds like fodder for another set of messy congressional hearings. It can be done well of course. It would be interesting to hear the blockers the team sees internally and what is higher priority in their opinion.

laurencei 5y ago

The problem is everyone has been burnt by this before. The moment you build a 3rd party solution, then they pull the API away from you 1-x years from now, your dead in the water. Thats not to say people wont give it a go, but I wonder how viable you can build an eco system onto of someone else's API?

throwaway82652 5y ago

Twitter already works that way, the block feature is available to everyone. It doesn't make any difference to any small groups or to the greater network, moderation from the platform itself still has to happen to prevent damage to it. You can just ignore what's being said in "free speech circles", those people have no idea what they're talking about. If they were actually trying to solve these problems they wouldn't be pursuing a solution that we already know doesn't work.

hstan4 5y ago
> You can just ignore what’s being said in “free speech circles” The irony here is hilarious. This is the exact point people arguing against social media censorship are pointing out: if you don’t like it and the speech is protected under law, use your little block button and ignore it (rather than asking a social media company to ban it because it hurts your feelings).
- philistine 5y ago
  What if it makes Twitter look bad that nazis/violent communists are organizing rallies on the platform? After all, it's Twitter's servers after all.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    Then twitter is not a public square. It's disney world where you are allowed fun with parameters.
    - noTooMooch 5y ago
      300 million monthly active users including noise on Twitter. Last I checked there are 7+ billion humans. It’s a town square in Elons hyperbolic narcissistic imagination. It’s where westerners shit post at each other, not a town square
    - nemothekid 5y ago
      The argument is whether Twitter should be a public square. It's pretty ironic people are obsessed with the public square metaphor when American try their damned hardest to eliminate any public square via zoning. I doubt, and not really concerned that Twitter will become a den for Nazis. If you look at the actions of the Twitter moderation team, you will find that they don't do all that much and in fact Twitter is pretty much self moderated. You get cancelled by the mob, not Jack Dorsey. It's this fact that should be watched - will Elon enforce free speech by silencing the mob of dissenting opinion? This is how public squares actually operate. If I begin hollering at the top of my lungs in the middle of a public square either (1) everyone leaves or (2) I'm violently removed. I don't know what free speech haven people are looking for; even 4chan has rules.

teeray 5y ago

Filter bubbles should just be a platform-wide thing applied to your experience. Everyone gets a mandatory set of filters for illegal things in their geo. Then you can add whatever you want and share the filter set with other like-minded people. “No conservatives” can be one filter pack, “no liberals” another. “No politics at all” could be yet another. Filters can be as simple as grep, could include ML stuff, or even have moderators.

dbbk 5y ago

The Twitter API is already opening up.