8 ms·

A new era of transparency for Twitter

100 points by summarity 4y ago

JulianWasTaken 4y ago
Isn't it slightly ironic for a post on transparency to be signed "Twitter" as its author instead of some human? Who's speaking at this point? Of course in context of the rest of their missteps it's a tiny thing, but it stands out to me immediately when seeing the post at least.
- kylecazar 4y ago
  Doesn't really bother me, not sure how useful it would be to include a name. I think it's safe to assume at the very least who approved it.
- bena 4y ago
  I think it's fine. It represents the opinion of the corporation as a whole. The opposite of "the opinions here are my own and do not reflect blah blah blah". It has no singular author.
- xena 4y ago
  This is so hilarious that I'm having trouble laughing at it. I can't even describe how funny this is. I love 2023. It's giving science fiction authors a hard time trying to keep up with the absurdity.
  - olalonde 4y ago
    I genuinely can't tell if this comment is meant to be satirical, well done either way.
    - xena 4y ago
      No, it's serious. "A new era of transparency by no human in particular". It's so blatantly self-contradicting that it's funny.
  - akudha 4y ago
    I don't know about science fiction authors, but I feel bad for parody sites like The Onion. I guess it all started with 2016 election - when reality is this absurd, how can outlets like The Onion make a living? Slapping at Oscar for a stupid joke, Congresswoman going on and on about public urination, Billionaire buying a social media company for tens of Billions, ex-president spending insane amount of time testing insulting nick names.... What a bizarre time to live in
- wilg 4y ago
  No?
- jader201 4y ago
  For me, at least, I don't even see it signed by "Twitter". I see a "By" under the headline, with an empty space where the author should be. (Maybe it's since been updated/removed?) Which is even more ironic/hilarious.
  - tripdout 4y ago
    Twitter shows up next to "By" for me, but it took a few seconds to load in after the page itself. Maybe it's being blocked by a script/ad blocker in your end?
    - jader201 4y ago
      No, it actually has something to do with my Twitter account. If I log out (without changing any extensions), I see "Twitter" show up as the author.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- sho_hn 4y ago
  The organization is speaking, which is made up of many people. This is fine.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - thih9 4y ago
    Fine maybe, just not very transparent.
    - jzb 4y ago
      I have lots to gripe about with Twitter these days, but I don’t see anything non-transparent about a corporate release not being signed by a specific person. It is most likely a product of a group, not a specific person. Attaching a name to it doesn’t make it any more transparent. It just puts that person in the crosshairs given the current environment.
- seydor 4y ago
  It was Mary from marketing
- lenkite 4y ago
  Its the organization. Whats so strange about this ? Think of it as "Twitter News".
tfehring 4y ago
More popular related post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433
nickthegreek 4y ago
dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433
- mephitix 4y ago
  No it’s not. Different articles.
ppetty 4y ago
This is the first step… any thoughts on step 2? How many steps until advance notice for API changes?
- rqtwteye 4y ago
  Step 3 is profit.
Reptur 4y ago
Transparency would be releasing the data that they check against for "abusive, toxicity, nsfw" content. I read the code, those are specific checks, but they're opaque on the data that it checks against. Without transparency on this data, they cannot prove to the public "twitter files" type censorship isn't still happening.
- PartiallyTyped 4y ago
  + transparency would be realising the decisions behind the boosted accounts.
srameshc 4y ago
Nothing twitter can do to restore the lost trust. Twitter has to die evenutally. I believe in federated microblogging future.
- szundi 4y ago
  A closed secretive company must be better for sure.
- LegitShady 4y ago
  I dont think the general public wants to do the work. centralized systems leverage that to win in the long run.
  - b112 4y ago
    I dont think the general public wants to do the work. centralized systems leverage that to win in the long run. Outside of hackernews, most people could care less. So many non-tech twitter users I have talked to, don't even know Musk bought it. Why would they know/care to move, as you say.
- sho_hn 4y ago
  For me the best social media company is one I don't have to trust in because I can look, check and verify. Or at least that others can do this. In that sense, this does make a dent. Still, without config/model weights, etc. it's not worth that much.
- arnorhs 4y ago
  I think twitter can be replaced by another twitter. something that share some of the nice traits, but leaves out the others. Whatever it is it won't be federated though.. except maybe as a small side feature "normies" dont know about.
  - simonw 4y ago
    Launching a big brand Twitter alternative on top of the existing Fediverse feels to me like it could work incredibly well right now. The obsolute worst thing about the Fediverse (Mastodon et al) right now is the onboarding process. You have to "chose an instance" before you can even start understanding what that's about - and if you chose wrong you might find your instance gets switched off leaving you high and dry in the future. Now imagine Tumblr ships ActivityPub. Every Tumblr user can now follow any Mastodon user, and vice-versa. The Tumblr ecosystem gets a whole bunch of new high quality available content. Mastodon enthusiasts can tell their skeptical friends "go sign up for a Tumblr account and follow me from that". Or... if you're launching something new, why would you launch from a state of zero accounts when you could launch with Fediverse compatibility and have ~10m accounts that your first users can start following straight away?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
cramjabsyn 4y ago
Lol talk about tone deaf and rudderless. This is their era of impulsive decisions, cyber bullying and demise (I hope)
znpy 4y ago
> By Twitter so what is that, no one wants to put their name on this?
- abudabi123 4y ago
  It is a feature, not a bug.
pessimizer 4y ago
Reading this thread, I thought this press release was going to be interesting. Instead it seems totally anodyne and reasonable. Imagine being so angry that twitter is going to put its recommendation code on github.
- v0idzer0 4y ago
  Elon Musk clickbait broke the brain of half of HN readers. We need to consider permanently banning anything tangentially related to restore the quality here
- hairofadog 4y ago
  Whether it qualifies as suitable for HN is another question, but I think the notable thing here is the anodyne and reasonable tone of the press release contrasted with the chaos and disingenuous touting of values of Twitter under Musk thus far. Like if you saw someone casually building a snowman in their front yard you might be inclined to ask, “why are people talking about this? It’s boring. People build snowmen all the time” but behind them their house is burning down.
grumple 4y ago
Was this written by an LLM? Kinda feels like it. But maybe that's just the nature of corporate copy...
bentt 4y ago
It is kinda weird that Meta hasnt just copied Twitter while it is down on the mat. They could, they would…
- genmud 4y ago
  They are too busy trying to get people to use the metaverse and dig deeper to get out of the absurd hole they have found themselves in. I imagine that the senior leadership probably hasn’t even noticed the sucking chest wound twitter has.
- tech234a 4y ago
  …they are [1] [1]: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/meta-mulls-a-twitter-competitor-codenamed-p92-that-will-be-interoperable-with-mastodon-10223961.html https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/meta-mull...
  - bentt 4y ago
    <in Ron Burgandy voice> “That doesn’t make any sense”

100 points by summarity 4y ago

Isn't it slightly ironic for a post on transparency to be signed "Twitter" as its author instead of some human? Who's speaking at this point? Of course in context of the rest of their missteps it's a tiny thing, but it stands out to me immediately when seeing the post at least.

kylecazar 4y ago
Doesn't really bother me, not sure how useful it would be to include a name. I think it's safe to assume at the very least who approved it.
bena 4y ago
I think it's fine. It represents the opinion of the corporation as a whole. The opposite of "the opinions here are my own and do not reflect blah blah blah". It has no singular author.
xena 4y ago
This is so hilarious that I'm having trouble laughing at it. I can't even describe how funny this is. I love 2023. It's giving science fiction authors a hard time trying to keep up with the absurdity.
- olalonde 4y ago
  I genuinely can't tell if this comment is meant to be satirical, well done either way.
  - xena 4y ago
    No, it's serious. "A new era of transparency by no human in particular". It's so blatantly self-contradicting that it's funny.
- akudha 4y ago
  I don't know about science fiction authors, but I feel bad for parody sites like The Onion. I guess it all started with 2016 election - when reality is this absurd, how can outlets like The Onion make a living? Slapping at Oscar for a stupid joke, Congresswoman going on and on about public urination, Billionaire buying a social media company for tens of Billions, ex-president spending insane amount of time testing insulting nick names.... What a bizarre time to live in
wilg 4y ago
No?
jader201 4y ago
For me, at least, I don't even see it signed by "Twitter". I see a "By" under the headline, with an empty space where the author should be. (Maybe it's since been updated/removed?) Which is even more ironic/hilarious.
- tripdout 4y ago
  Twitter shows up next to "By" for me, but it took a few seconds to load in after the page itself. Maybe it's being blocked by a script/ad blocker in your end?
  - jader201 4y ago
    No, it actually has something to do with my Twitter account. If I log out (without changing any extensions), I see "Twitter" show up as the author.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
sho_hn 4y ago
The organization is speaking, which is made up of many people. This is fine.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- thih9 4y ago
  Fine maybe, just not very transparent.
  - jzb 4y ago
    I have lots to gripe about with Twitter these days, but I don’t see anything non-transparent about a corporate release not being signed by a specific person. It is most likely a product of a group, not a specific person. Attaching a name to it doesn’t make it any more transparent. It just puts that person in the crosshairs given the current environment.
seydor 4y ago
It was Mary from marketing
lenkite 4y ago
Its the organization. Whats so strange about this ? Think of it as "Twitter News".

tfehring 4y ago

More popular related post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433

nickthegreek 4y ago

dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391433

mephitix 4y ago
No it’s not. Different articles.

ppetty 4y ago

This is the first step… any thoughts on step 2? How many steps until advance notice for API changes?

rqtwteye 4y ago
Step 3 is profit.

Reptur 4y ago

Transparency would be releasing the data that they check against for "abusive, toxicity, nsfw" content. I read the code, those are specific checks, but they're opaque on the data that it checks against. Without transparency on this data, they cannot prove to the public "twitter files" type censorship isn't still happening.

PartiallyTyped 4y ago
+ transparency would be realising the decisions behind the boosted accounts.

srameshc 4y ago

Nothing twitter can do to restore the lost trust. Twitter has to die evenutally. I believe in federated microblogging future.

szundi 4y ago
A closed secretive company must be better for sure.
LegitShady 4y ago
I dont think the general public wants to do the work. centralized systems leverage that to win in the long run.
- b112 4y ago
  I dont think the general public wants to do the work. centralized systems leverage that to win in the long run. Outside of hackernews, most people could care less. So many non-tech twitter users I have talked to, don't even know Musk bought it. Why would they know/care to move, as you say.
sho_hn 4y ago
For me the best social media company is one I don't have to trust in because I can look, check and verify. Or at least that others can do this. In that sense, this does make a dent. Still, without config/model weights, etc. it's not worth that much.
arnorhs 4y ago
I think twitter can be replaced by another twitter. something that share some of the nice traits, but leaves out the others. Whatever it is it won't be federated though.. except maybe as a small side feature "normies" dont know about.
- simonw 4y ago
  Launching a big brand Twitter alternative on top of the existing Fediverse feels to me like it could work incredibly well right now. The obsolute worst thing about the Fediverse (Mastodon et al) right now is the onboarding process. You have to "chose an instance" before you can even start understanding what that's about - and if you chose wrong you might find your instance gets switched off leaving you high and dry in the future. Now imagine Tumblr ships ActivityPub. Every Tumblr user can now follow any Mastodon user, and vice-versa. The Tumblr ecosystem gets a whole bunch of new high quality available content. Mastodon enthusiasts can tell their skeptical friends "go sign up for a Tumblr account and follow me from that". Or... if you're launching something new, why would you launch from a state of zero accounts when you could launch with Fediverse compatibility and have ~10m accounts that your first users can start following straight away?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

cramjabsyn 4y ago

Lol talk about tone deaf and rudderless. This is their era of impulsive decisions, cyber bullying and demise (I hope)

znpy 4y ago

> By Twitter so what is that, no one wants to put their name on this?

abudabi123 4y ago
It is a feature, not a bug.

pessimizer 4y ago

Reading this thread, I thought this press release was going to be interesting. Instead it seems totally anodyne and reasonable. Imagine being so angry that twitter is going to put its recommendation code on github.

v0idzer0 4y ago
Elon Musk clickbait broke the brain of half of HN readers. We need to consider permanently banning anything tangentially related to restore the quality here
hairofadog 4y ago
Whether it qualifies as suitable for HN is another question, but I think the notable thing here is the anodyne and reasonable tone of the press release contrasted with the chaos and disingenuous touting of values of Twitter under Musk thus far. Like if you saw someone casually building a snowman in their front yard you might be inclined to ask, “why are people talking about this? It’s boring. People build snowmen all the time” but behind them their house is burning down.

grumple 4y ago

Was this written by an LLM? Kinda feels like it. But maybe that's just the nature of corporate copy...

bentt 4y ago

It is kinda weird that Meta hasnt just copied Twitter while it is down on the mat. They could, they would…

genmud 4y ago
They are too busy trying to get people to use the metaverse and dig deeper to get out of the absurd hole they have found themselves in. I imagine that the senior leadership probably hasn’t even noticed the sucking chest wound twitter has.
tech234a 4y ago
…they are [1] [1]: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/meta-mulls-a-twitter-competitor-codenamed-p92-that-will-be-interoperable-with-mastodon-10223961.html https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/meta-mull...
- bentt 4y ago
  <in Ron Burgandy voice> “That doesn’t make any sense”