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I find it mind blowing that people refer to Twitter as "once great" now that it is known that it was essentially a disgusting totalitarian political censorship

I find it mind blowing that people refer to Twitter as "once great" now that it is known that it was essentially a disgusting totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US. I just don't get how someone can feel that this is better than what it is now and just casually ignore that fact. I also don't get how people can claim that Twitter is now going to die because "???". HN is into soothsaying now?

luuurker 3y ago
> propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US I'm not American, but that doesn't reflect what I was seeing on Twitter before I closed my account (mid/late 2020). I'm surprised to see a crowd that is supposed to see through the BS of the industry falling for Musk's neutrality and anti-censorship claims... https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/2/twitter-fulfilling-more-government-censorship-requests-under-musk https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/2/twitter-fulfillin...
- DANmode 3y ago
  Can I simultaneously believe that there were pretty strong Left connections within Twitter (and many other groups, large and small) AND that Musk's anti-censorship claims are exaggerated at best?
- hersko 3y ago
  Did you read the Twitter files? Pretty wild stuff.
1270018080 3y ago
The persecution fetish many right wingers had over twitter didn't really play with the vast majority of users. Twitter existed for normal people acting normal, not for "lefists".
- saynay 3y ago
  It existed for advertisers. All the "censorship" being moaned about is because brands would stop advertising on the platform if Twitter couldn't give reasonable guarantees that their ads would not run next to extremely toxic content. This seems pretty self evident, since most of them left as soon as Musk took over with the promise to stop policing the platform.
- DANmode 3y ago
  > Biden campaign flagged tweets in lead-up to the election https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/12/03/elon-musk-and-matt-taibbi-release-twitter-docs-hunter-biden-tapes/10826408002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/12/03/elon... is where a summary of the most neutral analysis on this "debate" can be found.
simiones 3y ago
> now that it is known that it was essentially a disgusting totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US. Everything we've seen from the Twitter threads suggests that they were working with both political parties, and that it's just reporting bias that we only got more details about their dealings with one of the parties. For example, the original data dumps mentioned in passing that there were similar requests coming from the Presidency (Trump, at the time), the "journalist" just chose to focus on the ones coming from Biden's campaign.
- censor_me 3y ago
  [dead]
Shekelphile 3y ago
> I find it mind blowing that people refer to Twitter as "once great" now that it is known that it was essentially a disgusting totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US. You're delusional. Twitter before the acquisition was extremely politically neutral and gave extremist right wing voices way more leeway than should be socially acceptable. Post-acquisition has turned it into the 'totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool' that you're describing, for Musk's personal and political interests, which at the time seem to be ultra-far right.
- TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
  The fact that the platform is now explicitly transphobic is a case in point. Musk has made transphobia part of his policy position.
  - eric_cc 3y ago
    > The fact that the platform is now explicitly transphobic is a case in point. Musk has made transphobia part of his policy position. Hacker News has become Reddit. ${the thing I hate} is racist and transphobic!! And mindless anti-Musk hate. We should not accept this type of comment ^^^ it is objectively and intellectually dishonest.
    - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
      I said that Twitter is transphobic because Musk has made transphobic statements and has asserted that they are Twitter policy. And he owns Twitter, so they are Twitter policy. Ergo, Twitter is transphobic. This is not hyperbole; it is a simple statement of fact.
- eric_cc 3y ago
  > You're delusional. Twitter before the acquisition was extremely politically neutral and gave extremist right wing voices way more leeway than should be socially acceptable. LOL wow.. calling somebody else delusional is serious projection! Twitter was far from neutral. It was obvious to any objective skeptic in real-time then supporting evidence such as Twitter Files confirmed it. Twitter was far left of center and used constant censorship against opposing views.
subdude 3y ago
Maybe I’m crazy, but I preferred it when Twitter wasn’t suggesting I follow Nazis and putting their tweets in my feed.
- cpursley 3y ago
  I thought Azov promotion was banned on Twitter?
  - ccpotato 3y ago
    Blind nationalism has it use. If the U.S. was invaded I'd rather fascist racist nationalists be dying holding the enemy back than artists and scientists. Regardless Azov iirc has shed it's 'nazi' roots to become an effective legitimate military unit. Turns out a lot of fascist apparently are cowards. Anyways your attachment to Azov having nationist roots reveals your Russian bias. And they are fascist nationalist. They've been destroying, raping, and pillaging what they can for purely fascist racist reasons. That makes the Russians the side of the Nazis here fyi.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
pjc50 3y ago
Twitter was arguably significant in getting Trump to win the primary and hence get elected.

luuurker 3y ago

> propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US I'm not American, but that doesn't reflect what I was seeing on Twitter before I closed my account (mid/late 2020). I'm surprised to see a crowd that is supposed to see through the BS of the industry falling for Musk's neutrality and anti-censorship claims... https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/2/twitter-fulfilling-more-government-censorship-requests-under-musk https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/2/twitter-fulfillin...

DANmode 3y ago
Can I simultaneously believe that there were pretty strong Left connections within Twitter (and many other groups, large and small) AND that Musk's anti-censorship claims are exaggerated at best?
hersko 3y ago
Did you read the Twitter files? Pretty wild stuff.

1270018080 3y ago

The persecution fetish many right wingers had over twitter didn't really play with the vast majority of users. Twitter existed for normal people acting normal, not for "lefists".

saynay 3y ago
It existed for advertisers. All the "censorship" being moaned about is because brands would stop advertising on the platform if Twitter couldn't give reasonable guarantees that their ads would not run next to extremely toxic content. This seems pretty self evident, since most of them left as soon as Musk took over with the promise to stop policing the platform.
DANmode 3y ago
> Biden campaign flagged tweets in lead-up to the election https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/12/03/elon-musk-and-matt-taibbi-release-twitter-docs-hunter-biden-tapes/10826408002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/12/03/elon... is where a summary of the most neutral analysis on this "debate" can be found.

simiones 3y ago

> now that it is known that it was essentially a disgusting totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US. Everything we've seen from the Twitter threads suggests that they were working with both political parties, and that it's just reporting bias that we only got more details about their dealings with one of the parties. For example, the original data dumps mentioned in passing that there were similar requests coming from the Presidency (Trump, at the time), the "journalist" just chose to focus on the ones coming from Biden's campaign.

censor_me 3y ago
[dead]

Shekelphile 3y ago

> I find it mind blowing that people refer to Twitter as "once great" now that it is known that it was essentially a disgusting totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool for one of the 2 political flavors in the US. You're delusional. Twitter before the acquisition was extremely politically neutral and gave extremist right wing voices way more leeway than should be socially acceptable. Post-acquisition has turned it into the 'totalitarian political censorship and propaganda tool' that you're describing, for Musk's personal and political interests, which at the time seem to be ultra-far right.

TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
The fact that the platform is now explicitly transphobic is a case in point. Musk has made transphobia part of his policy position.
- eric_cc 3y ago
  > The fact that the platform is now explicitly transphobic is a case in point. Musk has made transphobia part of his policy position. Hacker News has become Reddit. ${the thing I hate} is racist and transphobic!! And mindless anti-Musk hate. We should not accept this type of comment ^^^ it is objectively and intellectually dishonest.
  - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
    I said that Twitter is transphobic because Musk has made transphobic statements and has asserted that they are Twitter policy. And he owns Twitter, so they are Twitter policy. Ergo, Twitter is transphobic. This is not hyperbole; it is a simple statement of fact.
eric_cc 3y ago
> You're delusional. Twitter before the acquisition was extremely politically neutral and gave extremist right wing voices way more leeway than should be socially acceptable. LOL wow.. calling somebody else delusional is serious projection! Twitter was far from neutral. It was obvious to any objective skeptic in real-time then supporting evidence such as Twitter Files confirmed it. Twitter was far left of center and used constant censorship against opposing views.

subdude 3y ago

Maybe I’m crazy, but I preferred it when Twitter wasn’t suggesting I follow Nazis and putting their tweets in my feed.

cpursley 3y ago
I thought Azov promotion was banned on Twitter?
- ccpotato 3y ago
  Blind nationalism has it use. If the U.S. was invaded I'd rather fascist racist nationalists be dying holding the enemy back than artists and scientists. Regardless Azov iirc has shed it's 'nazi' roots to become an effective legitimate military unit. Turns out a lot of fascist apparently are cowards. Anyways your attachment to Azov having nationist roots reveals your Russian bias. And they are fascist nationalist. They've been destroying, raping, and pillaging what they can for purely fascist racist reasons. That makes the Russians the side of the Nazis here fyi.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

pjc50 3y ago

Twitter was arguably significant in getting Trump to win the primary and hence get elected.