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"Starting in the U.S., we’ll continue to apply specific policies to paid-for promoted political posts. This will include prohibiting the promotion of false or m
by lisper 3y ago
"Starting in the U.S., we’ll continue to apply specific policies to paid-for promoted political posts. This will include prohibiting the promotion of false or misleading content, including false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election"
Yeah, right. And Fox News is fair and balanced.
The problem with prohibiting "false or misleading content" is that you have to somehow adjudicate what is false and misleading. Is it "false and misleading" to say that (say) Joe Biden is "the most corrupt president in American history"? [1] I certainly think so [2], but there are literally tens of millions of people who would profess to disagree. So who gets to decide? In the case of X, the answer is: Elon Musk.
The problem is not that there's anything wrong with the policy statement. The problem is that we as a society have totally lost our grip on what is false and misleading, and this can be laid squarely at the feet of Donald Trump, whom Elon supports (or at least has supported in the past). So no, a commitment from X to "prohibit the promotion of false and misleading content" does not inspire confidence in me. Quite the opposite. It feels North-Korea kind of creepy.
[1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/newt-gingrich-biden-administration-most-corrupt https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/newt-gingrich-bi...
[2] https://newrepublic.com/article/175141/fact-check-republicans-biden-corruption-timeline-errors https://newrepublic.com/article/175141/fact-check-republican...
- aydyn 3y agoSo if it wasnt Musk and instead someone you align with, youd agree with the policy ?
- lisper 3y agoHumans have invented a reliable way of adjudicating truth. It's called the scientific method, a closely related cousin of which is professional journalism. There's a reason that it takes years to develop the expertise to be a scientist or a journalist. It's hard work. But it is the only defense against demagoguery. So yes, I would feel a lot better about it if the decisions were being made by someone -- or, even better, a group of people -- who were committed to a process of adjudicating truth on the basis of evidence rather than ideology. And yes, I tend to agree with such people because I personally try to hew to evidence over ideology. One of the benefits of adjudicating truth on the basis of evidence rather than ideology is that it tends to converge, and so it tends result in people who adhere to this process agreeing with each other. Superficially this looks a lot like agreement based on ideology, but there is one big difference, and that is that dissent is actually welcome -- if you can back it up with evidence. In science, progress is possible. In a system that bases truth on ideology, particularly one whose ideology is rooted in an individual (i.e. a personality cult), it isn't. That's what scares me.
- aydyn 3y ago[flagged]
- lisper 3y ago> is that the professional journalism you speak of No. Obviously not. > It takes zero years to be a modern journalist Yes. That's obviously not what I meant by "professional journalist." Most web "journalists" are professional journalists in the same way the Kent Hovind is a professional scientist. There isn't a sharp distinction, just like there isn't a sharp definition of what pornography is. But most people can nonetheless recognize it when they see it.
- aydyn 3y ago[flagged]
- lisper 3y agohttps://arstechnica.com/ https://arstechnica.com/ https://www.aljazeera.com/ https://www.aljazeera.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/ https://www.snopes.com/ https://www.snopes.com/ (at least they used to be, not so sure any more since they changed ownership a few years back) I could go on and on. It's not particularly hard to find.
- retrac 3y agoThis degree of power, practical editorial and censorship power, should probably not be held by a single person or corporation.
- aydyn 3y agoAgreed, but I haven't heard good alternatives. Some form of crowdsourcing might be the way to go?
- lapcat 3y ago> Is it "false and misleading" to say that (say) Joe Biden is corrupt? I certainly think so, but there are literally tens of millions of people who would profess to disagree. Serious question: Do you honestly believe that Joe Biden is not corrupt? As far as I've seen, which is a lot, he's been a paid tool of the Delaware financial industry for his entire career. (By the way, I don't identify with any political party or politician, in case you think this criticism is partisan.)
- pstuart 3y agoCorrupt to what degree? Ensuring his donors get their money's worth or actually committing crimes for self-enrichment? It's clear he was beholden to the financial industry and that stinks but is technically above board. I'm going to hazard a guess that his legacy matters more to him then cash in the bank. I find it fascinating that those that obsess over "Crooked Joe" seem to change their tune when their preferred candidate comes under scrutiny. Maybe I'm too stupid but it's almost like they don't care about the crime, only in destroying their political enemies.
- nailer 3y agoNot a US citizen, but the main issues seem to be: - Hunter Biden extracting 5 million dollars from the Chinese businessman with apparent knowledge of Joe Biden (per the taped phone call) - His son's Burisma appointment with little to no experience in the energy industry and nothing to add apart from his father's connections (matter of public knowledge). - FBI election tampering regarding suppressing the true story of his son's laptop (revealed during the Twitter files). However: - they haven't been tried, much less proven in a US court - these actions may be less severe than previous instances of corruption amongst US presidents - Biden may not have been aware of the FBI's action concerning suppressing the laptop story
- pstuart 3y agoJoe Biden has no control over his adult son. Hunter Biden clearly was engaging in shenanigans based off of his father's name (the board membership was technically legal, morally unpalatable). There's no evidence that Joe actually sold his influence directly. Virtually all Biden supporters agree that if Hunter did illegal acts he should face trial and resulting consequences, and the same for his father. But we also agree that such rigor be applied across the aisle. Perhaps I'm out of touch, but I am not aware of any such agreement on the other side. Again, it's almost like they don't care about the crime, only in smearing their political rivals. But the party of law and order wouldn't do that, right? The suppression of the laptop story was trying to tamp down a political ops maneuver (an October surprise). I can understand the frustration in seeing that happen, as it worked so well when they did the same thing to HRC in the prior election. There's a reason why the phrase "buttery males" exists -- for this is the exact same "buttery males" playbook: all that matters is that the story exists and is damaging and voters will lap it up. Disclaimer: I voted for the current president but I'm not a member of his party and am strongly anti-partisan.
- pjc50 3y ago> This will include prohibiting the promotion of false or misleading content, including false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election I think the recent mugshots of election fraudsters getting arrested in Georgia is probably concentrating the mind here on the question of "Is Twitter liable for amplifying election fraud messages?"
- tempodox 3y agoThis shop has nothing left to lose, so they might as well blatantly lie about being capable, or even willing, arbiters of truth.
- nailer 3y ago> Is it "false and misleading" to say that (say) Joe Biden is "the most corrupt president in American history"? [1] I certainly think so [2], but there are literally tens of millions of people who would profess to disagree. So who gets to decide? Notes don't work based on political agreement - the opposite in fact, users must be diverse to add a note. They're applied to Musk's posts too.
- sassy_quat 3y ago[dead]