3 ms·

Media Matters staff aren't authentic users? Is Linda trying to imply that they violated the terms of service? If a user can "force a scenario resulting in 13 t

by Sephr 3y ago

Media Matters staff aren't authentic users? Is Linda trying to imply that they violated the terms of service? If a user can "force a scenario resulting in 13 times the number of ads," and those ads end up alongside pro-Nazi content, then the platform has a problem. The user isn't at fault here for the experience provided by Twitter.

zaptrem 3y ago
I think she is suggesting that the user profiles they curated to maximize the chance of this happening were not the result of authentic usage patterns.
- Sephr 3y ago
  I'm confused how simply using Twitter and following Nazi-leaning accounts is an inauthentic usage pattern. Nazism is bad but being a Nazi supporter or sympathizer doesn't make someone's usage inauthentic. At worst it makes their usage harmful.
  - zaptrem 3y ago
    Afaik the media matters employees were not genuinely interested in consuming Nazi content. I think their point was that none of the real nazis saw these ads next to nazi content I guess?
    - Sephr 3y ago
      > Afaik the media matters employees were not genuinely interested in consuming Nazi content. I'm quite certain they were genuinely interested in seeing what happens when they consumed Nazi content.
      - zaptrem 3y ago
        If they weren’t interested in the content itself but were instead interested in studying or manipulating the system providing the content I can see why the behavior in question would be deemed inauthentic. However, I can’t really back it up beyond that as I’m not them, sorry.
      - Arnt 3y ago
        I think you're probably right, but... Twitter's implenmentation of authentic user detection must be expected to try to separate normal users from e.g. test accounts created by client authors. And even if the Media Matters staff was genuinely interested in seeing etc, I think it's quite likely that their click pattern resembled a test account more than a Joe Normal User. (Intense activity immediately after signup, for example.) If that's the case, then Twitter's authentic user detection would classify the MM user as "likely test account" or something like that, and the authentic user data shown on Twitter's dashboards would exclude the MM user.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - nickthegreek 3y ago
      If they want to state that no nazi's see advertisements on their platform, they are free to make that claim. But I know there are nazi's on that platform and I know they get served ads. What else needs to be known?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - ryandvm 3y ago
    > I'm confused how simply using Twitter and following Nazi-leaning accounts is an inauthentic usage pattern. Lol. Indeed - if anything it's only becoming more representative every day.

by Sephr 3y ago

zaptrem 3y ago

I think she is suggesting that the user profiles they curated to maximize the chance of this happening were not the result of authentic usage patterns.

Sephr 3y ago
I'm confused how simply using Twitter and following Nazi-leaning accounts is an inauthentic usage pattern. Nazism is bad but being a Nazi supporter or sympathizer doesn't make someone's usage inauthentic. At worst it makes their usage harmful.
- zaptrem 3y ago
  Afaik the media matters employees were not genuinely interested in consuming Nazi content. I think their point was that none of the real nazis saw these ads next to nazi content I guess?
  - Sephr 3y ago
    > Afaik the media matters employees were not genuinely interested in consuming Nazi content. I'm quite certain they were genuinely interested in seeing what happens when they consumed Nazi content.
    - zaptrem 3y ago
      If they weren’t interested in the content itself but were instead interested in studying or manipulating the system providing the content I can see why the behavior in question would be deemed inauthentic. However, I can’t really back it up beyond that as I’m not them, sorry.
    - Arnt 3y ago
      I think you're probably right, but... Twitter's implenmentation of authentic user detection must be expected to try to separate normal users from e.g. test accounts created by client authors. And even if the Media Matters staff was genuinely interested in seeing etc, I think it's quite likely that their click pattern resembled a test account more than a Joe Normal User. (Intense activity immediately after signup, for example.) If that's the case, then Twitter's authentic user detection would classify the MM user as "likely test account" or something like that, and the authentic user data shown on Twitter's dashboards would exclude the MM user.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - nickthegreek 3y ago
    If they want to state that no nazi's see advertisements on their platform, they are free to make that claim. But I know there are nazi's on that platform and I know they get served ads. What else needs to be known?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ryandvm 3y ago
  > I'm confused how simply using Twitter and following Nazi-leaning accounts is an inauthentic usage pattern. Lol. Indeed - if anything it's only becoming more representative every day.