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As a product decision taken independently, maybe. Running one of those things at scale with all kinds of people trying to subvert it for various reasons, includ
by davidw 2y ago
As a product decision taken independently, maybe. Running one of those things at scale with all kinds of people trying to subvert it for various reasons, including some downright evil ones, is not an easy task.
Announced together with everything else and given the timing, I just can't help but think there's a political component to all of it.
- tptacek 2y agoI don't at all doubt that they're going to do whatever they can to cast this presumably longstanding product plan in the light most favorable to the governing majority! I just want to get the causality right.
- sanderjd 2y agoI don't understand though: What makes you think that you are getting the causality right? It seems to me like you're asserting the causality goes one direction, when there doesn't seem to be any evidence (at least in public) for that assertion at the moment. Have I just missed some other information on this that you're basing this on?
- tcbawo 2y agoI think he is suggesting that this move has favorable PR optics for the incoming administration. Making it appear like a conservative victory may give them some slack or earn them some favors.
- sangnoir 2y agoIs it not a conservative culture-war victory designed to earn favors? There is no external evidence of this having been anything other than a contingency around November 6 of last year, so it's hard to definitively say it's one or the other.
- disgruntledphd2 2y agoIt's not really, tbh. Like the vast vast vast majority of content reviewers are outside California and have been for well over a decade. The change here is to move the people designing the policies to Texas (basically a stealth layoff, tbh). That being said, the moderation has been insanely bad for a while now, so all the model tuning seems like a worthwhile change to me. The Texas thing sounds like PR but isn't really given their huge offices in Austin.
- sangnoir 2y ago> The Texas thing sounds like PR but isn't really given their huge offices in Austin That distinctly smells like pork barrel politicking: we're moving jobs from Commiefornia to your great state, and if your criminal [1] state AG sues us again over this function, he'll be putting Texans out a job. 1. Allegedly. Meta wouldn't dare call him thar, but he agreed to 100 hours of community service and paying restitution to those he allegedly defrauded to avoid a trial.
- disgruntledphd2 2y agoYeah, and it's not really a big deal for them but looks good for Texas politicians. Well chosen pork, I guess.
- markhahn 2y agoits called pre-conceding
- pessimizer 2y ago[flagged]
- davidw 2y agoFacebook is a corporation and can 'censor' whoever they like. They are not 'the US'. Part of the reason why they moderate content is the same reason that a bar owner turfs out people who are rowdy and threatening the other patrons: because the normies will leave and you're left with a bunch of nasty, loud people. That is, after all, why this site we're on right now is so heavily moderated: it makes for a better user experience.
- philwelch 2y agoIt turns out that “normies” were people who have the kinds of normal, mainstream beliefs that Facebook has spent the past four years censoring.
- davidw 2y agoThe only thing that "turns out" is they wish to curry favor with the incoming administration. FB hasn't been censoring much of anything as far as I can tell; there are all kinds of vile, nasty comments all over it. Just unfriendly, unkind stuff, not even political things. It's probably one reason it's kind of struggling as a platform - that kind of thing isn't much fun.
- philistine 2y agoThat's the silver lining through all of that: when right-wing ideologues start imposing their own groupthink model on social media, it stops being fun and people start to leave. Just look at Twitter. It's just not as fun anymore on there.
- jjk7 2y agoThe parent's point, is that the incoming administration won the popular vote... they are the 'normies' now.
- jimbokun 2y agoFact checking, Community Notes, whatever you want to call it, is inherently political.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jnwatson 2y ago[flagged]
- nearbuy 2y agoConservatives believe the truth supports conservative beliefs, and liberals believe it supports liberal beliefs. This type of comment is about the same as just saying "I am a liberal", which almost by definition means you think liberal beliefs are true. It doesn't add much to the conversation.
- DonHopkins 2y ago[flagged]
- ChocolateGod 2y agoTrump and his antics are not mainstream conservative thought, especially not on a global or even 'western' level. He does however have a knack for attracting people disenfranchised from politics.
- davidw 2y agoSure they are. People like the Cheneys or Mitt Romney are not mainstream conservatives in the US any more.
- ethbr1 2y agoAccurate. It's difficult to argue that the mainstream US Republican isn't a populist now. Twice is not a fluke. And ever since the 70s there's been a tension between the blocks of the Republican party: fiscal business conservatives, foreign policy hawks, and rural/religious conservatives. After couple decades getting the final group fired up, they decided they wanted to drive. And the primary system rewarded them.
- toasteros 2y ago> I just can't help but think there's a political component to all of it. "We're moving to Texas to eliminate perceptions of bias" is the biggest giveaway of this.
- friendzis 2y agoThe political bias I agree with is better!!1
- ARandomerDude 2y agoAustin is very left of center. If they end up there, they will have ideologically strayed in California while geographically moving to Texas.
- isleyaardvark 2y agoThe intent is clear.
- throwaway48476 2y agoStayed not strayed.
- shakes_mcjunkie 2y agoInfowars was based in Austin. Joe Rogan is in Austin. How does moving to Austin mean they are "ideologically" in California?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- robertlagrant 2y agoJoe Rogan also moved from California.
- tough 2y agoElon too, isnt it cheaper taxes for business there? i mean they can just pretend and get paid
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- gadders 2y agoThere was always a political component to it. The Twitter files told us this. It's just the political component is going the other way.
- red-iron-pine 2y agowhat are the twitter files?
- gadders 2y agoThe documents provided by Elon Musk to Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi etc when he took over Twitter.