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The article’s angst over X’s “manufactured consensus” is overblown. Influence has always been curated—editors, town criers, or whoever grabbed the mic were the
by 627467 2y ago
The article’s angst over X’s “manufactured consensus” is overblown. Influence has always been curated—editors, town criers, or whoever grabbed the mic were the analog algorithms. X’s sin isn’t some evil algo: it’s just running at planetary scale. We’ve ditched thousands of small communities for one global shouting match, so naturally mega-influencers steal the show. Algorithms are just the gears keeping this chaos moving because we crave instant, worldwide chatter. Some folks pretend a perfect algorithm exists (bsky, IG/fb) but it doesn’t come from one team, one database, or one set of criteria. The “perfect” system is a messy web of different algorithms in different spaces, barely connected, each with its own context. Calling out X’s code misses the mark. We signed up for this planetary circus and keep buying tickets.
- throwaway7783 2y agoBut there is no denying that there is a shift in narrative in X posts since its acquisition. So there is certainly more going on than just planetary scale. It was planetary scale before acquisition too. Algorithms have the power to nudge the narrative one way or another at planetary scale.
- EcommerceFlow 2y agoYes, the natural order (that was mass censored for 10+ years) got uncensored. Look at who won the presidency.
- throwaway7783 2y agoNo way of telling one way or another, no? Unless you actually work at X and know exactly how it works. Note - My original comment was not about whether now is worse than before or vice versa. It is just that narratives shifted in a different way, that had nothing to do with scale. Algorithms are just as likely as uncensored (or censored - how does one know?)
- ljsprague 2y agoIt was completely transparent and unbiased before its acquisition.
- watwut 2y agoIt was a little right wing biased. Now the bias moved a lot to the right.
- throwaway7783 2y agoI can't quite tell if this is sarcasm :). I'll assume it is.
- Swoerd 2y ago[dead]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]