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It looks like Twitter is suppressing posts until they are spammed by hate bots and then making those posts visible. https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsk

It looks like Twitter is suppressing posts until they are spammed by hate bots and then making those posts visible. https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsky.social/post/3lkjabe5wmk2v https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsky.social/post/3lk... I've also seen evidence of posts Twitter likes (violent and hateful anti-immigration posts - literally a photo of a dummy tied to a chair being shot in the back of the head) being spammed by love bots. Twitter seems to be a propaganda channel, run by Donald/Elon/et al.

numpad0 1y ago
Yeah, artificial delays in content delivery is silently spreading. It's not just Twitter. Edit: is this why 4chan was hit with the disruption - because there's no room for this delay mechanism?
- kmeisthax 1y ago
  No, 4chan was hacked because hideyuki has terrible security hygiene and didn't update shit. Same thing happened to 2channel a decade prior.
OmarShehata 1y ago
important notes from the essay, this not unique to twitter: > And if you think this only happens on one social network, you’re already caught in the wrong attention loop. > The most effective influence doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t censor loudly, or boost aggressively. It shapes perception quietly — one algorithmic nudge at a time.
- readhistory 1y ago
  FWIW, I don't think the person you are responding to said it only happens on Twitter. Just that it happens on Twitter.
- awkwabear 1y ago
  This definitely happens on other platforms as well but there is a key difference in noting that twitter is now privately owned by a single person who has shown themself to be insecure and prone to lashing publicly at critics. I think twitter is uniquely concentrated in its influence by its owner and willingness to do things so blatantly, other platforms need to at least pretend to not steer things so directly as not to upset shareholders.
Tireings 1y ago
It's a propaganda platform since Musk bought it. Im saying this for ages and never joked. Plenty of real situations happening like blocking certain people, stoping of fact checking, bot protection and detection etc. There is a reason why Twitter needed more people before
- fourseventy 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - viraptor 1y ago
    I doubt you have any proof of that happening...
    - michtzik 1y ago
      https://www.foxnews.com/world/spanish-politician-suspended-by-twitter-after-saying-a-man-cannot-get-pregnant https://www.foxnews.com/world/spanish-politician-suspended-b...
      - viraptor 1y ago
        Suspended not banned. Also, in context the tweet was saying that the trans man was not a man and that was against the policy at the time. The pregnancy was just a detail there.
      - GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
        surely you realize that this is entertainment outlet is not a news organization, nor does this entertainment outlet have any obligation to report anything on a factual, truthful or verifiable basis? and that this entertainment outlet is famously bigoted?
  - Llamamoe 1y ago
    Yeah I mean, if the only reason you said that was to "piss off the libs" and hate on transgender men, you really shouldn't be shocked that a platform doesn't want that. Being unable to say hateful things without consequence on social media isn't the same as it being a propaganda machine.
gruez 1y ago
>It looks like Twitter is suppressing posts until they are spammed by hate bots and then making those posts visible. >https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsky.social/post/3lk https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsky.social/post/3lk... This could also very well be explained by a ranking algorithm that optimizes for "engagement". Getting spammed by hate bots = "engagement". This would be perfectly consistent with what the guy is experiencing, minus the accusation that the platform is suppressing anti-ukraine posts, which is totally unsubstantiated.
- casenmgreen 1y ago
  As I understanding the timing, the post was suppressed until the hate bots spammed it. Given the post was suppressed, how did the hate bots know about it to spam it? It seems to me Twitter suppressed the post until they had time to spam it with hate posts. Bear in mind here also this suppression did not happen for other posts - only for the pro-Ukraine post - so Twitter at the least is specifically suppressing pro-Ukraine posts.
  - gruez 1y ago
    >It seems to me Twitter suppressed the post until they had time to spam it with hate posts. Twitter can't spam hate posts in real time? They're literally an AI company. >Bear in mind here also this suppression did not happen for other posts - only for the pro-Ukraine post - so Twitter at the least is specifically suppressing pro-Ukraine posts. There's scant evidence of this, besides the vague assertion that "I have 5k more followers there and regularly have posts which are viewed over 100k times". If he normally posts informative and substantive content that gets good engagement, is it really surprising that a generic "I support Zelensky" post would get poor engagement?
    - intended 1y ago
      I’d bet that their tech is weaker than what people expect. Perhaps a better term would be “not as robust as expected”.
    - casenmgreen 1y ago
hn1986 1y ago
Billionaire buys social network for instant cultural and political influence. Including amplifying his own posts. Yet, hardly any alarm from the tech or mainstream
TacticalCoder 1y ago
[dead]
red-iron-pine 1y ago
social media is either making money via ads, or making money by shaping consensus. what approach do you think HN takes, and how many bots do you think are here? Cuz I don't see any ads...

numpad0 1y ago

Yeah, artificial delays in content delivery is silently spreading. It's not just Twitter. Edit: is this why 4chan was hit with the disruption - because there's no room for this delay mechanism?

kmeisthax 1y ago
No, 4chan was hacked because hideyuki has terrible security hygiene and didn't update shit. Same thing happened to 2channel a decade prior.

OmarShehata 1y ago

important notes from the essay, this not unique to twitter: > And if you think this only happens on one social network, you’re already caught in the wrong attention loop. > The most effective influence doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t censor loudly, or boost aggressively. It shapes perception quietly — one algorithmic nudge at a time.

readhistory 1y ago
FWIW, I don't think the person you are responding to said it only happens on Twitter. Just that it happens on Twitter.
awkwabear 1y ago
This definitely happens on other platforms as well but there is a key difference in noting that twitter is now privately owned by a single person who has shown themself to be insecure and prone to lashing publicly at critics. I think twitter is uniquely concentrated in its influence by its owner and willingness to do things so blatantly, other platforms need to at least pretend to not steer things so directly as not to upset shareholders.

Tireings 1y ago

It's a propaganda platform since Musk bought it. Im saying this for ages and never joked. Plenty of real situations happening like blocking certain people, stoping of fact checking, bot protection and detection etc. There is a reason why Twitter needed more people before

fourseventy 1y ago
[flagged]
- viraptor 1y ago
  I doubt you have any proof of that happening...
  - michtzik 1y ago
    https://www.foxnews.com/world/spanish-politician-suspended-by-twitter-after-saying-a-man-cannot-get-pregnant https://www.foxnews.com/world/spanish-politician-suspended-b...
    - viraptor 1y ago
      Suspended not banned. Also, in context the tweet was saying that the trans man was not a man and that was against the policy at the time. The pregnancy was just a detail there.
    - GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
      surely you realize that this is entertainment outlet is not a news organization, nor does this entertainment outlet have any obligation to report anything on a factual, truthful or verifiable basis? and that this entertainment outlet is famously bigoted?
- Llamamoe 1y ago
  Yeah I mean, if the only reason you said that was to "piss off the libs" and hate on transgender men, you really shouldn't be shocked that a platform doesn't want that. Being unable to say hateful things without consequence on social media isn't the same as it being a propaganda machine.

gruez 1y ago

>It looks like Twitter is suppressing posts until they are spammed by hate bots and then making those posts visible. >https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsky.social/post/3lk https://bsky.app/profile/willhaycardiff.bsky.social/post/3lk... This could also very well be explained by a ranking algorithm that optimizes for "engagement". Getting spammed by hate bots = "engagement". This would be perfectly consistent with what the guy is experiencing, minus the accusation that the platform is suppressing anti-ukraine posts, which is totally unsubstantiated.

casenmgreen 1y ago
As I understanding the timing, the post was suppressed until the hate bots spammed it. Given the post was suppressed, how did the hate bots know about it to spam it? It seems to me Twitter suppressed the post until they had time to spam it with hate posts. Bear in mind here also this suppression did not happen for other posts - only for the pro-Ukraine post - so Twitter at the least is specifically suppressing pro-Ukraine posts.
- gruez 1y ago
  >It seems to me Twitter suppressed the post until they had time to spam it with hate posts. Twitter can't spam hate posts in real time? They're literally an AI company. >Bear in mind here also this suppression did not happen for other posts - only for the pro-Ukraine post - so Twitter at the least is specifically suppressing pro-Ukraine posts. There's scant evidence of this, besides the vague assertion that "I have 5k more followers there and regularly have posts which are viewed over 100k times". If he normally posts informative and substantive content that gets good engagement, is it really surprising that a generic "I support Zelensky" post would get poor engagement?
  - intended 1y ago
    I’d bet that their tech is weaker than what people expect. Perhaps a better term would be “not as robust as expected”.
  - casenmgreen 1y ago

hn1986 1y ago

Billionaire buys social network for instant cultural and political influence. Including amplifying his own posts. Yet, hardly any alarm from the tech or mainstream

TacticalCoder 1y ago

[dead]

red-iron-pine 1y ago

social media is either making money via ads, or making money by shaping consensus. what approach do you think HN takes, and how many bots do you think are here? Cuz I don't see any ads...