3 ms·

RIP author_is_elon, we hardly knew ye. https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/issues/236 https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/issues/236

echelon 1y ago
Republican, Democrat, and Elon. Wow.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- ivape 1y ago
  Is this real? We accept that the algorithm may link you abstractly with other people, but I didn’t think they were literally labeling on this level. If you just say “we look for what’s similar and leave it at that”, then there’s much less liability. This is political targeting. This guy was one of the biggest political donors, how can this fly?
  - burnte 1y ago
    Yes, he really had twitter change their code to push his tweets more.
    - jsheard 1y ago
      They seem to have dialed the overt Elon boosting down now but it's still conspicuously aligned with his priorities. I just made a fresh burner account to see what the algorithm is primed to push by default nowadays, and about 80% of the feed is anti-immigration ragebait.
      - mrguyorama 1y ago
        I think that's just an accurate and mostly genuine indicator of who is left on twitter nowadays. The people left on twitter earnestly believe that it is better now that you can shout racial slurs at people, buy your way to the top of any chain, get literally paid for ragebait, and genuinely think this repo is meaningful. It's a massive self selection bias.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
        archagon 1y ago
        Musk is actively pushing white nationalism these days, so maybe he adjusted the algorithm in line with his political priorities: https://bsky.app/profile/harikunzru.bsky.social/post/3lxrqzmfoi22x https://bsky.app/profile/harikunzru.bsky.social/post/3lxrqzm...
  - frabcus 1y ago
    Looks pretty real: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b928b479b512ec51ac2c3821f5922/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/decorator/HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala#L225 https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b92... When this started it really put me off X - I'd have tolerated, and almost liked the idea, of a freedom of speeech place. But a place that boosts its owners posts... Nope. I'm out - it's such a big personal diss of me, I'm not interested any more.
  - bongodongobob 1y ago
    You do realize people officially register as party members right? I have no idea why this upsets you. It's just categorization. I fucking hope my feeds do this, I do not want to see maga trash.
  - 0points 1y ago
    > This guy was one of the biggest political donors, how can this fly? The system is rigged. Haven't you noticed yet?
- SXX 1y ago
  South Park: The Game level of irony.
- hereme888 1y ago
  Rep, Dem, and "America Party".
uyzstvqs 1y ago
The file in question is now here: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/decorator/builder/HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/home-mixe... author_is_elon, author_is_democrat, and author_is_republican are in fact gone. Now there is grok_politics_neutral, grok_politics_left, and grok_politics_right. This is in addition to a whole group of other categories, such as grok_category_sports and grok_category_music. All are based on annotations by Grok. Importantly, this file is not used for recommendations. Everything in this file is only used for "metrics tracking purposes to measure how often we serve posts with various attributes." This would also have applied to author_is_elon.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
0points 1y ago
Oh my god lolollol author_is_elon author_is_power_user author_is_democrat author_is_republican
pjjpo 1y ago
I don't like the platform or owner at all but this was the first time I really looked at their oss'ing of the algorithm, which 2y ago is longer than I realized. The fact that this issue still exists at all and that the variables have been improved to some degree seems pretty awesome? There was actually no need for this repo to exist in the first place anyways. (Not a critique of the post itself but I couldn't find a better place to criticize "automatic anti-Elon sentiment which prevails across the board).

echelon 1y ago

Republican, Democrat, and Elon. Wow.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
ivape 1y ago
Is this real? We accept that the algorithm may link you abstractly with other people, but I didn’t think they were literally labeling on this level. If you just say “we look for what’s similar and leave it at that”, then there’s much less liability. This is political targeting. This guy was one of the biggest political donors, how can this fly?
- burnte 1y ago
  Yes, he really had twitter change their code to push his tweets more.
  - jsheard 1y ago
    They seem to have dialed the overt Elon boosting down now but it's still conspicuously aligned with his priorities. I just made a fresh burner account to see what the algorithm is primed to push by default nowadays, and about 80% of the feed is anti-immigration ragebait.
    - mrguyorama 1y ago
      I think that's just an accurate and mostly genuine indicator of who is left on twitter nowadays. The people left on twitter earnestly believe that it is better now that you can shout racial slurs at people, buy your way to the top of any chain, get literally paid for ragebait, and genuinely think this repo is meaningful. It's a massive self selection bias.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      - archagon 1y ago
        Musk is actively pushing white nationalism these days, so maybe he adjusted the algorithm in line with his political priorities: https://bsky.app/profile/harikunzru.bsky.social/post/3lxrqzmfoi22x https://bsky.app/profile/harikunzru.bsky.social/post/3lxrqzm...
- frabcus 1y ago
  Looks pretty real: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b928b479b512ec51ac2c3821f5922/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/decorator/HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala#L225 https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b92... When this started it really put me off X - I'd have tolerated, and almost liked the idea, of a freedom of speeech place. But a place that boosts its owners posts... Nope. I'm out - it's such a big personal diss of me, I'm not interested any more.
- bongodongobob 1y ago
  You do realize people officially register as party members right? I have no idea why this upsets you. It's just categorization. I fucking hope my feeds do this, I do not want to see maga trash.
- 0points 1y ago
  > This guy was one of the biggest political donors, how can this fly? The system is rigged. Haven't you noticed yet?
SXX 1y ago
South Park: The Game level of irony.
hereme888 1y ago
Rep, Dem, and "America Party".

uyzstvqs 1y ago

The file in question is now here: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/decorator/builder/HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/home-mixe... author_is_elon, author_is_democrat, and author_is_republican are in fact gone. Now there is grok_politics_neutral, grok_politics_left, and grok_politics_right. This is in addition to a whole group of other categories, such as grok_category_sports and grok_category_music. All are based on annotations by Grok. Importantly, this file is not used for recommendations. Everything in this file is only used for "metrics tracking purposes to measure how often we serve posts with various attributes." This would also have applied to author_is_elon.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

0points 1y ago

Oh my god lolollol author_is_elon author_is_power_user author_is_democrat author_is_republican

pjjpo 1y ago

I don't like the platform or owner at all but this was the first time I really looked at their oss'ing of the algorithm, which 2y ago is longer than I realized. The fact that this issue still exists at all and that the variables have been improved to some degree seems pretty awesome? There was actually no need for this repo to exist in the first place anyways. (Not a critique of the post itself but I couldn't find a better place to criticize "automatic anti-Elon sentiment which prevails across the board).