4 ms·

I think that's by design. Twitter has became a far-right platform since Musk took over and renamed it to X

by hoppp 1y ago

spwa4 11mo ago
This is seen on most other platforms as well. Facebook, instagram and perhaps most worryingly tiktok.
- xnx 11mo ago
  TikTok is far right? I know the fyp is very personalized, but I can't think of a single far right video I've seen. Occasionally I'll see comments on videos from people who don't like wind turbines, but that's about it.
  - spwa4 11mo ago
    If I join and just select random interests I get shown low-effort obviously-AI anti-immigrant "songs". Not quickly, takes a little bit of browsing.
- api 11mo ago
  How much is intentional and how much is from the fact that far right content tends to be aimed at the amygdala? It’s usually crafted to inspire either outrage or fear. Those emotions have also been shown to maximize attention, and attention is what the algorithm seeks. It also tends to be polarizing. If you react with disgust because you disagree, the algorithm also picks that up as engagement. I do see more far right content on algorithmic social media and I’ve always suspected this is why. When I see lefty content it’s almost always when it’s of a similar form: outrage or fear bait. I rarely see any form of political content on those platforms that is thoughtful or positive, because that doesn’t maximize engagement. Of course I rarely look at any of those hellscapes anymore. All algorithmic social media is a worthless addictive attention trap.
api 11mo ago
I was on it before then and it was overflowing with far right content then too. Not saying Musk hasn’t amplified that, but it’s always been full of it. IMHO the format is intrinsically biased toward shallow ideas that elicit an emotional reaction, and far right content is well suited. Like I said in another reply when I see lefty content it’s the same style. You almost never see deep ideas of substance on there because they don’t fit the medium. The Twitter style medium is inherently toxic, at least when used for anything but a human pub-sub bus to notify people of things. For discourse it selects only for the lowest most inflammatory kind. The same is true of Twitter’s imitators. The format is irredeemable.
- acdha 11mo ago
  I’d also add that there’s a lot of money in producing astro-turf content. All of those “influencers” effectively auditioning to see if they can go viral enough for one of the right-wing outfits to hire them, the bot farms promoting certain stories, etc. exist to employ voices and make it seem like their ideas are closer to evenly shared. There aren’t left-wing billionaires funding that so the same kind of network doesn’t exist.
- LocalH 11mo ago
  In other words, the format is intrinsically biased towards engagement of any type. Trolls get engagement.

I think that's by design. Twitter has became a far-right platform since Musk took over and renamed it to X

by hoppp 1y ago

I think that's by design. Twitter has became a far-right platform since Musk took over and renamed it to X

spwa4 11mo ago

This is seen on most other platforms as well. Facebook, instagram and perhaps most worryingly tiktok.

xnx 11mo ago
TikTok is far right? I know the fyp is very personalized, but I can't think of a single far right video I've seen. Occasionally I'll see comments on videos from people who don't like wind turbines, but that's about it.
- spwa4 11mo ago
  If I join and just select random interests I get shown low-effort obviously-AI anti-immigrant "songs". Not quickly, takes a little bit of browsing.
api 11mo ago
How much is intentional and how much is from the fact that far right content tends to be aimed at the amygdala? It’s usually crafted to inspire either outrage or fear. Those emotions have also been shown to maximize attention, and attention is what the algorithm seeks. It also tends to be polarizing. If you react with disgust because you disagree, the algorithm also picks that up as engagement. I do see more far right content on algorithmic social media and I’ve always suspected this is why. When I see lefty content it’s almost always when it’s of a similar form: outrage or fear bait. I rarely see any form of political content on those platforms that is thoughtful or positive, because that doesn’t maximize engagement. Of course I rarely look at any of those hellscapes anymore. All algorithmic social media is a worthless addictive attention trap.

api 11mo ago

I was on it before then and it was overflowing with far right content then too. Not saying Musk hasn’t amplified that, but it’s always been full of it. IMHO the format is intrinsically biased toward shallow ideas that elicit an emotional reaction, and far right content is well suited. Like I said in another reply when I see lefty content it’s the same style. You almost never see deep ideas of substance on there because they don’t fit the medium. The Twitter style medium is inherently toxic, at least when used for anything but a human pub-sub bus to notify people of things. For discourse it selects only for the lowest most inflammatory kind. The same is true of Twitter’s imitators. The format is irredeemable.

acdha 11mo ago
I’d also add that there’s a lot of money in producing astro-turf content. All of those “influencers” effectively auditioning to see if they can go viral enough for one of the right-wing outfits to hire them, the bot farms promoting certain stories, etc. exist to employ voices and make it seem like their ideas are closer to evenly shared. There aren’t left-wing billionaires funding that so the same kind of network doesn’t exist.
LocalH 11mo ago
In other words, the format is intrinsically biased towards engagement of any type. Trolls get engagement.