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So journalists ran a study with extremely poor sampling, base rate, and classification methodology designed by left-wing researchers and activists groups (inclu

So journalists ran a study with extremely poor sampling, base rate, and classification methodology designed by left-wing researchers and activists groups (including groups explicitly opposed to X), found the conclusions they wanted to find, and spent the second half of their article decrying the lack of heavy-handed moderation that pre-Musk Twitter used to control speech. All we can actually derive from that article is that X’s new user recommendation system exposed a small number of near-default, low-feedback, synthetic accounts to more content that left-wing “misinformation” researchers classified as “right-wing”.

monocasa 18d ago
Musk also uses plenty of heavy handed moderation; it's just almost all directed at the left. For instance: https://crimethinc.com/2022/11/25/elon-musk-bans-crimethinc-from-twitter-on-request-from-far-right-troll https://crimethinc.com/2022/11/25/elon-musk-bans-crimethinc-...
- frumplestlatz 18d ago
  They were banned for literally advocating for political violence. The fact that they hadn’t been banned earlier is the only concerning fact here. The current top article on their website argues for punching their political opponents in the streets.
  - monocasa 18d ago
    And yet right wingers openly calling for the west to ethnically cleanse the non white races get reinstated. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-twitter-reinstates-neo-nazi-andrew-anglin-account-1234640390/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-mus... And simply criticizing Musk is enough to get a shadow ban https://futurism.com/twitter-shadow-ban-elon-musk https://futurism.com/twitter-shadow-ban-elon-musk
    - frumplestlatz 18d ago
      Andrew Anglin, the subject of the first article, was re-banned in 2023 for the same reason that crimethink, inc was banned. The subjects of the second article are particularly odious right-wing conspiracy theorists and racists that lost their reach, which they believe was connected to arguing with Elon. That seems like an action you’d be in favor of, and also it counters the propaganda claim — but regardless, their claim that they were shadow-banned, that the cause was direct intercession by Elon, and that the motivation was their merely disagreeing with him, is unsupported by any evidence.
      - monocasa 18d ago
        He had already been banned for the same reason, and Musk unbanned him in the same wave that had him ban crimethinc.
  - mitxela 16d ago
    That's what a lot of the right was banned for pre-Musk, but you thought that was bad, so isn't it also bad when it's done to the left, or is your definition of bad one-sided?
vrganj 18d ago
I'm not sure where you got any of that from. Where are you reading anything about the researchers working for Sky News, a Comcast subsidiary (!) being "left wing"? What are you basing your criticism of sampling and classification on? I provided a study that literally won the Royal Statistical Societies' "Statistical Excellence in Journalism" award [0]. You provided unfounded dismissal and conspiracy. The burden of proof is on your side. [0] https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2026/general-news/statistical-excellence-in-journalism-awards-2026-w/ https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2026/g...
- frumplestlatz 18d ago
  [dead]
TheAceOfHearts 18d ago
Researchers use whatever tools are available, you cannot complaint about imperfect methodology when Elon refuses to provide researchers access to their APIs in order to do a better job at assessing the state of the system. But for whatever it's worth I had made a new account around the same time and my experience was very similar to what was reported.
- frumplestlatz 18d ago
  [flagged]
  - vrganj 18d ago
    Again, Comcast is not an "activist group" and the study literally got awarded by the Royal Statistical Society. As a cherry on top, they do owe researchers in the EU (though this was done in the UK, I know Sky has an EU presence as well) API access or similar under Article 40 of the DSA.
    - frumplestlatz 17d ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700433 https://www.allsides.com/news-source/sky-news-media-bias https://www.allsides.com/news-source/sky-news-media-bias You’re just being brazenly disingenuous at this point. The publication is left-leaning, regardless of the distant parent company. The experts they used to design and run the study were literally left-wing political advocacy groups, and a self-declared left-wing disinformation researcher. The award is an empty appeal to authority. But none of those facts matter as much as their obvious selection, base rate, and classification methodology failures.
      - defrost 17d ago
        Ever so slightly left leaning by your source. Centralist and unbiased by another: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sky-news/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sky-news/ That's quite the achievement for a group that was once firmly a propaganda wing of the global Murdoch PoV. "brazenly disingenuous" in such context is a ridiculous and emotive over statement.

monocasa 18d ago

Musk also uses plenty of heavy handed moderation; it's just almost all directed at the left. For instance: https://crimethinc.com/2022/11/25/elon-musk-bans-crimethinc-from-twitter-on-request-from-far-right-troll https://crimethinc.com/2022/11/25/elon-musk-bans-crimethinc-...

frumplestlatz 18d ago
They were banned for literally advocating for political violence. The fact that they hadn’t been banned earlier is the only concerning fact here. The current top article on their website argues for punching their political opponents in the streets.
- monocasa 18d ago
  And yet right wingers openly calling for the west to ethnically cleanse the non white races get reinstated. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-twitter-reinstates-neo-nazi-andrew-anglin-account-1234640390/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-mus... And simply criticizing Musk is enough to get a shadow ban https://futurism.com/twitter-shadow-ban-elon-musk https://futurism.com/twitter-shadow-ban-elon-musk
  - frumplestlatz 18d ago
    Andrew Anglin, the subject of the first article, was re-banned in 2023 for the same reason that crimethink, inc was banned. The subjects of the second article are particularly odious right-wing conspiracy theorists and racists that lost their reach, which they believe was connected to arguing with Elon. That seems like an action you’d be in favor of, and also it counters the propaganda claim — but regardless, their claim that they were shadow-banned, that the cause was direct intercession by Elon, and that the motivation was their merely disagreeing with him, is unsupported by any evidence.
    - monocasa 18d ago
      He had already been banned for the same reason, and Musk unbanned him in the same wave that had him ban crimethinc.
- mitxela 16d ago
  That's what a lot of the right was banned for pre-Musk, but you thought that was bad, so isn't it also bad when it's done to the left, or is your definition of bad one-sided?

vrganj 18d ago

I'm not sure where you got any of that from. Where are you reading anything about the researchers working for Sky News, a Comcast subsidiary (!) being "left wing"? What are you basing your criticism of sampling and classification on? I provided a study that literally won the Royal Statistical Societies' "Statistical Excellence in Journalism" award [0]. You provided unfounded dismissal and conspiracy. The burden of proof is on your side. [0] https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2026/general-news/statistical-excellence-in-journalism-awards-2026-w/ https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2026/g...

frumplestlatz 18d ago
[dead]

TheAceOfHearts 18d ago

Researchers use whatever tools are available, you cannot complaint about imperfect methodology when Elon refuses to provide researchers access to their APIs in order to do a better job at assessing the state of the system. But for whatever it's worth I had made a new account around the same time and my experience was very similar to what was reported.

frumplestlatz 18d ago
[flagged]
- vrganj 18d ago
  Again, Comcast is not an "activist group" and the study literally got awarded by the Royal Statistical Society. As a cherry on top, they do owe researchers in the EU (though this was done in the UK, I know Sky has an EU presence as well) API access or similar under Article 40 of the DSA.
  - frumplestlatz 17d ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700433 https://www.allsides.com/news-source/sky-news-media-bias https://www.allsides.com/news-source/sky-news-media-bias You’re just being brazenly disingenuous at this point. The publication is left-leaning, regardless of the distant parent company. The experts they used to design and run the study were literally left-wing political advocacy groups, and a self-declared left-wing disinformation researcher. The award is an empty appeal to authority. But none of those facts matter as much as their obvious selection, base rate, and classification methodology failures.
    - defrost 17d ago
      Ever so slightly left leaning by your source. Centralist and unbiased by another: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sky-news/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sky-news/ That's quite the achievement for a group that was once firmly a propaganda wing of the global Murdoch PoV. "brazenly disingenuous" in such context is a ridiculous and emotive over statement.