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Would Twitter Make President Obama 'Follow' the Tea Party If the Price Is Right?
theodp (442580) writes Giving others the impression that individuals support something that they actually don't could get you fined and placed under house arrest. But if you're Twitter, it could boost your bottom line. Gigaom's Carmel DeAmicis reports that brands pay Twitter to falsely appear in your following list, an advertising technique brought to light by William Shatner after he saw that 'MasterCard' appeared in his following list despite the fact that he didn't follow it. "By making it look like someone follows an account that they don't," writes DeAmicis, "it sends a false signal that said user cares about that brand. Although the brands are marked as 'promoted,' it's not necessarily clear that the user in question doesn't actually follow the brand. There's ethical considerations to be had. Hypothetical examples: What if you're vegan and don't want people to think you're following Burger King? Or you're the CEO of Visa and don't want people thinking you're following MasterCard? Or you're a pro-life activist and don't want people thinking you're following Planned Parenthood?" Or, if you're @BarackObama and don't want people to think you're following @TPPatriots!
Agreed. My first thought was the old saying 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'.
I monitor several gun opposition groups just so I know what they're up to in order to better oppose them. I'm sure they do the same to us. I wouldn't be surprised as a result that I'm counted as a 'member' in some circles.
Of course, then there's the militias where it turns out over half the 'members' are undercover officers....
I don't read AC A human right
Here's Why We Have a Lawless Gotcha Capitalism Economy: "Gotcha Capitalism rewards bad behavior. It turns the normal reward function of capitalism on its head. Instead of good companies with good products and creative innovation rising to the top, we have companies that refine their gotcha mechanisms rising to the top. They create just enough surprise to walk the thin line of the law...or slip over it, but not enough to do something that might actually have a material impact on the bottom line. If you like my line of thinking, I've written an entire book about this - you can buy it here. But for now, know this: Until bad behavior starts resulting in material impact, companies won't stop. And we'll remain stuck in the sucker economy."
They are? OK, please answer for me:
1. Which party wants to decrease corporate money in politics?
2. Which party is for decreasing the length of copyright?
3. Which party supports jail time for fraudulent bankers?
4. Which party would increase the penalty for crimes committed by corporations, instead of the current toothless fees we currently have?
5. Which party is for reducing our illegal surveillance both here and abroad?
6. Which party is for eliminating the NSA?
I mean, sure, they're different on a bunch of minor crap no one (should) care about, but when it comes to major issues, they're identical.
In a post on a similar article posted on the Hacker News a twitter employee explains that it was a bug in an unrelated (but, IMO, equally damning) advertisement feature on their platform.
According to him it was supposed to bump the advertised pages in the "following" list of their followers to the top. In order to do so it required removing it from the current position and reinserting at the top, as (again, according to him) the "following list" is not kept whole in whatever data structure it is stored.
I say equally damning because it reinforces the idea (common in here, not so common out there) that the user is not actually the customer but the product to be sold and "monetized" the harder it can be done without scaring him out.
This should be the definite proof of that (both the bugged and the intended feature) but people will happily trade their social influence for an easy to access technological soapbox.
No judgement being passed or merit being discussed on this post, just an observation of the current standing of the whole situation.