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Cracking The Code On Trump Tweets (time.com)

jIyajbe writes: From Electoral-Vote.com: "A theory has been circulating that the Donald Trump tweets that come from an Android device are from the candidate himself, while the ones that come from an iPhone are the work of his staff. David Robinson, a data scientist who works for Stack Overflow, decided to test the theory. His conclusion: It's absolutely correct. Robinson used some very sophisticated algorithms to analyze roughly 1,400 tweets from Trump's timeline, and demonstrated conclusively that the iPhone tweets are substantively different than the Android tweets. The former tend to come later at night, and are vastly more likely to incorporate hashtags, images, and links. The latter tend to come in the morning, and are much more likely to be copied and pasted from other people's tweets. In terms of word choice, the iPhone tweets tend to be more neutral, with their three most-used phrases being 'join,' '#trump2016,' and '#makeamericagreatagain.' The Android tweets tend to be more emotionally charged, with their three most-used phrases being 'badly,' 'crazy,' and 'weak.'" reifman adds: In an excellent forensic text analysis of Trump's tweets with the Twitter API, data geek David Robinson demonstrates Trump authors his angriest, picture-less, hashtag-less Android tweets often in the morning, while staff tweet from an iPhone with pictures, hashtags and greater joy mostly in the middle of the day. Robinson's report was inspired by a tweet by artist Todd Vaziri. As for why Robinson decided to look into Trump's tweets, he told TIME, "For me it's more about finding a really interesting story, a case where people suspect something, but don't have the data to back it up. For me it was much more about putting some quantitive details to this story that has been going around than it was about proving something about Trump's campaign."

27 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. I wish they could do that for news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish they'd find an algorithm for figuring out if the "reporters" of news stories had done any fact-checking instead. We have more news and far less fact-checkers these days. They're dying out with the newspapers given that people only want to pay for news they like.

    1. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Its the dishonest press. Trump would be such a great president, and they just spread lies about him!

    2. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We have more news and far less fact-checkers these days.

      There is no evidence that this is true. News reporting in the past was often highly inaccurate: ask anyone old enough to remember the Vietnam War, or, heck, even the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. There are way more fact-checking organizations today. News reporting today is far from perfect, but there was never a "golden age" when journalists were infallible angels.

    3. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by murdocj · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just like if you believe in evillootion. It has "evil" right in the name!

    4. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Facts have an anti-Trump bias.

    5. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wish they'd find an algorithm for figuring out if the "reporters" of news stories had done any fact-checking instead. We have more news and far less fact-checkers these days. They're dying out with the newspapers given that people only want to pay for news they like.

      I think it's less likely today than in the past. Why? Because it's so easy to fact-check nowadays. Take just 20 years ago when the Intenret was in its infancy and when you read a news report, there wasn't much in the way of resources - you could go to your library and do the necessary background research and then try to find other sources. In short, it would take a while to check and a lot of effort, so it'll be easier to pull it off.

      These days, a few clicks of the mouse gets you the basic research, a few more clicks often will get you source photos and descriptions A few clicks after that gets you all the conspiracy theories, which again, are easier to search and see through. So anything wrong generally gets called out

      The only thing that's still missing is engaging the brain and thinking critically given the volume of information.

    6. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There was a time when the audience cared more about the honesty and accuracy of the journalists

      No there wasn't.

      or at least there was a belief that the audience felt this way.

      Who believed that?

      You are experiencing false nostalgia for a golden age of journalism that never existed.

    7. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We have moved into a post-factual era now. There was a lot of fact checking going on, and people didn't like reality, so politicians have started trying to move beyond it.

      Crime stats are down, but people "feel" like there is more crime. It's factually untrue, but politicians and the people who vote for them treat it as the truth. If you believe it, then it's true and you should vote based on that feeling, they say. Same with the Brexit thing in the UK, one of the leading Leave politicians said that "people in this country have had enough of experts", and went on to argue that they should vote with their hearts and their gut feelings (mostly bigotry and xenophobia) rather than with reason and overwhelming expert advice.

      We got better at fact checking, so they just moved beyond facts.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by Enigma2175 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Trump makes a joke, media says he attacked someone.

      You know, I'm sick of Trump claiming everything he says is a joke when he gets called out on his bullshit. You're not a fucking comedian, Donald, you're applying for the most powerful job in the world - so act like it. Whether it's calling for Clinton's assassination or claiming Obama founded ISIS, this "it was a joke" bullshit gets old.

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      Enigma

    9. Re:I wish they could do that for news... by Alomex · · Score: 4, Informative

      Anyone with half a brain knows that was just a sardonic comment

      No it wasn't. Trump and his supporters keep on claiming this because they know the comments are inexcusable, but facts show he was serious.

      First, nobody laughed when he first said it on a Tuesday, and at his first chances to clarify it he doubled down on it, it took until two days later before he claimed was a joke. Here's what happened in between:

      From the Washington Post:

      1. Trump campaign officials never said he was joking on Wednesday. They mounted a robust defense, mind you, but they didn't say it was a joke.

      2. Trump doubled down. In a tweet after the comments exploded on social media, Trump sought to explain a little bit Ã" apparently suggesting he simply meant that the emails should be turned over to the FBI "if Russia or any other country or person has" them. Again, no mention of joking around.

      3. He said it twice. This wasn't a one-off quip in Trump's news conference on Wednesday. He initially said he hoped the Russians had the emails, and then he returned later to say that if they didn't have them, he hoped they would obtain them.

      4. A reporter gave him an out -- that he didn't take. NBC's Katy Tur, later in Wednesday's press conference, basically asked Trump twice if he was serious. In response, Trump indicated he had no qualms about, in Tur's words, "asking a foreign government Ã" Russia, China, anybody Ã" to interfere, to hack into the system of anybody's in this country."

      https://www.washingtonpost.com...

  2. Next up for debunking by burtosis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Donald trump is just a shill for the Clintions put in place to ruin the Republican Party and get Hillary elected.

    It's getting harder for me to take that as completely tin foil hat conspiracy theory.

    1. Re:Next up for debunking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's getting harder for me to take that as completely tin foil hat conspiracy theory.

      The only question is why would Republican voters be stupid enough to go along with it.

      Oh wait.

    2. Re:Next up for debunking by dinfinity · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Same here. It seems that shortly after he clinched the Republican nomination, his 'gaffes' have become much much worse from a Republican standpoint.

      The stuff that was deemed 'outrageous' used to be just mostly outrageous to Democrats. Some racism, some bullying, kind of run of the mill Fox News-level stuff, basically. But after the nomination he almost immediately went after military folk, parents of a dead soldier, even. If you're trying to appeal to Republicans (and Americans in general), that is pretty much the worst thing to do.

      The three theories I actually deem plausible (I'm afraid to admit it, but it's true):
      1. Trump doesn't want to win the election for some unknown reason: wouldn't like the (pressure of the) job, thinks the White House is a shitty place to live, etc.
      2. Trump is still a Democrat, Clinton asked him whether he'd want to help blow up the GOP and gain lots of media attention in the process, and so they proceeded.
      3. Trump is just a total narcissistic fuckwit who has no idea what he's doing and thinks that his stream-of-consciousness primary success somehow translates into "All people love me and how I act"

      I deem the latter the most probable.
      The 2nd would be both evil and genius at the same time. It's hard to see how they could have predicted Trump's primary success (nobody else did), though.
      Also, I still can't believe I'm seriously considering it as plausible. Someone pinch me.

  3. Re:If Trump Wins by Z80a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The fact there are only two actually viable parties and that they have Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as their candidates is already proof enough that the american voting system is completely broken.

  4. Let me guess...sent from your Android? (nt) by Brannon · · Score: 4, Funny

    nt

  5. Re:Thanks Media by quantaman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine if any journalist put as much effort into ANYTHING Hillary Clinton does. What's up with the thousands of work-related emails she didn't turn over? Who's gullible enough to believe she installed a private server to send pictures of her grandkids? Why do many of the most repressive dictatorships in the world keep giving so much money to the Clinton foundation?

    The only answer you ever get to any of these questions is "Shut up you can't prove anything" which is true, but the same can be said of Al Capone and OJ Simpson. We're just expected to take the word of a politician with countless lies already under her belt.

    If only someone could find a major News network that would obsessively look for dirt on the Clintons for 20+ years.

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    I stole this Sig
  6. Am I the only one by quantaman · · Score: 4, Funny

    who suddenly feels embarrassed to be using an Android?

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    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:Am I the only one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I feel embarrassed to be using Slashdot. What the fuck is going on in this thread? Either one schizophrenic psycho has dozens of IPs to burn on AC posts, or the Cheeto Squad is in here crapflooding the discussion. I don't think one person could conceivably have written and submitted all the "Slashdot is FBI" garbage in the time this post has been up, even given an unlimited number of IPs to comment from. So it seems like the Trump trolls are out in full force.

    2. Re:Am I the only one by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What the fuck is going on in this thread?

      It's been apparent for quite some time now there's a group effort to attempt burying these "Trump made an ass of himself again" stories under a mountain of garbage posts. I assume the goal is to make Slashdotters (the ones who aren't sociopathic, anyway) annoyed enough to quickly move on from the thread.

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    3. Re:Am I the only one by Stuarticus · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's why whenever Pol Pot comes up and people are talking negatively about him I always like to add some balance to the conversation. Like "I'm sure if there were trains he would have made them run on time", or maybe "the good thing was he was really unpredictable, which was fun".

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
  7. Re:Thanks Media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > The reason you never hear about this is not because it didn't happen or because nobody was looking for it.

    The reason you "never hear about this" is because your interpretation of those events is nutballs.

    If your "liberal media" theory were true, then there are a ton of counter examples. The whole lewinsky thing being chief among them. The obsessive media coverage of clinton "scandals" is beyond dispute. Travelgate, whitewater, vince foster, benghazi, etc. And despite tens of thousands of hours of media coverage, and tens of millions of republican directed tax dollars of investigations, it all turned out to be nothing. Cry wolf too many times and people just start tuning you out, no "liberal bias" necessary.

  8. Re:Thanks Media by Boronx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Imagine if any journalist put as much effort into ANYTHING Hillary Clinton does.

    This makes me wonder where you've been getting your news for the last 25 years.

    Why do many of the most repressive dictatorships in the world keep giving so much money to the Clinton foundation?

    Of everything that you mentioned, this is the only scandal.

    They do it to curry favor with the Clintons. However, I'm 100% certain that the Clintons are savvy enough that everything is totally legal, and that 95% went to the best charities. Unfortunately, we as a nation have decided that direct bribery of politicians is not only legal, but expected, as long as everyone is coy about it.

  9. More Interested in His Code by jIyajbe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm one of the two submitters. I submitted this story because I am intrigued by his methodology, and not because of the political angle.

    In my submission, I included a reference to the fact that he coded up his analysis in R, and that his code is right there on his website for all of us to inspect. I was hoping that that was what would catch Slashdotters' eyes. The editor deleted that part, unfortunately; oh, well.

    I know a little about statistical analysis, a little bit about coding, but nothing about R. Can anyone knowledgeable about R comment on his code, and/or his analysis? Thanks!

    --
    "Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
  10. Re:If Trump Wins by Solandri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not the voters' fault. Unfortunately, we use a plurality wins single vote system. The optimal solution for winning in that system system is two parties, each of which selects a nominee who is popular with 50.000001% of that party (i.e. just 25.0000001% of the entire voting population). Usually the most extreme 25.000001% of the population.

    Basically, both parties are controlled by extremists, who do their best to steer the nomination process hard right or hard left. The further right one party goes, the further left the other party can go while still being virtually guaranteed that one of their nominees will be elected. And vice versa. The entire process effectively disenfranchises the middle 49.99999% of the voting population, leaving government in control of the fringe 25% whose nominee happened to win.

    An instant-runoff voting system would put a stop to this, by making the nominee who best reflects the entire voting population (i.e. a centrist) most likely to win. But that's precisely why the two parties (or rather, the extremists who control the parties) will never allow it to happen while they control the legislatures.

  11. Re:A wild Investigative Journalist appeared! by dave420 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's more likely a case of you not bothering to seek out investigative journalism (of which there has been an ever-increasing amount), and when some accidentally crosses your path you assume it must be a change in the amount of journalism, and nothing else. Not, possibly, that because you don't care about journalism when you see an article "attacking" someone you like you have to find a reason for the article's existence beyond the person you like fucking up.... naaah. Couldn't be that. It must be some massive conspiracy amongst journalists of all flavours to deceive you. Your arrogance is disgusting. No wonder you are so confused by the world around you.

  12. Excellent work by gsslay · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can we now get an analysis of all the bat-shit crazy posts on this article. A number of things that could be investigated.

    - Is this one crazy person, or has an entire neighborhood of crazy town come visiting?
    - Do these crazy people think that crazy shit like this helps persuade voters to vote Trump?
    - Or is it a false flag effort designed to show Trump supporters as bat-shit crazy people?
    - Does anyone care?

  13. Re:DEMOCRATS HAVE INFECTED THE FBI by rickb928 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OK, here we go...

    0. The FBI doesn't charge, prosecute, convict, or imprison (for very long, anyways, mostly) anyone.
    1. The Justice Department would be the most common agency to charge and prosecute Hillary.
    2. By delaying interviews, and the FBI's accommodation of her, Hillary successfully delayed the FBI's completion of its investigation until the campaign reached a point where legal action would raise significant questions of tampering or interference on the part of the FBI, whether these would be warranted or not.
    3. Bill Clinton's meeting with Loretta Lynch, while presented as 'secret', was intentional, and intentionally leaked. This meeting;
    - was plainly improper, actually unethical, and should be grounds for removal of Lynch as AG on any of several legal grounds - witness tampering, ex parte communication, obstruction of justice (see next point) among others.
    - was calculated to cause an obvious conflict of interest on all parties' part, save the FBI, which was impacted by it.
    - was therefore crucial in forcing the FBI to reconsider how it would proceed with the disposition of its investigation.
    4. With this meeting exposed, FBI Director James Comey was left with;
    - Referring the case to Justice, where he knew Lynch would recuse herself, force the appointment of a Special Prosecutor, and delay prosecution until after the election, prompting widespread claims of tampering and a potential Constitutional crisis.
    - Refusing to disclose details, which no matter how he proceeded from there would result in denunciations and outrage from all quarters.
    - Or, as he did, disclose sufficient details to expose Hillary's apparent guilt, but then claim that the case was not sufficiently obvious for a 'reasonable prosecutor' to pursue. This is the way he chose to avoid referral and the problems that would cause.
    - And bottom line, Comey may well have wanted to avoid the FBI being accused of any of several impacts on the election, for he would not get support from the Administration if he did refer the case to Justice.
    5. Congress could refer an investigation to Justice, demand they charge Hillary, and then impeach Lynch and/or Obama, but at this stage that would be seen as petty, too late for meaningful results, overreaching their authority, manipulative of the election, and would likely fail. Not that any of these accusations are
    accurate or not, that doesn't matter, for this would be a political act also. All of this would be correct, legal, and devastating to the Republican Congress, as we are in an era where truth is unimportant.

    Director Comey was in an untenable situation, not of his own making except for the delay in completing the investigation. And he was on an island with no support from his boss or his bosses boss.

    Democrats have infected every branch and level of government, even co-opting the Republican congressional leadership. The fix is most likely to vote them all out, every single one. This will take more than one election cycle, as around 43% of the electorate is entirely satisfied with Democratic rule, and around 30% of the electorate is at war with itself. True undecideds and independents have little hope they can change things, and are not unified in any case, so sadly we either face the truth of our nation's condition or continue devolving into something other than what is constitutionally permitted.

    I believe we are witnessing the birth of new political movements in America, and possibly a new era of coalition politics, which will either permit the Right to coalesce and challenge the Left, or deliver insurmountable control to the Left, which will result in further unconstitutional rule and eventual collapse of what constitutional foundation for our government is left.

    We will regre

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