Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Is Limiting the Visibility of Prominent Republicans In Search Results (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VICE News: Twitter is limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans in search results -- a technique known as "shadow banning" -- in what it says is a side effect of its attempts to improve the quality of discourse on the platform. The Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.'s spokesman no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter, VICE News has learned. It's a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform -- and it's the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility. The profiles continue to appear when conducting a full search, but not in the more convenient and visible drop-down bar. (The accounts appear to also populate if you already follow the person.)
Democrats are not being "shadow banned" in the same way, according to a VICE News review. McDaniel's counterpart, Democratic Party chair Tom Perez, and liberal members of Congress -- including Reps. Maxine Waters, Joe Kennedy III, Keith Ellison, and Mark Pocan -- all continue to appear in drop-down search results. Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter's search. Presented with screenshots of the searches, a Twitter spokesperson told VICE News: "We are aware that some accounts are not automatically populating in our search box and shipping a change to address this." Asked why only conservative Republicans appear to be affected and not liberal Democrats, the spokesperson wrote: "I'd emphasize that our technology is based on account *behavior* not the content of Tweets."
Democrats are not being "shadow banned" in the same way, according to a VICE News review. McDaniel's counterpart, Democratic Party chair Tom Perez, and liberal members of Congress -- including Reps. Maxine Waters, Joe Kennedy III, Keith Ellison, and Mark Pocan -- all continue to appear in drop-down search results. Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter's search. Presented with screenshots of the searches, a Twitter spokesperson told VICE News: "We are aware that some accounts are not automatically populating in our search box and shipping a change to address this." Asked why only conservative Republicans appear to be affected and not liberal Democrats, the spokesperson wrote: "I'd emphasize that our technology is based on account *behavior* not the content of Tweets."
Someone with top level DNS control route twitter.com to 127.0.0.1. I'm pretty sure violence would drop and IQ points would bump up.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
So Slashdot got bought by Fox News?
Reality has a liberal bias.
I'm sure they already know this, but the algorithm isn't designed to trip up GOP politicians. It says a lot more about how they choose to phrase their message and talk about issues, than any agenda seeking to silence them on Twitter.
When what you post is designed to be inflammatory and lower discourse and a system designed to combat that properly flags it, maybe its working as intended and you should look inwards? No matter where you stand, there are good and bad ways to engage in discourse. On all topics, with all points of view.
First, private companies can do what they want, there is no first amendment right for equal access. There is nothing illegal or even unethical for Twitter to say "Hey, we don't like these particular politicians and we will not promote their views."
In fact, we expect them to do that. Other media companies, like Fox "News" and MSNBC do it all the time. It is legal, appropriate and COMMON behavior.
But more importantly than that, the article itself was incredibly biased. They made little effort to explain what Twitter claimed it was doing. They used vague words to describe both the behavior they were complaining about and the criteria that twitter used. That might have been twitter's fault, but still, it demonstrates horrible reporting.
A fair piece would at least have at least given Twitter's claims a hearing, even if they then dismantled them.
Frankly, this piece looks like it was written by Russians, not HBO.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
And reddit logs should be used to round up all the hypersensitives and take them to extermination camps
Progressive tech companies favor Democrats.
All cable news channels (except the one obvious outlier, Fox News) push Democrat agendas.
The sky is blue.
No huge revelations here.
Just kinda funny they're losing elections with so many advantages.
As I am told constantly by alt-right jackoffs, you can't believe anything you read on Vice.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It would be nice if they banned Trump entirely so he could focus on fucking up the country.
I'm sure they are it cahoots over this.
It's likely illegal as well. News agencies are supposed to give both sides equal coverage, So purposely hiding search results for RNC candidates is likely breaking that. Whether Twitter and other social media outlets want to call themselves a news source, the fact is a lot of people are getting their "news" through these platforms so they should keep balanced.
Just more of social media being used to meddle with the election process.
See here if you don't know what it means. It's why we call women on food stamps "Welfare Queens"; e..g the word Queen was associated with Black woman and homosexuals, both bugaboos of the right.
These folks are getting banned because they've tip toed a little too close to outright racism and white supremacy. The Dems aren't being Shadow banned because, well, they don't have to use tricks to talk about their message (when they have one that is, the right wing of the party's only message so far has been that we should all feel bad for electing Trump so pretty please vote for us even though we're going to keep doing the same crap that Trump does economically only with more labor imports).
Seriously, our media needs to stop giving equal time to both sides. At a certain point both sides are not bad. One side is legitimately wrong. 20 years ago we figured out that trickle down economics doesn't work yet somehow we forgot that when the name changed to "Supply Side" and Laffer kept shopping around his curve. The result is a tax cut that's gone 86% to the top 1% and is going to cause rampant inflation when the treasury raises interest rates to offset the over reving to the economy that dumping $1 trillion supply side caused. Where the hell is the media to call the Republicans out on this? Oh yeah, they're owned by the same guys who got the tax cut...
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Specifically what behavior? (No, I didn't RTFA.)
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Yes everything you don't agree with is a plot controlled by Putin. It's well known Twitter has left leaning policies (because most of their user base is SJW's and blacks). They bitch and moan because they'd rather live in a bubble than deal with the fact that other people might not share their opinions. So now they have their "safe" echo chamber to converse in without being traumatized by Republicans.
I typed in the names of all the "shadow banned" people and they auto-populated into the drop down just fine and I don't follow any of them.
I'm sure they already know this, but the algorithm isn't designed to trip up GOP politicians. It says a lot more about how they choose to phrase their message and talk about issues, than any agenda seeking to silence them on Twitter.
When what you post is designed to be inflammatory and lower discourse and a system designed to combat that properly flags it, maybe its working as intended and you should look inwards? No matter where you stand, there are good and bad ways to engage in discourse. On all topics, with all points of view.
Facebook blocked the political ads of Florida state representative Matt Caldwell, whose ad depicts Caldwell shooting a shotgun and talking about his support of the Second Amendment.
Everything about this ad was legal, appropriate, and not offensive in a violent, lurid, or sexual way. There was no innuendo or intent to deceive.
It's not "how they choose to phrase their message", it's the content, plain and simple.
Gun ownership has enough support in this nation to be a political issue that can be discussed, debated, and decided by the people.
If you are against gun ownership that's fine, but the political issue is legal and we should be talking about it.
Facebook is undermining the political process, the same way that the Russians did in *your* election.
Why does Facebook have to choose political sides at all?
Why can't their rules for allowed opinion be non political?
Why would Twitter want to help the enemy? When you consider your own people "enemy", then things are very far gone. Twitter is the de facto public square these days and having it under the control of the Left is going to turn out badly for everyone.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
in... 5... 4... (3)... (2)... (1)...
To be fair, shadow banning Rebulicrats would enhance the quality of content on any platform so... oh, sorry I wasn't clear, I meant to be fair to TWITTER...
...the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility... only conservative Republicans appear to be affected and not liberal Democrats
Hmm, any chance there could be a causal relationship?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
It seems reasonable that any attempt to decrease twitter's liability as an attack vector for russia's campaign against american democracy would disproportionately effect those who amplified and benefited from that campaign.
This program was made possible by a grant from the Ultra-Humanite, and viewers like you.
Hey m8, shut the fuck up.
As has been conclusively demonstrated in multiple articles, Silicon Valley is ACTUALLY run by sexists, misogynists and racists. Cruel and evil tech executives, eager to roll back social progress, routinely avoid hiring black and female employees for high-paying tech jobs, and unless you're also a retarded conservative like James Damore, the only possible explanation for this is pervasive discrimination.
Besides, Elon Musk did actually get busted for giving to a Trump group, so the conservative equivalent to Tesla is just ...Tesla.
If you believe this article you are going against the word of the God Emperor!
The only badness I can see coming from this is that the (still fairly right wing) liberals were not also skipped. I disagree in no way to the republican rubbish being omitted -- they more than deserve it for their crimes against the planet.
An algorithm that ensured a balanced and erudite discussion would make me want to want to use twitter. As it currently stands twitter is almost exclusively for use by twits.
""The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.""
The issue on top of everything else is that these people don't even have the courage to admit they've done it until they're caught red handed.
Shadow banning is inherently slimey. I've never seen a need for it.
If someone is out of control or breaking the terms of service then you ban them or whatever. Everything out in the open and above board.
But doing in such a way that they don't even know they were banned?
Slime.
Any admin that does that is slime.
Yes, I know the argument of "what if they make a million sock accounts and keep spamming whatever?"... This is basically an argument of laziness. It also says something about your account creation process.
There are a million ways to address the problem. Account tiers that mature over time for example deals with the problem. You could have low level accounts put at the bottom of discussions and higher level accounts put at the top. Have the tier be based entirely on seniority thus accounts that are made and destroyed every two seconds won't impact the community because they'll only be noticed most of the time after they've been around for some time.
The rate of maturation can be set at whatever rate the admins can keep up with... is a week long enough? A month? A year?
And that's just ONE of a dozen different solutions that is more honest and forthright than a shadowban.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
LOL Trump will be your next president as well.
You said:
> Private companies can do what they want.
OK. Got it. Then you said:
> However, they should also not lie to the public.
Now which one? If they can do what they want, they can choose to lie through their teeth. Or to even (gasp!) say things which can't be neither true nor false!
You gotta decide now.
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What else but tweet can you do on Twitter?
Once.
Trump is in this for himself and absolutely no one else. Be crystal clear about this. He lies without even knowing he lies because of his blinding narcissism.
Trump is not the person to do a "complete reset". The things he has accomplished (tax breaks for the rich, removal of environmental regulations, etc) benefit rich people like, you guessed it: himself.
Trump is doing over everyone and some people are crying out "Do me harder!"
It's so insane, and the insanity grinds on day after day, seemingly forever.
There are right ways to think, and wrong ways to think. In order to live in an ordered, peaceful society we need to remove and ostracize wrong ideas, thoughts and the expression if those. People do not need "freedom of thought" or "freedom of speech", dangerous concepts that undermine the unity that is essential to make a civilized society work. People need direction and purpose elaborated by the better, and embraced by everybody by law.
Obama was a normal guy. Trump is a narcissist first and foremost, a compulsive liar, and ... well, I haven't got all day, so I'll just stop.
What was I supposed to be offended or bothered by with Obama? If he came back and deposed Trump, the entire world would be grateful.
What we have are two porn stars claiming they had affairs with Trump over a decade before he ran for President - the sort of claim lots of rich and famous people routinely face when the people making the claims think they can get money that way because they think it will harm the person's image.
Secondarily to this, we have:
(1) Trump's lawyer having paid of ONE of them (Stormy), and Trump publicly denying he knew about the payoff BEFORE IT HAPPENED (this is routinely cleverly lied about in some media outlets) but admitting he knew about the payoff after it happened and admitting he repaid his lawyer.
(2) The other one (McDougal) apparently sold her claims to National Enquirer and rather than publish the story, they apparently re-sold the rights to Trump's lawyer with Trump's approval; THIS is what's on the Trump audio tape where Trump questions the expense and insists on a [traceable] check rather than [untraceable] cash.
If what Trump has done in either case here is illegal, most of the important people in NYC, Chicago, LA, SanFran, and Washington DC are all going to need bail bondsmen.
What either of these two cases has to do with Russian collusion in the 2016 election is simply beyond comprehension, but I presume MSNBC and CNN will be able to tie it all together - no doubt with an additional link to the missing Malaysian Boeing 777.
Of course, the big takeaway from all of this is that if any proof that these women were indeed involved in affairs with Trump a decade ago [which they both claim they consented to] would arise it would only re-affirm what we already know: President Trump has far better taste in Women than President Bill Clinton and unlike Bill, Don does not need to force himself on them.
That Twitter is pushing the country into an authoritarian one party system, and it's the victims fault. Got it ..you must have vote for Hillary!!
Alt-right jack off who screwed your Mom yesterday here. You will not succeed in getting your one narrative, one perspective, one ideology pseudo-dictatorship that comes in the name of liberalism but is anything but!!
First they came for the conservative Republicans, then they came for the ...
Liberals swim in their own hypocrisy as a daily act of recreation!!
No. Trump was a racist in 1972 when his company had an unwritten policy against renting apartments to blacks, in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The govt sued, but settled and didn't require admission of guilt.
But times were different then. Just ask Archie Bunker. Not everyone was raised to think that all people are equal and should be treated with respect, until they prove, as individuals, that different treatment is necessary.
Today, racism isn't allowed and has been allowed socially for decades. The people calling "racist" today often confuse the real reason. I'm called a racist all the time because I want illegal immigrants to leave. It isn't about race. It is about violating immigration laws. I really don't care what race someone is if they are inside the USA illegally. Leave. GTFO. That goes for Europeans, Canadians, Mexicans, Chinese, Haitians, Guatemalans, anyone not in the USA legally with citizenship, green card, or current, active, visa.
I don't care if your parents brought you in as a child. Take it up with them. Life isn't fair. Fixing YOUR personal problems isn't my legal duty.
Japan is looking for low-skilled labor. Lots of people entering the USA for a better economic situation should look at Japan.
Another form of censorship , no matter what political ideology you subscribe to. You do not want any entity deciding what is correct. Because you may be censored next. Obviously a vocal minority want some sore of filtered society where its decided how you think.
You sir are correct. It is what they claim.
I on the other hand am a progressive and I don't believe that Twitter should be able to run their business however they like. Twitter should be subject to the State's will and so should you and I.
Not happy about it? Go vote for a "conservative".
Frankly, whenever a political "discussion" (not so much in the classical sense of an exchange of ideas and debate, more akin to a Jerry Springer show) happens here on /., the only thing you can sensibly do is grab a bag of popcorn and watch both sides of the fence yell increasingly ridiculous bullshit at each other, and enjoy the growing amusement of how The Party managed to trick the population into going at each other's throat instead of addressing the problem.
The only thing that comes to my mind when it comes to US politics is this song.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Does the /. zeitgeist even have a pulse anymore?
You know it's wrong, even if it favors your political tribe. Really, you do know it.
... if your actual goal was to make the largest number of people not give a flying $^& what or who you call "racist", you couldn't have chosen a better plan.
(I'm starting to think that is your goal, as you have been working on it for decades now.)
How the content is phrased is still content. Twitter says they are looking at account behavior, not tweet content. Thus, "how you say it", must be irrelevant. If not, Twitter is lying about not doing this based on content.
Twitter has a long history of censorship. Move to Gab.ai. They are committed to free speech.
"It's a shift that diminishes their (Republicans) reach on the platform -- and it's the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility." ..racist then it's going to trigger the filters that flag em as racist. Considering the two aren't far apart these days I'm not surprised this is happening. Seriously if Republicans are upset this is happening look in a mirror and stop projecting on other people.
a private company acting in its own political interests with regards to its own services?!?! unheard of!
Nah, it's much easier than that. Just label all of your opposition deplorable racists. See? Problem solved....now you can ban anyone on the "other side".
Thanks for mentioning this. It is very easy to see for yourself. Whenever a Democrat is caught doing something bad, there is rarely a mention of the (D) party. However, when a republican is caught doing something bad, you can rest assured his political party will be mentioned in the first line and will probably be mentioned several more times in the article.
They can deny it. But we can see it with our own two eyes. It's my favorite example of bias but we all know it's way more than accidental bias. It's purposeful.
They are not a monopoly. Everyone accepts that various communication outlets are biased. Why are online communication channels any different than the older technologies?
Greed is the root of all evil.
Soros receives billions from the Saudis for selling out Europeans. That's why.
All the same elitists who decide FOR YOU.
They have made a decision to sell out European/American-European culture to whoever pays most.
And they want Cheap Labour. Lots of.
So they abuse their platforms for censorship.
I say: boycott them !
BAIDU
YANDEX
QWANT
USENET
MAIL.RU
Are all alternatives.
Or maybe they're not so prominent without the Russian and alt-right bots helping them.
The internet existed way before Big Money swooped in.
USENET
Apache
PHPBB
lite.qwant.com
Personal SSH/SCP server
RPI
Jabber
Boycott the Dollarnet !
Because he does not help you with your Marxist Funny Ideas ?
Boycott the Billionare Internet: Google, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
Instead run your own server behind your DSL modem.
Publish your stuff on your private server. Nobody can censor you.
Keep your intellectual property protected from the Communists at Google and Dropbox. SSH/SCP is your friend
Use Jabber/Xabber.
Use PHPBB instead of Facebook.
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When a site needs to resort to shadowbanning, you already know that site is dead or dying. It shows that the administrative staff don't have any actual control, nor did they have any clue in the first place.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
This is the best news I've heard all week. The sooner the GOP goes extinct, the sooner many of the world's and Americans problems will be solved.
So what you're saying, roughly, is that if one of the racists that twitter has tuned itself on decides to start retweeting Bernie Sanders, then Bernie would be a racist, because he's "acting like a racist" by being shadow banned because of being retweeted? K
Jul. 26, Juche 107 (2018) Thursday
Bourgeois Democracy Is Phony
The imperialists and reactionaries persistently tout “democracy” in capitalist society and “advantages” of bourgeois democracy, but it is sophism to cover up the reactionary and unpopular nature of the bourgeois dictatorship and the true colors of capitalist society going downhill.
Bourgeois democracy, “democracy” in capitalist society, is not a genuine one.
Democracy is politics which comprehends the will of the working popular masses. It is just democracy that a state makes policies in accordance with the will of workers, peasants and broad working people, implements them in their interests and substantially provides the popular masses with genuine freedom and rights and a happy life.
Capitalism is a society where a tiny minority of exploiting classes holding privileged status rules a majority. Regime and means of production are gripped by the exploiting classes and all the state policies are under their control. It is obvious that “democracy” in capitalist society can’t be the one for the popular masses.
Bourgeois democracy is for a minority of privileged circle and it is not democracy in the original meaning.
If democracy exists in capitalist society, it is just “democracy” for the good of the rich and a minority of the exploiting classes.
No matter how hard the imperialists wag their tongue to hurt socialist democracy, they can never sweep the unpopular nature of the bourgeois democracy and the corrupt nature of the capitalist system under the carpet.
Ri Hak Nam
Just another Orwellian company run by douchebags.
When typing @donaldjtrump @donaldtrump or @potus especially, there are protest personalities or in the @potus case Obama well ahead of President Donald J Trump. Of course @president Donald Trump is also not effective. An the “@“s above with or without spaces are equally frustrating. I’ve yet to find a term that brings up the actual presidential tag at the top of the list consistently.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
It's happened too many times with too many organizations. And almost always to disadvantage one political group. Sure, they can do what they want. We can stop using their services. I've been off them for nearly 2 years now.
Those who would give up all security for freedom are ... dead.
They note that Twitter doesn't shadow ban at all, and to the extent that Twitter’s new algorithm doesn't auto-populate the search box with some links, that is only because they're trying to improve the quality of their data by not showing (by default) accounts that troll or help to spread false information.
You might as well attack Slashdot for hiding "Obama is a Kenyan muslim who is responsible for 9/11" posts, when they're voted as Troll/Flamebait.
So... if they're going to ban certain talk, does this mean they are no longer covered under 'Safe Harbor' and can be held responsible for obviously illegal postings?
Apparently, some right-wing racist idiot (pleonasmic, I know) got the idea to censor reality with mod-points...
Failing miserably, naturally.
For my ally is the Copy/Paste. And a powerful ally it is.
The Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.'s spokesman no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter, VICE News has learned.
It's a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform -- and it's the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility.
Asked why only conservative Republicans appear to be affected and not liberal Democrats, the spokesperson wrote: "I'd emphasize that our technology is based on account *behavior* not the content of Tweets."
Act like a racist... get treated like one.
It's not Twitter's fault for Republicans getting tripped up by anti-racist algorithms.
But it is kinda funny. As in "We can all see your unwiped racist ass, Your Highness!" kinda funny.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
and violence then yeah, they do add up.
Alex Jones is a good example. He constantly talks about how evil George Soros is for being a billionaire but funny how he never calls the Koch brother's out. It is not a coincidence that Soros is Jewish. He talked about a left leaning political pundit drinking baby blood. It just so happens that again, the pundit is Jewish (blood libel). I've already given you the welfare queen example. And don't get me stated on "Some of them are good people"
If you want to be really scared look into some of the far right religious whack jobs that hang with our VP. They're Dominionists. That sounds harmless until you find out what it is. They want the Christian version of Sharia law and to take over the earth. When they talk about Holy Wars they are not speaking metaphorically...
I'm sorry, but there just comes a time to call a spade a spade. The Republican party has been openly cozying up with neo Nazis, white supremacists and hard right authoritarians. It's our media's job to call them out on it and so far they've shirked that responsibility in exchange for tax cuts for their corporate masters. Face it, you got sold out.
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Maybe they're not so happy with having a russian-controlled president and GOP. Maybe they would prefer the US to not be run by traitors.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Uh huh. Because Twitter has never shadow banned in the past, and has only an unbiased criteria as to what counts as a 'troll' or a 'bot'. Someone should that to the people who have worked there.
ah, APK, i've missed you....
to match the pieces of sht that still use it. Fuck all you cunts.
Anyway, back to your point, watch out for propaganda. Keep an open mind and understand the value of critical thinking. Remember that the goal of our common enemy is to divide us.
Couldn't care less about pussygate, when articles like this sum up the situation so perfectly.
When I lived in Arizona, Senator Udall wrote a bill that intended to make it illegal to publish a representative's voting record. Government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" should be otherwise hidden from the people. Oy.