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."

Comments

So Slashdot got bought by Fox News?

[fodder69]

So Slashdot got bought by Fox News?

Re: It's not the content, it's how you say it

[ravenshrike]

GIGO you supercilous twatwaffle. The people designing and tweaking the algorithm are hard left silicon valley drones. Surprise surprise, the resulting black box shows the same bias.

Re:Please for the love of god

[drinkypoo]

Except that libertarians believe "love and let enslave"

Re:Please for the love of god

[zifn4b]

Wow mod me down for stating facts. I spent YEARS studying all political doctrines and all shades in between. I used to even be more of what we call LIBERAL today until I found my beliefs were inconsistent with my actual experience in life. This caused me to question everything to arrive where I am today intellectually. In order to want to know the truth, you have to be prepared that what you might discover may not be what you want to hear. You have to make a commitment to wanting to truly know without bias. It's not for everyone. I'll take it over fantasy any day of the week though. To quote Neil Peart of RUSH in the song Something for Nothing:

Waiting for the winds of change
To sweep the clouds away
Waiting for the rainbow's end
To cast its gold your way
Countless ways
You pass the days
Waiting for someone to call
And turn your world around
Looking for an answer to
The questions you have found
Looking for
An open door
Oh you don't get something for nothing
You don't get freedom for free
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be
No you don't get something for nothing
You dcan't have freedom for free
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dream might be
What you own is your own kingdom
What you do is your own glory
What you love is your own power
What you live is your own story
In your head is the answer
Let it guide you along
Let your heart be the anchor
And the beat of your song
Oh you don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free, no
Whoa you don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free

Why can't we at least agree on this? Slashdot has really gone downhill. It's like almost exclusively the far left thinking of Silicon Valley these days. I'm out peeps. It's been fun but I'm done. I hope California becomes its own country so you idiots can run yourselves into the ground. Just go away already. Your values are not what this country was founded on and as such, if you think you're better than everyone else, become your own country and prove everyone else wrong. I'll sit back with a bucket of popcorn.

Re:Please for the love of god

[BlueStrat]

It's the same with the Republicans. They were for ending slavery, but now have become the party where racists congregate.

That's a Democrat lie. Nixon had no "Southern Strategy" and no massive and sweeping switch between the Parties ever occurred.

This is pure propaganda that was put out by "Progressive" Democrats to try to distance themselves from their own history of racism and a theme of violent hatred for anyone who may disagree that's still quite visible today. There was no "Southern Strategy" and no "dog whistles". That's all a bullshit propaganda campaign by the Democratic Party with help from their allies in the media and in academia attempting desperately to distance themselves from and deny their own actions and behaviors over many decades in support of slavery and racial segregation. It's straight out of Saul Alinsky/Rules For Radicals; Accuse your opponents of doing the bad things you are actually doing.

Strat

Re:Please for the love of god

[drinkypoo]

Conservative == preserving the way things are

Total falsehood. Conservative == wants government to enforce morality, not control business. Liberal == wants government to control business, not enforce morality. Anarchist neither, populist both. This nation was founded on a liberal basis. It's been taken over by populists. Neither republicans nor democrats are liberals or conservatives; democrats are leftish centrists and republicans are complete populists. Republicans claim they want government out of business, but the truth is that they want government to pick winners and losers, as long as they are the winners. Democrats claim they want government out of the bedroom, and they do.