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In what appears to be new ranking behavior, Gizmodo has identified several prominent far-right accounts now buried by Twitter's search feature.
The accounts—which belong to figures like Unite The Right organizer Jason Kessler and white nationalist Richard Spencer—no longer appear in the social platform's dropdown results, when searching either for their display names or @ handles.
"Search all" on desktop, and sorting by "People" after a search on mobile still generate the expected results, but Twitter seems to intend to reduce the ease with which these personalities can grow their followings. The move follows Twitter's plans to limit the reach of "troll-like behavior," announced in May.
https://gizmodo.com/twitter-may-be-demoting-controversial-accounts-in-searc-1827788070
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:24PM (2 children)
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:30PM
The Hero and Protector of all Thai boypussy ventures into the cave of wonders.
(Score: 2, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:32PM
I was allowed to go in because I was the owner of the pageant. And therefore I was inspecting it. I'll tell you, you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of got away with things like that.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:29PM (3 children)
It was his first time doing something like this. Poppyham's past self never would have imagined that he would one day work as a substitute teacher, but here he was. He was quite nervous, but he knew he had to persevere. The man opened the door to the first grade classroom and walked in. Seeing all the children staring at him caused the man's anxiety to increase by several fold. Perhaps due to this, Poppyham's legs lost all of their strength and his vision went black. The last thing the man saw was the image of the children staring at him in shock...
Awaken. The man awakened. Where was he? It appeared as if he was still in the classroom. However... something was amiss. All of the children were still present and the classroom's appearance was identical to its former self, but something was off. After observing his surroundings for several seconds, Poppyham came to a stunning realization; one that would forever alter the nature of this place. It had happened again.
Yes, it. Someone who was unobservant would not be able to see it, but an astute observer would be able to piece together the puzzle. It was the children. They looked normal at first glance, but if one were to inspect them more closely, they would notice several shocking details; one, they were naked; two, none of them were moving or breathing; three, many of them had limbs or necks that were bent or twisted in impossible ways; four, many of them had stab wounds or slit throats; and five, some among them looked to have been beaten by a blunt instrument. All of these facts pointed to one thing: It had happened again.
"Oopsies!" Poppyham exclaimed. The man had once again blacked out and his other self had gotten a bit too playful, resulting in the brutal scene before him. The man then realized that whoever had to clean this mess up would be quite upset, so he decided to leave promptly before he was yelled at.
The man giggled like a child and rapidly tippy-toed out of the room, never to return. However, the man could not erase the fact that he had existed in that place; the state of the classroom over the coming months - that smelly, smelly classroom - would make that apparent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:35PM (2 children)
Is there an archive of these Poppyham stories? My usenet search turned up nothing.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:52PM (1 child)
Well, there is now. Apparently it is called soylentnews.org. [Gouges eyes out and pours bleach in to my empty eye sockets]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:36PM
It is amusing how stupid the "free speech or die" crowd is, they think spewing the most vile shit is the best way to fight against censorship. Sure thing guys, pour gas on the fire maybe it'll burn itself out quicker!
Want to prevent the average person from saying "yeah, censor these fucks"? Then don't abuse systems for the trulz.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:50PM (18 children)
Hey, this is what happens when you rely on a series of voluntarily-agreed-upon contracts :) Suck it up!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Arik on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:58PM (14 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:30PM
Terms of service?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:08PM (12 children)
Oh, Arik, my naive boy...corporations are *people* now, don't you remember? And as to contract, why, agreeing to use the service at all constitutes legally-binding acceptance of the Terms of Service! Try to lie back and think of England...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by schad on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:16PM (6 children)
I see this trope a lot, but I'm not actually sure where it comes from. Can you help me out?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:33PM (2 children)
This is a good place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood [wikipedia.org]
More to the point, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by schad on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:03AM (1 child)
But why does it matter what legal framework a group of people chooses to use when organizing itself? Clearly those people individually have the Constitutionally-guaranteed right to political speech. But when you put them in a group, they don't have that right any more? Is it only some groups? Do the groups have to be of a certain size? How do you define those limits? What about elements of personhood that I think we all agree that corporations ought to have, like the ability to enter into contracts?
I feel like there is something I'm missing, because this seems really, really obvious to me. Yet roughly half the country disagrees with me (and most of the other half probably agree only because they feel it benefits "their side"). The WP articles you cite really only talk about the way things are, and don't say anything about why (other than "because the Supreme Court said so").
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:39AM
The ACLU agrees with you and "reaffirmed its stance in support of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling" in 2012.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:14PM
Republicans.
It comes from Republicans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @03:12AM (1 child)
It comes from Rome. A corporation does not physically exist but it will be treated by the court as if it were a person (corpus) under the law. It can have lawyers, it can file a complaint, it can be a defendant. It's what the name means.
All of the noise about it is ignorant Democrats demanding that we change the definition of a word again.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:08PM
That part is fine, but when was the last time you saw a corporation sent up to the Big House for a 20 year stretch, or put into the gas chamber? Corporations have the rights of real people, but don't suffer the penalties for crimes the way real people do. Over time they have used that to entirely corrupt our society. If we don't put an end to that, they will put an end to us.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:00PM (4 children)
"agreeing to use the service at all constitutes legally-binding acceptance of the Terms of Service!"
It gives them an argument, though not a strong one, to that affect.
The best solution, of course, is to simply shun such trash to begin with. But I'm not going to agree that merely by naively posting to twitter anyone signs away their rights.
"lie back and think of England"
I'm suddenly filled anew with appreciation for sun and decent food. Was that the reaction you were looking for?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:05PM (3 children)
No. Corporations used to be treated as a legal entity within a very limited scope.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:33PM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday July 24 2018, @10:25PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:53PM (1 child)
Nah, this is what happens when the establishment is under threat.
From the "free speech wing of the free speech party" [theguardian.com] to authoritarianism in under a decade. Free speech was fine during the Arab uprising, not fine when people are pointing out that Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West were funding head chopping Islamist mercenaries to fight a proxy war. Not fine when people are openly discussing the corruption and criminality of the neoliberal elite.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:40PM
Also not fine when the working class is organizing on Facebook and Twitter to engage in strikes and protests that are not authorized by the employer's official bought-and-paid-for union.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:13PM
That's pretty much it.
When alt-media or activist types (right or left) post their stuff all over free services run by giant corporations, and act surprised about not being well-received by said corps, I gotta wonder if it's part of their PR strategy or they're just a little dim like the people who post on FB about their own criminal exploits.
But then, the Green party website's payment processor made you agree to forced arbitration and emails from groups for online privacy are full of tracking links. Compooters iz haard.
(Score: 2) by JustNiz on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:25PM (6 children)
and of course they are being equally fair in their treatment of extremely left-leaning accounts.
Right?.... Guys?...
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:45PM (5 children)
and of course they are being equally fair in their treatment of extremely left-leaning accounts.
Yes, all the leftwing groups that had young girls murdered at their rallies have been demoted as well.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:15PM (1 child)
Won't someone think of the poor Ted Kennedys?
Seriously though:
I'm a little unfamiliar with this one. I seem to remember in Charlottesville a bunch of rioters stormed a car to kill the driver because the rioters colluded with the police to not maintain order for political reasons, and someone who was stampeding the car got killed instead of the driver, when he drove away. If you're in a bloodthirsty mob and you get the brilliant idea to attack the driver of a 3000 pound steel and gasoline powered death machine, try not to act too surprised when the driver finds a way to live instead of calmly and cheerfully dying, perhaps via tire tracks over one of the bloodthirsty rioters. I think that's what they're lying about but it could be something else.
Also its unclear why a bloodthirsty mob riot slash traffic accident is somehow related to other attendees at a political rally. If some black guy beats his girlfriend in the library parking lot, and I historically visited the same library, although I wasn't present during the altercation, it seems unrealistic to punish me for domestic violence as if I committed the crime.
A better analogy would be one of my coworkers visited Paris, and in a completely unrelated incident, someone else visited Paris and drove a "truck of peace" thru the crowds in Paris at a different time and neighborhood, that means my coworker is obviously somehow responsible and worthy of punishment.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:31PM
Both sides people both sides!
Fuck off you nazi prick and take your stupidity with you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:11PM
Clown [theamericanconservative.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:29AM
And what does that have to do with anything? How does the existence of such people justify the censorship of all people who vaguely resemble them?
(Score: 2) by JustNiz on Monday July 30 2018, @07:26PM
I was thinking more of the ones that after Trump won the election, they went on a rampage that included trashing anything in the streets, looting, and assaulting bystanders and cops.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:48PM (3 children)
Bury accounts? Lets just take this all a step further and bury Twitter(R)(TM). Problem solved.
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:23PM (2 children)
Dying organizations always go hard left; law of nature or maybe law of Robert Conquest. See also legacy media, Hollywood, academia, Democratic Party, etc...
I'd postulate its not possible for a dying organization NOT to go hard left as its abandoned by civilized culture.
The exact relationship between cause and effect is unclear especially at onset of decline, although it is clear its synergistic over time.
You'll know SN is dying when netcraft confirms it ^H^H^H I mean when it becomes a barren soulless left wing echo chamber, kinda like a transcript of CNN or the editors page of your local dying newspaper. Imagine a SN with no comments other than "Hey guize I was sipping my soy latte and thinking how great it is Hillary has 99% chance of winning today and ..."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:33PM
Unhinge further so you can fit that giant elephant cock further in your throat.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:12PM
I don't think there is any danger of SN becoming a left-wing echo chamber as long as you're in it.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:20AM
Come on now. _MAY_ be putting their thumb on the scale and openly lying about it, selling themselves as a Freedom communication network? Anyone who doesn't know what's going on with Twitter by now hasn't been paying attention. It's only valid use is non-stop shitposting while you wait in a line.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:53AM (1 child)
I've been warning people about this for YEARS now, but they don't listen. I only scare them away like some old cook. Maybe I should start rag chewing on 40 meters about this, perhaps some people will listen? Nah they won't, but I'm out of ideas. At least it'll be good therapy.
A couple days ago in a related incident, someone thought it was a good idea to use sentiment analysis to score all the comments on the HackerNews comments section and collect and publish the most angry ones -- all because someone else said on twitter that "we should do this guys, XD". So I did what any sane but controversial individual would've done: I wrote a funny post in a somewhat over-the-top anger about it. Nothing too bad, but certainly out of place for a site like that. Something akin to "Chase me, guys! You can't get the rest of us undesirables if you're busy with me! I'm INSANE! HAHA". Hell, I even wrote something like "Someone will probably think it's a good idea to remove this post because it's angry, but they completely miss the point of this post: This is about subversion of much needed criticism that's a much needed rational voice in this crazy world."
Apparently, the over-the-top-post went straight over the heads of some 10-horned admin and I was shadow banned. I can't find my own comments, even on completely unrelated articles! Or maybe it's just the algorithm not presenting posts below a certain threshold and people didn't upvote it. Who knows at this point if it was algorithmic or biologic?
Sure, chase us off to our containment sites. Put us in our place, stomp us into the fucking ground! You know things are bad when you're starting to sound like Alex Jones -- who I've heard has some CIA ties, btw. So be sure to get your InfoWars vitamin pills and coffee blends now, people!
In all seriousness, no one seems rational anymore. Everything is extremely polarized, no one talks about common ground anymore. "At the end of the day, we all want what's best for humanity" is a phrase I haven't heard for literally years now. The only thing I hear and see is complaints about hate speech/fake news and a general stream of filtered news yet general fear mongering propaganda on TV in my country -- god, it disgusts me.
It's so painful to be alone on this. I have no community on the internet I feel at home with. I've got no digital tribe of my own. I'm a complete and utter sociopolitical loner.
I'm going back to programming videogames now, it's one of the few things that brings me happiness now.
tl;dr: People are sheep and selt-chastising fucking crazies. Stay the fuck away from public platforms.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:31AM
The incels will welcome you.