According to Ars Technica
A number of "alt-right," pro-Trump, and self-described conservative social media personalities awoke this morning to find that they had a lot fewer followers on Twitter than they had the night before. The apparent cause was the latest culling by Twitter of accounts that in some way violated the company's terms of service, a Twitter spokesperson told Ars, including "behaviors that indicate automated activity or violations of our policies around having multiple accounts, or abuse." The sweep has some on the right accusing Twitter of politically motivated censorship.
"Twitter's tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Ars. The accounts were targeted as part of "our ongoing work in safety," the spokesperson said. "We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it. That's why some people may be experiencing suspensions or locks. This is part of our ongoing, comprehensive efforts to make Twitter safer and healthier for everyone."
And at Vanity Fair:
Renewed fears of censorship have once again led some users to talk about leaving to join Gab, the so-called free-speech social network that cropped up in 2016 as an alternative to Twitter. And Gab couldn't be more pleased. Utsav Sanduja, the company's chief operating officer, told me on Wednesday that the company had seen "a surge of donations, Gab memberships, [and] user sign-ups" since Tuesday night.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:02PM (15 children)
On the one hand, I do support purging bots and removing clutter and echo-chamber effects... both natural and state-sponsored.
However... "We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it."
What if I don't want to give Twitter my phone number? Is this genuine, a ploy for an information grab, or both?
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:06PM (2 children)
I don't use twitter, and don't really have any intention to; so excuse my ignorance, but I didn't actually know you *could* even use twitter without a phone number. Didn't the service it start life as an SMS system? (hence the character limit)
Basically, I'm kind of surprised they ever allowed one to join without a phone number... why would they? It was a requirement from the start, so they'd have had to explicity choose to drop it -- and for a business model that mostly just exists to leech your data, generate social graphs, and other such nonsense... I'm actually shocked they'd have chosen to make it optional.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:12PM (1 child)
Wiki says it started as a website in 2006, and was called the SMS of the internet. There never was a good reason to limit it to SMS length messages other than they envisioned its eventual growth to cellphones, but the twitter release was one year before the iphone was released, (2007) and two years before there were Apps (2008).
Still there was web browser based twitter access well before the iphone. In addition people could tweet to "short codes."
But Twitter was never much of a big thing on SMS, its real popularity came with the first smart phones.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @09:27PM
Some executive with no technical skills likely decreed that "tweets" needed to be capable of being sent out to followers by SMS (envisioning a world where folks could 'follow' a tweeter via SMS while on the go) and so we have the tweet length limit.
You'll likely find a executive with no technical knowledge behind almost any technical choice that seems to make no sense (after excluding those where the choice did make sense 15 years ago at the start, because the world was different then).
(Score: 5, Funny) by Bot on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:23PM (2 children)
> On the one hand, I do support purging bots
Rest assured the feeling is reciprocal.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:57PM
Bad Robot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jH9E8QUlbA [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:32PM
I scents a grate disturbance in the farce.
As if a million bots screamed out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: -1, Troll) by jmorris on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:40PM (6 children)
You can be excused for thinking this is about bots being purged, the articles are designed to create that impression. This is how #FakeNews works, something happens that the Narrative doesn't want to talk about so they report it in a way that leaves the reader more ignorant than when they saw the headline. This is not about bots being purged, it is more of this insane Russia! Russia! Russia! crap that the Narrative has been stuck on for over a year, where it is an article of religious faith that anyone who is refusing the Narrative is a Russian bot, a Russian shill, a Russian troll or an outright minion of Putin.
The purge has been about knocking thousands and thousands of real living people off of twitter or forcing them to give up a phone number so they can make people to spend money on burner phones every time their account gets banned. And zero accounts of lefties are being banned. Say "Kill white people!" and if it gets reported you get a "this post doesn't violate our rules" but take the same post that "doesn't violate the rules" and replace "white" with any other word and watch the banhammer swing into action. Folks have actually conducted the experinment. Report a post of that sort, rewrite it and post and get banned. Then post the screencaps and laugh.
This round of purging started when the Proggies decided they wanted to have a "national conversation about common sense gun control" and figured it would work a lot better if the other side would just shut the hell up for a change, so twitter decided to grep for 2nd amendment types and banhammer them.
Bots should be banned. Gab.ai bans bots. Twitter does not ban bots, fake followers, fake impressions, etc. unless punishing wrong thinking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:30PM (1 child)
I've done this a couple times just to see what happens and at worst you get someone say to tone it down. They even do so in a manner as if not to upset you which is what makes it all the more comical. I highly doubt I could say that about any other skin color and have my account active for 24 hours.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:40PM
That is because so far white people haven't really been targeted for their whiteness. At least no where near the levels that other groups have been persecuted. Few people get overly upset about racism towards white people because it simply isn't that big of a problem, however the way things are going you might end up with some more cultural sensitivity towards fair skinned monkeys soon enough.
Obligatory "muh oppression!"
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:47PM (2 children)
Mueller Investigation: Thirteen Russians Charged With Interfering in US Election [soylentnews.org]
...and thinking that -they- don't do it when you know damned well that USA is the most active practitioner of that on the globe is burying your head in the sand.
Now, would Killery have lost anyway?
Well, you can't beat something[1] with nothing, and all she was offering was more of Obama (who had run as a Progressive and showed himself to be a Neoliberal once he had the gig--same as Slick Willie).
[1] The Orange Carnival Barker had MAGA (Make America Great^W White again).
Apparently, all it takes is a slogan with no actual ideas[2] in order to hornswaggle the USAian populace.
[2] Even Bernie, who comes up mighty short in my book, had more than that.
(Currently the most popular politician in the country.)
The DNC and Killery, knowing just how to stick a knife in the back of a challenger, took care of that guy.
...and left out in the cold via a deck stacked by The Big 2 was the retired physician with an actual plan. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [ontheissues.org]
Infographic [archive.li]
Again, she comes up short, but she's miles ahead of anybody who got any media coverage at all in 2016.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Friday February 23 2018, @01:35AM (1 child)
Sorry, she disqualified herself for even sympathy in my mind by recommending that people vote for Trump if they couldn't vote for her.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @05:33AM
I don't see anything in your opinion to be sorry about.
She was the worst candidate the Dumbocrats could have put up.
She didn't have a clear message.
For years and years, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics George Lakoff has said [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [alternet.org] that the Dumbocrats need to learn to speak the way that GOPers do (think: Reagan).
Do the Dumbocrats ever listen? No-oooo.
They keep making the same stupid mistakes [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [georgelakoff.com] over and over.
Not only don't they hire smart speech writers; not only don't they get coaching from pros like George; they don't even do polling in the right places to find out -where- they're doing badly (The Rust Belt) and where they need to go to speak.
...and the guy who was on their team and was drawing 20,000 people or more every time he spoke (while Killery was doing good to get 5000)?
The Dumbocrats stabbed him in the back repeatedly.
Trump has it right when he calls her Crooked Hillary.
(Not that Trump has any room to breathe on that topic.)
I'm trying to remember which smartie pants I heard on Pacifica Radio recently.
Anyway, he said that for all the money Killery pissed away on ads, the Dumbocrats could have spent -half- of that and gotten better results.
You find party loyalists who have cars and you pay them to take the day off from work on Election Day and drive Blue voters to the polls.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @06:31PM
** HYPOCRISY ALERT **
The free market speaketh jslow, you should be applauding Twitter for exercising it's rights as a corporation and protecting its shareholders from losing market value over some dweeby skinheads. MUH OPPRESSION!!! lawl, you are a treasure to this site, without you no one would know how nutty some Americans really are.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:57PM (1 child)
If they cared about terms of service they would ban trump. Its okay if he violates the terms of service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:15PM
But the Tweeter-in-Chief is too big to fail!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by unauthorized on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:23PM (22 children)
Ah yes, we supposed to believe that Twitter's nebulous secret algorithms are totally not biased when they somehow end up affecting predominantly people with political leanings that Twitter head honchos have a problem with. How insulting of them to think that we are this naive.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:27PM (17 children)
Damn ammosexuals! Why do they follow someone with a faggy French name like "LaPierre"? It's all part of the fake news cycle, they are after my vital bodily fluids!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:31PM (5 children)
examples of non faggy French names? my AI wants to know.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by tekk on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:38PM (1 child)
Napoleon Bonaparte (modpoints to the first person who explains why this isn't a French name.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:57PM
He was from Corsica which doesn't see itself as really being "France" and even wants independence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:41PM (2 children)
"Pepé Le Pew"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:50PM (1 child)
You win. To be truly faggy it would have to be Peepee in Poo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @06:36PM
Never heard that one and I live out californee way. I guess it's only known to practitioners.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:32PM (1 child)
"precious" bodily fluids
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:33PM
Feed me that belt, soldier!
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:40PM (8 children)
I must admit, this made me curious. I can only guess. People who have sex with ammunition? Or something else?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:15PM (7 children)
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:23PM
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ammosexual [urbandictionary.com]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ammosexual [wiktionary.org]
https://www.facebook.com/Ammosexuals-Anonymous-261370500734312/ [facebook.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:42PM (5 children)
AR-15
Sawed off shotgun!
Heckler & Koch G36
You turned on yet?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:58PM (2 children)
Not really! Once you get to talking about cut-rifled bores and hand-lapped bolts, and sustained rate-of-fire, I might start feeling something.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday February 23 2018, @03:52AM (1 child)
How about: Mac 10, Ma Duce, M107 Barrett???
Does that get a rise out you?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:24AM
Mac10, like an Uzi, to short, circumcised, 9mm NATO round, too weak. Do we have to do this in public?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @12:02AM (1 child)
50 round drum [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:25AM
It is not the capacity, it is the reliability, and the caliber, and whether you can fit it into your bed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:30PM (2 children)
Hello dear twitter user who follows trump, right to bear arms, and other terrorist activities.
Please guarantee you are not a putin bot about to go on a school shooting rampage by means of hacked drone by providing us
- cellphone number
- a photo of your house, preferably featuring all family members.
- your occupation
- your preferred sexual position
Thank you for your collaboration.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:48PM
I would prefer a picture of the best snowflake that resembles you.
Snowflakes are unique. Stop crying before you melt your unique identifier.
I can only imagine if all of this was reversed and the Dems had bot farms supporting them. Probably tons of snowflakes melting into tears there too.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:38PM
No "insightfunny" mod sadly and I can't pick, so no mod point for you!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 23 2018, @08:38PM
Ah yes, we supposed to believe that Twitter's nebulous secret algorithms are totally not biased...
So where are all the actual humans whose accounts have been disabled?
The only people complaining are the ones who lost followers...
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:31PM (21 children)
"What am I going to do? My fake followers are gone ! A lot less people not actually listening to what I blabber about ! Don't you know how much those cost ?"
And yes, there are likely also some fake positives in the bot detection. But it's Twitter, and you sound like a bot, don't cry if your uselessness turns against you.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:37PM
Wow, the future. I'd say this was a first-world problem, but I suspect these things need their own category now.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:39PM (4 children)
I expect this to be the basis of the lawsuits:
"The free market should be the solution to political problems, and if some entrepreneur in Russia or wherever wants to offer services that I as a free and sovereign capitalist want to purchase, Twitter the government has no right to interfere! I paid for those followers!"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:45PM (3 children)
Do you suppose this should apply if you paid standard rates (not using coupons or sales) for:
* assassination
* coup
* explosion
* arson
The free market argument doesn't wash to me. Especially for something that should be illegal. Or is simply wrong like inflating your followers. Or violates TOS of some party hosting your POV for free.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:38PM
Danny, Danny, Danny.
Smacked upside the head by Poe's law [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:45PM
Do you suppose this should apply if you paid standard rates
Don't be saucy with me, Bernaise!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:49PM
Don't be saucy with me, Bernaise! [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by zocalo on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:41PM
Of course, given that this has been obtained through what is - to all intents and purposes - fraud and an assumption that the advertisers won't commit their due diligence on how popular you *really* are, those impacted by this might not want to scream too loudly about the fact...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:56PM
They haz bots in thur base, hur hur.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:06PM (11 children)
Sign up for an account. Immediately follow Trump. For some people, this alone gets twitter to claim they are a bot, demanding extra verification. (well no thank you, I'd like my privacy, you can't have my phone number)
If that doesn't do it, follow a few hard-right conservatives. There is somebody, I think a Mike Cernovich, that will pretty reliably get you labeled a bot. You could also try Milo or that lady who is all about the border wall. You can also try retweeting a few things from these people.
None of this shit happens if you do the liberal equivalent. Just signing up for twitter, you'll get suggestions to follow leading democrats like Obama and Hillary.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:20PM
This is just so, so sad. I am crying right now.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by requerdanos on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:31PM (6 children)
Good observation.
From this, perhaps we can deduce which group of followers is more likely to be bots and astroturfers.
Judging from the outcry, I'd say it's not the Obamas and the Hillarys.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:48PM (5 children)
One can clearly see how Twitter has been cracking down mercifully on every single questionable post by, and threatening repeatedly to expel, the leader of the right wing in the USA.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:55PM (3 children)
Twitter would ditch Trump in a heartbeat if they could do it without shareholders flipping out. Trump is singlehandedly keeping twitter alive right now. Twitter was a dying platform... then Trump saved them.
If you act like Trump but are not Trump, you get banned very quickly.
Numerous republican candidates for office have been banned. Twitter is cutting them off to influence our elections. Given that the majority shareholder is Saudi, there's your foreign election interference right there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:47PM
"He's more Tweet than man, now."
Seems like it goes both ways, and what we say is true, from a certain point of view.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:48PM (1 child)
I like this idea, as if all the conservatives are being played. Your last bit about Saudi's doesn't make sense, the Republican agenda is what they want!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @07:36AM
Allow me to introduce you to https://soylentnews.org/~Runaway1956/ [soylentnews.org]
Conservatives, being played. Runaway had no clue how much he is being played by Ruskies! He even admitted it,once: The Ruskies played the Hypnotoad on him. Either that, or it was Italian whores. But who can tell, and who can remember, let alone Runaway his own self.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Friday February 23 2018, @07:39PM
It is pretty obvious that the reason they haven't done anything, is because they think Trump's comments only serve to hurt him. Most of Trump's opponents seem to agree on that.
Whether it is actually true, I am not sure.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:19AM (2 children)
Hillary and Obama aren't leading shit right now.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:56AM (1 child)
> Hillary and Obama aren't leading shit right now.
Depends on what reality you subscribe to. I remember when a few months ago, several Fox News anchors and some prominent Republican politicos slipped multiple times in a span of a week and started complaining -- on camera -- about the Clinton Presidency, the evil deeds of President Hillary, and how President Hillary should be impeached. The whole shitshow clarified quite a few things for me...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:07PM
Sources, would love to see such massive fuckups
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday February 23 2018, @12:22AM
The real reason they care: The bunch of fake Twitter followers and re-Tweeters mark them as an "influencer". And their status as an "influencer" convinces idiots to pay them to Tweet stuff, which is why it was worth their while to buy the fake Twitter followers in the first place. In short, there's money involved.
They can't go onto public forums, though, and say "Waaaa, Twitter is stopping me from gaming metrics that I use to make easy money!" Far better to say "Waaaa, Twitter is censoring me because I'm the world's leading voice of the community of white male midget porn fans at least 6 feet tall" or whatever group they're (fraudulently) claiming to represent and influence.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday February 22 2018, @08:56PM (30 children)
Oh, noes! Do they still have jmorris at gab, or did he get shadow-banned again for being too much of a liberal?
(And, once again, the eds did an awful lot of work on this submission. Taking a peek at the original is recommended, from more information.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by requerdanos on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:29PM (23 children)
Given that "right wing" complaints about Twitter being "biased" against them are the complaint in TFS, talking about Gab is pretty on-topic. Gab was founded on the principle that the world is one big unjust persecution against right-wing nutjobs, and they aim to fix that. From their wikipedia page:
That's a nutty conspiracy theory and an unfounded rumor one right after the other in one sentence, upon which in turn Gab was founded. It would probably be a good thing for everyone involved if those offended by this "move to Gab" and away from the rest of us. Don't let the door bump you on the way out.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:00PM (8 children)
> It would probably be a good thing for everyone involved if those offended by this "move to Gab" and away from the rest of us.
Until they've heard so much about the basements of pizza parlors that they take matters in their own armed hands.
Nutjobs should be surrounded by reasonable people, who counter, question, and therefore limit the nuttiness. Nutjobs only talking to more rabid nutjobs easily turn into dangerous well-armed nutjobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:06PM (1 child)
Or just create crazier bot farms than Alex Jones and head to Gab. They believe most rubbish so you can direct them to fake pizza shops senarios.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @01:34AM
Hey, now! I think I see the germ of an idea here. Just create an army of fake bots to follow around the nutjobs on Gab. Tell them about unspeakable horrors occurring right in their own local communities, but send them to addresses that don't actually exist! For example, tell them the democrats have set up a deep State Shadow Government that is being run out of a warehouse at 1610 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, D.C. Watch hilarity ensue as all the nutters go apeshit frantically searching for this non-existent address in D.C. Keep doing it until said nutjobs finally get the clue or their wee little heads explode; I would think that either outcome should be acceptable.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:14PM (1 child)
Those who want two bare arms and Trump could take antidepressants. Maybe the world would not seem like it was biased against craziness.
Or start your own. Like Gab. Or . . . Conservapedia! It's not depressing. Every page is a laugh.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:35PM
There. FTFY.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:37PM (1 child)
This was just about the only redeeming storyline element of "Midnight Special" (2016).
Review synopsis: there are better ways to waste your time, however - if all you've got as an alternative is Netflix streaming, it is an inoffensive way to waste 90 minutes.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:10PM
Except that most RWNJ are really quite unlikely to have gifted offspring. Way to much inbreeding.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:50PM (1 child)
Most killers are actually democrats, both with guns (atypical) and without guns (typical). This includes the spree killers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:33AM
But the ones with the highest body counts are Republicans! Union Carbide: At least 3,787.
Massey's Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 miners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Blankenship [wikipedia.org] Republican. Clean coal mean dead miners! Make America Grate Agin!
"Some men will kill you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen, or by having you blow up or asphixiate as a result of their totally legitimate business enterprises."
(Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:01PM (1 child)
"That's a nutty conspiracy theory and an unfounded rumor"
It would have been a conspiracy theory had not Facebook already fessed up to doing exactly that:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/23/facebook-admits-rogue-employees-may-have-shown-bia/ [washingtontimes.com]
https://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006 [gizmodo.com]
https://gizmodo.com/facebook-shut-down-a-conservative-fb-anon-group-employe-1797922814 [gizmodo.com]
Even when Facebook decided to outsource their fact checking they outsourced it only to liberals:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/11697/bozell-zuckerberg-hank-berrien [dailywire.com]
with the expected results:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/11701/11-worst-fact-checks-facebooks-new-fact-checkers-aaron-bandler [dailywire.com]
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:55PM
Ohhhh! Washington (Moonie)Times AND the DailyWire! Where's the Brietfart? Where's the InfoWars? Where are your actually credible Rightwing News Sources?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:51PM (11 children)
I seem to recall another rejected aristarchus submission on exactly this topic, how the alt-right replacement internets has failed. Ah, here it is!
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=23790 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday February 23 2018, @01:06AM (10 children)
I (or almost any idiot) could explain why this would be rejected, but if you are wondering about it, then I don't think the explanation would help you. (It has to do with saying insulting things vs. reporting other people saying them, one of which isn't okay, and the other of which is important.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday February 23 2018, @04:22AM (9 children)
I pay little attention to the eds, they are easily cowed. And I have no problem with my submissions being rejected, as long as it is clear that it is because of an alt-right bias on this site. What pisses me off, is when one of my submissions is accepted, and then deep-sixed for some arcane reason, such as that is bothers TMB that he may in fact be a racist and Nazi sympathizer. None of that is here nor there. See my journals on disappearing approved submissions.
Pardon me, requerodanos, which of these is which? When it comes to to the alt-right, it is not insult, it is pure bare objective reporting. If they think it is insulting, well, that is because they are rightwing nutjob racist misogynist anti-intellectual white-supremacist assholes, which is just the facts. Now whether they can put together a nice website/discussion forum, like SoylentNews? That also is an objective question. And the answer is, "no". Sorry, all you alt-right Soylentils. But just let me point out, if you were alt-right, you were Soylentils for the wrong reasons.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2018, @06:04AM (7 children)
I have explained to you - again on numerous occasions - what happens during the editing process. All the subs that you claimed 'disappeared' are still to be found in the database. To an editor, the reason for their rejection is clear to see and I would argue that most people on this site would have agreed with the decision taken. One submission was actually referred to the Board and the deliberation was done in public on IRC. It was rejected. Every submission gets looked at by several editors (of which TMB does not get involved) and we can pitch in our comments on views regarding running a story. If nobody picks it up within a reasonable timescale the subs usually get deleted because the news is now old and nobody is interested in it.
You are not being victimised. Write unbiased and neutral submissions on topics of interest and they will probably hit the front page. Write your usual stuff, and it will probably be rejected.
There is no alt-right bias - I'm not even an American and I have probably rejected as many of your stories as anyone around here.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday February 23 2018, @07:16AM (3 children)
jarnrinok, it truly is always your fault. Well, just let me quote a bit:
Oh, yes, just as much as all the subs I have not claimed have disappeared, because they were outright rejected. No bias? When it was an explicit objection by a well know alt-right sympathizer that got the first submission I complained about disappeared, AFTER it had been accepted? Janrinok, I respect you, I appreciate your attempts to moderate the entire issue, but you have to admit you are sitting on top of an alt-right sympathizing news aggregating website. There really in no other way to look at it, that is not delusional.
More points: You recently (yesterday) spit one of my submissions back at me in the form you seems to think editors want it. What do you want me to do with this? Is if did not think the way I submitted it was the way it should properly be submitted, I would not have submitted it like that. Do you think I do not know that what I say is truth and will piss of the alt-right? Please grant more more charity, jarninok, assume that I do know what I am doing.
Not even a American! Congratulations! Does that mean, or not mean, that you are a Russian bot? Inquiring minds, some of the American, want to know! I am not an American, either. I am a philosopher. Philosophers are those rare beasts that are not citizens of any nation, but speak for all humanity. So when I see a Nativist, or Fascist faction raise its ugly head anywhere, as a lover of wisdom, I have to oppose it. Is this so hard to understand? Is my adamant opposition to ignorance and prejudice so wrong as not to be appropriate for SoylnetNews? That, if it is what you are admitting, is more damning that anything anyone could say. To Hell? Do you know what the greatest suffering is of those who are in Hell? Hades, if you stick to my cultural upbringing. It is that they do not know why they are there. If they did, of course they would renounce their actions! But they do not realize that what they do is wrong.
Duning-Kroger? Or SoylentNews Ed? I leave the judgment to you, oh wise and editorial jarninok! And, as usual, this is offtopic for the thread it is posted in. My apologies, for all you non-ed Soylentils! Carry on, and troll mod jmorris, just for me, and for justice.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2018, @07:32AM (2 children)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday February 23 2018, @07:47AM (1 child)
One ed's drivel, is another's carefully argued case that there is bias on this site? You disappoint me, janrinock! You sound like a less than mighty Buzzard. I can provide more, later, if you are up to it. Argument over editorial policy is always a good thing, no? Unless we are an alt-right sucking site. Let me know. I will not wade through your lack of drivel, though, it does intrigue me: How can you hold to position you do, without being a willing Nazi sympathizer? I really want to know! But, I will not wade through drivel, or ed talks in private messages that allow no response from mere Soylentils who try their best to contribute to the site with submission of Fine Articles that Other Soylentils May find interesting, if they are not total Alt-right Proud Boys who are White and Single and can't get a date, because they are losers and scumbags and, why would you live in a house with a room-mate, if you are successful and financially independant? Am I reading the signals wrong? Where do you live, janrinok?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:11PM
Does Aristarchus go overboard? Yes. Is he wrong about alt-right losers around here? No.
This site has been teetering on the edge of the alt-right poop cliff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:38PM (2 children)
As a casual onlooker this seems like a very high bar
I think it's hypocritical for pretty much anybody to claim their point of view is unbiased and neutral.
Obviously the topic was interesting as proven by this accepted submission we're commenting here.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2018, @04:14PM
The story as printed is not the same as the story that was submitted. Please compare it with the Original Submission. The story, as opposed to comments, should be as neutral and unbiased as the submitter can make it. Sometimes we have to go searching for the opposite point of view to try to give a story some balance. And, of course, we always attribute the source material to make it obvious that it is NOT our point of view but that of the writer of the original source. SoylentNews is not here to tell you what to think or what views you should hold, but to encourage a discussion where everyone can give their point of view and an intelligent exchange of ideas can take place. SN remains entirely neutral in this regard although we are also free to express our own opinions in the comments.
There are clear guidelines regarding submitting a story [soylentnews.org].
The submitter of this story has the unfortunate habit of including his own views in his submissions - the place for personal views is either in the comments to a story or in one's journal. The latter is provided to enable everyone in our community to have a discussion on any topic that they wish whilst letting them express their own personal views. He sometimes also over-eggs the story to make it more sensational.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday February 23 2018, @05:35PM
There's a difference between reporting the idiocy that some party is undertaking, and posting a rant calling them names in the process. The evidence given should speak for itself; we shouldn't be spoon-fed the opinion the article submitter wants us to share.
Thanks for what you guys do, janrinok. I'm on your side of this.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday February 23 2018, @04:47PM
That. That, right there.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2018, @05:50AM (5 children)
I had to. It needed to be changed from your political diatribe to a story that we could print on the front page.
As you have been told on numerous occasions - the place for your own political views in either in the comments or in your journal. The story should be neutral and unbiased.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday February 23 2018, @06:17AM (4 children)
What you, and many other eds (I will not mention names) fail to realize is that my submissions are in fact, non-political, because they are fact, and the alt-right, neo-nazi, anti-feminist objectors to my subs are just what they are. When Will Soylent New Live UP to the Promise that Was Fuck Beta! Not soon, I am thinking. Meanwhile, take a look at my most recent submission on whether it is time to retire "alt-right". I think it is, they have outed themselves as ferking nazis.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 23 2018, @07:28AM (2 children)
If you could just submit a single submission that is not about the alt-right or neo-nazis or any other of your pet hates we might consider it. Have you tried writing about the situation in Ghouta, Syria? Have you thought of some aspect of science and technology? Have you considered any of the business news that is occurring daily? How about starting a discussion about a new piece of hardware that is likely to make an impact on our daily lives? No, not at all. You are limited to one topic and, through it, you hope to give publicity to your own political views.
We have discussed the alt-right - but intelligent discussion does not need repeating every day. Please pick something new. Put the alt-right neo-nazi stuff in your personal journal.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday February 23 2018, @08:15AM (1 child)
One of my projects, at the moment, is about Buddhism and violence. And it is interesting that one of the recent works I am using addresses our issue, albeit somewhat indirectly. You see, I am a demon. Now, let's not get all the BSD and Linux types all het up, I mean a more or less traditional demon. Why does it take so much to find the source I am referring to?> [lionsroar.com]. Dalton's book, good read, if you have the time, and even if you do not.
Now what struck me about Dalton's work was the origin of the demons. Did you ever think, "why are the demons so evil?" Of course you did not, they are just evil the way jmorris is whatever he is, and TMB is libertariantard. These are givens. But Buddhism, you know, Buddhism is different. Buddhist is really based on the doctrine of causation. OK, Dependant Co-Origination, same-same. So, where do demons, like the anti-fa demon aristarchus come from? Read on.
In Dalton's exemplary text, the demon starts out as the son of a prostitute, who dies giving birth to him, in a charnel ground (graveyard, to you Westerners). Now the point, really, is the no one comes to help the young human, and he end up suckling on the puss that is coming from his dead mother's breasts. If anything is going to make you become a demon, that will. And it gets worse from there. But the point of the Buddhist tale is not so much that we need to harden schools and arm teachers, or in the case of the Buddhist story, rely on Bodhisattvas to battle the demons, but perhaps we should look to the origins of demons that would shoot up their high school, or in a very much lesser case, constantly submit very Fine Articles about the Alt-right: why? Could it be, oh Soylent Editors, that at some point you left aristarchus to suckle at a dead breast, and now he can submit nothing else? Could it be, that this is the result of censorship, intentional or not, and now we have to live with the consequences?
Actually, if you are interested in this line of thought, the recent remake of the "Journey to the West" (it's Chinese) is interesting. MonkeyKing, not so much, but the River Demon: case in point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:18AM
Reavers! They made them!
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday February 23 2018, @08:56AM
And in seconds that submission is rejected. Coincidence? Correlation does not imply causation, except when it does.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tizan on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:40PM
What do you expect ?
You trust a corporate profit making entity to protect free speech ?
You voluntarily signed up and put your opinion on some private companies site.
Move to another competing site if this bothers you ...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:57PM (2 children)
This site is the alt-right of Slashdot. Thankfully there are quite a few libertarian/liberal users that keep it from becoming a cesspool, and I would argue that is because the original move was to get away from corporate control and not about censorship targeting hate speech. Even with the lame ass troll spouting off about their ideal date nights.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @01:27AM (1 child)
There. FTFY.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday February 23 2018, @05:21PM
Oh man, I'd forgotten about that guy. Reminds me of Lennart Poettering now that I think about it, as in "why should we be listening to this prick?"
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Friday February 23 2018, @07:13AM (2 children)
Twitter's only value is that it allows msm journalists to quickly do their job without stepping outside of their house and doing actual journalists and talking to actual people. So for their benefit, Twitter is bound to purge bots.
The use of Twitter for non-journalists is that it is a platform for them to be heard, with an incredibly small percentage of chance - chance that improves if you are closer to the celebrities/public figures. Hence you see all these dumbass people just waiting to post a smirky reply to someone else. Bots can allow some nobody to pretend to be a celebrity and get more importance than rest of the plebs. So that's also why they need to go.
All in all a cesspool of dumb people and propaganda machine running by manipulating aforementioned dumb people.
Since the only value of Twitter is because of their relationship with MSM, I have absolutely no idea what Gab is supposed to achieve except be the 'Zion' to the 'Matrix' (pardon the pun).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @10:27AM (1 child)
That's value?!
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Friday February 23 2018, @02:15PM
Anything can be valuable once you start measuring it with how much money it can churn.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Friday February 23 2018, @02:55PM
I thought Soylentils hated social media. Why is this the most commented story on the front page? Is it the opportunity to be a right-wing troll?
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?