
Inside Twitter’s Long, Slow Struggle to Police Bad Actors - dankohn1
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-twitters-long-slow-struggle-to-police-bad-actors-1535972402
======
zaroth
> _On Aug. 14 the company did suspend Mr. Jones for seven days after CNN
> flagged tweets to the company. Many staffers viewed that as a half measure
> and complained that the firm hadn’t acted decisively. Mr. Jones’s account
> has since been restored._

Wow, did not know it was _CNN_ that flagged the Jones post which got him
suspended for 7 days.

~~~
creaghpatr
That’s the implication but I’m not sure that’s technically what happened. I
think CNN incited their readers to report the tweets they highlighted, which
is more or less the same kind of thing but adds the plausible deniability of
hiding behind an algorithm.

Someone at the hearing should ask did someone at Twitter make an editorial
decision based on CNNs reporting?

~~~
craftyguy
> which is more or less the same kind of thing but adds the plausible
> deniability of hiding behind an algorithm.

Bay of Pigs on the internet.

------
neonate
[http://archive.is/J3kIj](http://archive.is/J3kIj)

------
Razengan
Why is it so hard to codify “Don’t be a dick”?

I’ve seen some highly toxic accounts on Twitter promoting hate, rape and
death, and despite being reported, they continue to spread their vitriol.

It’s saddening to think of what could have been; if frequently-visited places
with organic subcultures like YouTube or 4chan had implemented some basic,
sane moderation from the beginning, they could have far exceeded any of the
popular social networks of today.

~~~
dang
It's not as easy as it seems. People assume we're in favor of the worst things
that appear on HN, when in reality we don't see most of it and certainly
aren't in favor. And HN is orders of magnitude smaller than Twitter.

~~~
ternaryoperator
Well, you do a fine job. It's one of the few places I can come and participate
in interesting conversations with adults acting intelligently. Thanks for the
great work!

~~~
dang
Thanks! I can't imagine having to deal with the equivalent problems at
Twitter's or Reddit's or Facebook's scale. To me it seems likely that no one
knows how.

------
speedplane
Removing bots and accounts unconnected to an individual should be the
priority. Police the mechanisms not the content.

------
malvosenior
> _Twitter and rival Facebook are increasingly caught in a Catch-22
> situation—criticized by some users for allowing hateful posts, but blasted
> by others for removing content because it curtails free speech._

I don’t think this is an accurate framing of the problem. What people want is
_consistency_. If you want to ban people for being fringe, obnoxious or worse,
you need to do it regardless of who they are.

What happens is one side of the political spectrum gets their worst actors
banned while caustic tweeters on the other side of the isle can often be found
with blue verification checkmarks (and _unchecked_ aggressive tweets).

Imho Dorsey was correct in not wanting to ban Jones and Spencer because that’s
more consistent with how the far-left is treated.

~~~
tomlock
Who would you consider a visible far-left figure that ought to be banned who
hasn't been, and why?

~~~
stass
We can begin here:
[https://tinyurl.com/y8rk9yjn](https://tinyurl.com/y8rk9yjn)

I personally reported many accounts, including an antifa group that called for
killing cops and white peoples to no avail. At the same time twitter bans
people for sharing news about job growth. Go figure.

~~~
tomlock
It's possible to find literally any opinion on twitter. What's the magnitude
of this problem compared to Alex Jones' active disparagement of the parents of
victims of mass shootings?

~~~
creaghpatr
How would such magnitude even be measured? Subjectively, perhaps legally?

~~~
eganist
It's pretty straightforward. Twitter even offers it as a feature for your own
tweets, something called Tweet Activity (the bar chart icon on every one of
your own tweets).

The specific stats e.g. impressions, engagements, detail expands, clicks,
replies, etc. are all measured. And that's just what's exposed to us. Twitter
doubtless has more than that on hand.

