Did Twitter Interfere in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 elections?

$kully

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Feb 27, 2009
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He seems to want to open Twitter up to a full public examination. I wonder if he'd support the same look under his own hood?
And does he want to open current twitter up to a full exam? Or just twitter under the old leadership? There’s lots of funny business going on now. They’re basically doing exactly what they accused the old leadership of doing.
Over the last several weeks my feed has been flooded with MAGA tweets from people I don’t follow, particularly ones praising Elon Musk. On top of that I noticed more than a few left leaning and journalist accounts I chose to follow I was no longer following and had to refollow. And I’m not the only one who’s observed this. It’s hard not to see this as a concerted effort to amplify conservative tweets and silence those on the left. All while crying about leftist shadow bannings and censorship. Where’s the transparency on this?
 
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ghost_of_lewis_samuels

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And does he want to open current twitter up to a full exam? Or just twitter under the old leadership? There’s lots of funny business going on now. They’re basically doing exactly what they accused the old leadership of doing.
Over the last several weeks my feed has been flooded with MAGA tweets from people I don’t follow, particularly ones praising Elon Musk. On top of that I noticed more than a few left leaning and journalist accounts I chose to follow I was no longer following and had to refollow. And I’m not the only one who’s observed this. It’s hard not to see this as a concerted effort to amplify conservative tweets and silence those on the left. All while crying about leftist shadow bannings and censorship. Where’s the transparency on this?
Really?
which twitter do you use?

i rarely see tweets from people i dont follow other than those retweeted or liked by multiple people that i do follow.
i'm on crypto-twitter tho, so maybe less political in general
 

StuAzole

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Jan 22, 2016
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And does he want to open current twitter up to a full exam? Or just twitter under the old leadership? There’s lots of funny business going on now. They’re basically doing exactly what they accused the old leadership of doing.
Over the last several weeks my feed has been flooded with MAGA tweets from people I don’t follow, particularly ones praising Elon Musk. On top of that I noticed more than a few left leaning and journalist accounts I chose to follow I was no longer following and had to refollow. And I’m not the only one who’s observed this. It’s hard not to see this as a concerted effort to amplify conservative tweets and silence those on the left. All while crying about leftist shadow bannings and censorship. Where’s the transparency on this?
The easy thing to do if get off twitter. My life is no worse for getting rid of social media (other than instagram) a few years back.
 
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$kully

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Really?
which twitter do you use?

i rarely see tweets from people i dont follow other than those retweeted or liked by multiple people that i do follow.
i'm on crypto-twitter tho, so maybe less political in general
Really.

There are workarounds but as of Dec 1. More than a month after Musk took over Twitter started adding "Recommended Tweets" to the home feed in the Twitter app.


Twitter almost exclusively "recommended" tweets from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green, Boebert, Kyle Rittenhouse, Gym Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Sorbo, Dan Bongino, Tomi Lahren, and countless other blue-checked names I didn't recognize that were heaping praise upon Musk. None of whom I follow.

I found you can work around it by switching to "latest tweets" feed from the home feed and by manually muting those users who's tweets you don't want to have "recommended" to you. What I also found interesting is that when I'd try to mute a good portion of those tweets I'd get the option of "Not interested in Elon Musk" as you can see in the screen grab below. The funny thing is I never selected Elon Musk as an interest, the algorithm did that for me. And when I selected that in hopes that it would stop pushing these conservative tweets on me it didn't work. The other observation was that even though the algorithm was clearly pushing tweets about Elon Musk on me from accounts I wasn't following they were almost entirely in praise of Musk. The only critical Musk tweets I was seeing on my feed was from accounts I was already following.

Screenshot 2022-12-12 at 3.51.56 PM.jpg

Also I noticed multiple accounts of journalists and left leaning political commentators who I suddenly was no longer following. I have not poured through my list but I have not noticed this for any apolitical accounts such as sports and music.
 

$kully

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The easy thing to do if get off twitter. My life is no worse for getting rid of social media (other than instagram) a few years back.
Agreed, but there's principal to it as well. The fact that someone like Musk and his Rubes are grandstanding against the former bias of twitter while doing this is kinda fucked IMHO. Is this about retribution or actually building a social media platform with the idea of free speech and people sharing different ideas and opinions? If Musk really cared about these concepts he'd be striving for a position of neutrality for himself and the company he leads. He's doing anything but that. At best this is an over correction for the bias that Musk and his followers felt the old Twitter had.

As I said before, I really like twitter for it's sports coverage. It's the first place most beat writers are posting the latest info. If you wait for it to make the websites and other publications its already old news. I've been considering burning down my old account and starting a new account that exclusively follows the sportswiters accounts I like. I'd be curious to see if twitter still recommended far-right tweets to me if I have an apolitical follower list?
 
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schex

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Tucker is not a reporter and does not pretend to be
Yes the feeds have changed I am seeing a lot more variety as well as those who I wanted to follow who for some reason I never saw :rolleyes:

Some of you may gain a better understanding of the other half of the country if you were ever allowed to hear them. You don't have to agree but it's helpful to understand another viewpoint.
Conservatives have listened to libs non stop because you dominate the social content and institutions
 

StuAzole

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Jan 22, 2016
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Agreed, but there's principal to it as well. The fact that someone like Musk and his Rubes are grandstanding against the former bias of twitter while doing this is kinda fucked IMHO. Is this about retribution or actually building a social media platform with the idea of free speech and people sharing different ideas and opinions? If Musk really cared about these concepts he'd be striving for a position of neutrality for himself and the company he leads. He's doing anything but that. At best this is an over correction for the bias that Musk and his followers felt the old Twitter had.

As I said before, I really like twitter for it's sports coverage. It's the first place most beat writers are posting the latest info. If you wait for it to make the websites and other publications its already old news. I've been considering burning down my old account and starting a new account that exclusively follows the sportswiters accounts I like. I'd be curious to see if twitter still recommended far-right tweets to me if I have an apolitical follower list?
If you just like twitter for sports, there's probably a filter that allows you to get pretty close. The problem with all of the apps is the algorithm is so busy that all you have to do is pause on a post too long and it thinks you're interested.

As for the rest, who gives a sh!t what twitter does? If Elon wants to turn it into a bastion of conservative thought, more power to him. It's his company. Elon doesn't care about anything other than money and influence. That's why he's rich.
 

StuAzole

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Jan 22, 2016
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Tucker is not a reporter and does not pretend to be
Yes the feeds have changed I am seeing a lot more variety as well as those who I wanted to follow who for some reason I never saw :rolleyes:

Some of you may gain a better understanding of the other half of the country if you were ever allowed to hear them. You don't have to agree but it's helpful to understand another viewpoint.
Conservatives have listened to libs non stop because you dominate the social content and institutions
Why do you keep posting clips of Tucker the entertainer? Is it comedy? Satire? Even you admit it's not actual news.
 
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