At the White House today, amid much concern that conservative voices are being silenced by social media platforms, President Donald Trump (after a “morning of tweets [that] was off the rails, even by his standardsâ€) stood before a group of activists to deliver a message of support. “Some of you are extraordinary,†the president said. “The crap you think of is unbelievable.â€
Unfortunately, as we discussed here yesterday, the crap that conservative voices think of does not always reach the maximum possible audience. Sometimes conservatives do not appear as high as they would like to in search results. Sometimes they get suspended, or even banned. This has led to much conspiratorial thinking that liberal-leaning Silicon Valley is throttling their access in an effort to tip the scales of democracy.
Today, those conspiratorial thinkers gathered together to complain about how social platforms limit their reach, in a high-profile public event that was covered widely by much of the media. It culminated with the president saying he would soon bring representatives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter to the White House to berate them in person. Roberta Rampton and David Shepardson report:
At a meeting with conservative social media users at the White House, Trump said he would “be calling a big meeting of the companies in a week or two â€" they have to be here.â€
Trump said he would invite members of U.S. Congress to the meeting, and added he may also invite conservative social media users. The White House declined to offer additional details.
Conservatives typically take great pains to protect the free market from undue interference from the government. But social networks are powerful enough that, in this case, Republicans intend to intervene.
What’s less clear is what that intervention might look like. The president’s remarks on the subject barely rise above the level of gibberish. (“To me free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposely write bad,†he said today. “To me that’s very dangerous speech, and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech.â€
Elsewhere, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has proposed legislation that would require large social networks to treat every political opinion equally â€" which would be great news for Nazis. But even in such a world, feed-based platforms will still have to rank and recommend content â€" and many conservative complaints revolve around the fact that they do not always rank at the top.
And one person’s bias is another person’s personalization. Twitter said Thursday it would test the ability to let users in Canada hide replies to their tweets. How long before the first conservative Canadian politician complains that they have been shadowbanned when replying to a viral tweet?
The truth is that moderation is necessary for platforms to perform, and any platform that moderates post will always face accusations of bias. To see this you had to look only so far as ... the social media summit itself. Attendees were required to submit questions in advance, leading Vox.com’s Jane Coaston to quip: “So their content is going to be moderated?†Meanwhile, an official live stream of the event had comments disabled. “Why am I being deplatformed?†a joking Ashley Feinberg demanded.
So yes, the hypocrisy was thick at the White House today. But so was the comedy. For just as activists had assembled to complain about the unreliability of social platforms, Twitter took the opportunity to completely collapse. The service went down for an hour or so globally, the effect of a “configuration change,†a spokesman said.
https://adstoppipro.com/blog/the-white-house-social-media-summit-was-full-of-hypocrisy-and-comedy
More blog here
Unfortunately, as we discussed here yesterday, the crap that conservative voices think of does not always reach the maximum possible audience. Sometimes conservatives do not appear as high as they would like to in search results. Sometimes they get suspended, or even banned. This has led to much conspiratorial thinking that liberal-leaning Silicon Valley is throttling their access in an effort to tip the scales of democracy.
Today, those conspiratorial thinkers gathered together to complain about how social platforms limit their reach, in a high-profile public event that was covered widely by much of the media. It culminated with the president saying he would soon bring representatives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter to the White House to berate them in person. Roberta Rampton and David Shepardson report:
At a meeting with conservative social media users at the White House, Trump said he would “be calling a big meeting of the companies in a week or two â€" they have to be here.â€
Trump said he would invite members of U.S. Congress to the meeting, and added he may also invite conservative social media users. The White House declined to offer additional details.
Conservatives typically take great pains to protect the free market from undue interference from the government. But social networks are powerful enough that, in this case, Republicans intend to intervene.
What’s less clear is what that intervention might look like. The president’s remarks on the subject barely rise above the level of gibberish. (“To me free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposely write bad,†he said today. “To me that’s very dangerous speech, and you become angry at it. But that’s not free speech.â€
Elsewhere, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has proposed legislation that would require large social networks to treat every political opinion equally â€" which would be great news for Nazis. But even in such a world, feed-based platforms will still have to rank and recommend content â€" and many conservative complaints revolve around the fact that they do not always rank at the top.
And one person’s bias is another person’s personalization. Twitter said Thursday it would test the ability to let users in Canada hide replies to their tweets. How long before the first conservative Canadian politician complains that they have been shadowbanned when replying to a viral tweet?
The truth is that moderation is necessary for platforms to perform, and any platform that moderates post will always face accusations of bias. To see this you had to look only so far as ... the social media summit itself. Attendees were required to submit questions in advance, leading Vox.com’s Jane Coaston to quip: “So their content is going to be moderated?†Meanwhile, an official live stream of the event had comments disabled. “Why am I being deplatformed?†a joking Ashley Feinberg demanded.
So yes, the hypocrisy was thick at the White House today. But so was the comedy. For just as activists had assembled to complain about the unreliability of social platforms, Twitter took the opportunity to completely collapse. The service went down for an hour or so globally, the effect of a “configuration change,†a spokesman said.
https://adstoppipro.com/blog/the-white-house-social-media-summit-was-full-of-hypocrisy-and-comedy
More blog here
Comments
Post a Comment