Current Events > Study finds twitter amplifies conservative voices

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/23/twitter-algorithm-amplifies-conservatives/

Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the authors of "Algorithmic amplification of politics on Twitter" reveal that they conducted a "massive-scale experiment involving millions of Twitter users, a fine-grained analysis of political parties in seven countries, and 6.2 million news articles shared in the United States." Along with researchers from the University of Cambridge, University College London and the University of California, Berkeley, the study was co-authored by a member of Twitter's Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability Team.
The findings are presented in two sections. One part, which focuses on the United States, examined whether major media outlets were more likely to be amplified by Twitter's algorithm if they had a strong political leaning of some kind. (The exact ideology did not matter.) The other area of the study looked at tweets from seven different countries, but focused on those posted by elected politicians who came from major political parties. Although political observers worry about extremists disproportionately benefiting from social media platform algorithms, the researchers did not find evidence of Twitter's algorithm amplifying extremist views more than mainstream ones. That said, they did note a revealing pattern when it came to how different types of media content fared on the site.

"Our results reveal a remarkably consistent trend: In six out of seven countries studied, the mainstream political right enjoys higher algorithmic amplification than the mainstream political left," the authors explain. "Consistent with this overall trend, our second set of findings studying the US media landscape revealed that algorithmic amplification favors right-leaning news sources."

whomp whomp?

Wasn't it already common knowledge that the right is far more popular on social media? The censoring bullcrap was just bullcrap lies the right loves to keep making to play the victim.

LightHawKnight posted...

Wasn't it already common knowledge that the right is far more popular on social media? The censoring bullcrap was just bullcrap lies the right loves to keep making to play the victim.

Eh, not all voices are the same. Twitter shouldn't have banned trump because people mad at Twitter are just always gonna play that card now and forever.

LightHawKnight posted...

Wasn't it already common knowledge that the right is far more popular on social media? The censoring bullcrap was just bullcrap lies the right loves to keep making to play the victim.

I remember seeing that about Facebook, something about the algorithms being swayed by more outlandish statements/louder statements in posts

phat32 posted...

Eh, not all voices are the same. Twitter shouldn't have banned trump because people mad at Twitter are just always gonna play that card now and forever.

Wouldn't NOT have banning him further showed no consequence for breaking rules?

Ruvan22 posted...

I remember seeing that about Facebook, something about the algorithms being swayed by more outlandish statements/louder statements in posts

Evidence to put 300 million americans in jail!!!

Ruvan22 posted...

Wouldn't NOT have banning him further showed no consequence for breaking rules?

How many times did he break the rules before banning?

Because their algorithm finds that combative and argumentive content is more likely to be reengaged with. So they push content that is argumebtative and combative.

conservatives echo chamber

Umm no shit? Conservative media is more consumed than liberal stuff.

it's been proven that Facebook promotes and favors 'controversial' posts -- ie posts that make people angry. conservatives thrive on anger, so this makes sense.

phat32 posted...

How many times did he break the rules before banning?

A few times - so now others saw the consequence?

phat32 posted...

Twitter shouldn't have banned trump because people mad at Twitter are just always gonna play that card now and forever.

Conservative victim cards have always and will always draw from a bottomless deck, regardless of whether or not action is taken against them. Not having Trump actively on Twitter fanning the flames was a huge step towards getting their swollen collective mass of ire back down to manageable levels.