Mob Rule? Twitter Rolls Out New Tools For Speedy Reporting Of COVID "Misinformation"
Mob Rule? Twitter Rolls Out New Tools For Speedy Reporting Of COVID "Misinformation"
BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, AUG 17, 2021 - 09:45 PM
Big Tech and big social media have already tried censorship by
committee with Facebook's oversight board and the decision to
permanently bar former President Trump from the platform. Now,
they're circling back to good old fashioned mob rule.
Twitter on Tuesday announced that it's preparing to test a new
feature that will allow users to report any COVID misinformation they spot on
the platform. Users can already flag content they deem inappropriate (including
misinformation). This new feature will allow them to specify the type of
misinformation (is it political, perhaps COVID related?). All
of this information will help twitter's algorithms justify its removal from the
platform more expeditiously, saving more readers from being exposed to harmful
information that might lead them to question the official narrative.
According to the Verge,
which got the scoop from Twitter, the new feature will be available
starting Tuesday for most users in the US, Australia, and South Korea. Twitter
said it expects to test-run it for a few months before deciding to roll it out
to "additional markets."
Twitter insists reports will all be "reviewed" by a human, but in the past social media companies haven't followed through on promises to review material before banning it, citing the imperative of acting quickly. If something gets enough complaints, or a call-out from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is struggling to combat "misinformation" raised by Sen. Rand Paul about the NIH's financing of illegal gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of virology, we suspect it will quickly be removed. As the Verge also points out, even the Surgeon General's office has gotten in on the Biden Administrations' propaganda push.
Twitter says whatever data it gleans from the test run will be
used to calibrate its algorithms over the next few weeks. The project will
focus particularly on tweets that have the potential to go viral.
The Verge article also mentions the White House has been ramping
up its campaign to pressure Big Tech to censor COVID "misinformation"
now that the delta variant has arrived. President Biden even went so far as to
accuse Facebook of "killing people" by helping to spread
misinformation, before White House press
secretary walked back the comment after it provoked an uproar from
the press (which depends on Facebook for clicks ie money). Oddly,
most of this harmful speech focuses on the origins of the virus, not its impact
or spread so how it's contributing to the demise of anyone isn't exactly clear.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar has even proposed legislation to threaten Big
Tech with the removal of its Section 203 protections if it doesn't make good on
the Democrats' censorship Demands.
And with President Biden now dealing with the embarrassment that
was the Afghanistan pullout, we suspect this won't be the last time a major
tech firm ramps up its censorship efforts. After all, censorship by algorithm
and mob rule would probably be the cheapest strategy since hiring people to
review memes and tweets is expensive (even if it would be the perfect job for
most millennials).
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