Chronotope’s avatarChronotope’s Twitter Archive—№ 67,712

  1. Here's the thing about Trending Now and the Far/Alt/Conspiracy-Theory right... they are way more unified and better able to create trends.
    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
      To be clear, to make a topic go 'Trending' requires a pattern of posting and perhaps particular people, but only 1,000 posts minimum.
      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
        When an Alt Right topic goes Trending, I pop into Signal and this is what it looks like:
        oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
          It's just dozens of identical posts or reposts between sites with the same headline and content.
          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
            These two are arguably Leftist topics and you can see there's nothing like that. This isn't a criticism, but a note:
            oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their APIoh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
              Note: The far right distrusts mainstream media. Conspiracy theorists distrust MSM. As a result they coalesce around fewer headlines.
              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                That's not like... a criticism... it just *is*.
                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                  As a result a small group of conspiracy theorists, w/o even trying, can take over a legit topic like Sept. 11. Which is what keeps happening
                  1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                    Also a factor, conspiracy theorists are totally a market-targeting-ready customer vertical, so there's that too. bluechoochoo/774358422074425344
                    1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                      BTW, it looks like Facebook didn't want to flush the algorithm this time, so it just altered the topic.
                      oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
                      1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                        If you were worried about Facebook's bias, subtly altering topics that create the Trending SERPs is way worse than human editor bias BTW
                        1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                          Somewhat related: "half-baked quiche" is my new fav descriptor for buggy software. slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/08/how_facebook_s_trending_news_feature_went_from_messy_to_disastrous.html
                          1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                            Also, for those of us paying attention, that Siri joke has been at the top of the last 3 Apple Trending Topics mashable.com/2016/09/09/facebook-trending-topics-sept-11/#e_F_Dr0vVaqm
                            1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                              Maybe not the tippy top, but way up there every time.
                              1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                Anyway, the bigger problem isn't that Facebook is presenting a 9/11 conspiracy, it's that people keep freaking sharing one.
                                1. …in reply to @Chronotope
                                  The inevitable problem of social trends is people are more likely to be malicious or foolish in clusters of the type that screw analysis


Search tweets' text