Twitter's Left Wing Bias

[J4L]

I have always noticed that Twitter lets progressives get away with things they would ban conservatives for.  To a lesser extent, Facebook and Instagram do the same thing, but Twitter has become infamous for this.  Should users boycott Twitter until they change their policies?

 

"Many conservatives believe that social media companies are biased against their views. This includes Donald Trump, who last year accused Twitter of “shadow banning” Republicans, and promised to “look into this discriminatory and illegal practice.” A few months later, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made a categorical denial of any bias while testifying before Congress:

Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules. We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially.

Recently, Mr. Dorsey appeared on two different podcasts, on which he similarly denied any bias against the right.

Not everyone is convinced. A June, 2018 Pew poll found that 72% of Americans believe that social media companies censor views they don’t like, with members of the public being four times more likely to report a belief that such institutions favor liberals over conservatives than the opposite. Podcasters Joe Rogan and Sam Harris both received backlash from their respective audiences for not pressing Dorsey hard enough on the censorship issue.

Until now, conservatives have had to rely on anecdotes to make their case. To see whether there is an empirical basis for such claims, I decided to look into the issue of Twitter bias by putting together a database of prominent, politically active users who are known to have been temporarily or permanently suspended from the platform. My results make it difficult to take claims of political neutrality seriously. Of 22 prominent, politically active individuals who are known to have been suspended since 2005 and who expressed a preference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, 21 supported Donald Trump."

source:  https://quillette.com/2019/02/12/it-isnt-your-imagination-twitter-treats-conservatives-more-harshly-than-liberals/

 

"As tech giants like Facebook and Google have come under increasing fire from elected officials, a new poll shows the majority of American voters think that the social media giants have a systematic bias against conservative views.

In a new Hill.TV American Barometer survey, 58 percent of registered voters think that social networks are unfair to conservatives, while 42 percent said they believed conservatives were more likely to promote false stories that deserved removal from public circulation.

Unsurprisingly, the poll was heavily divided along party lines.

Respondents who self-identified as Republicans were overwhelmingly likely, 83 percent to 17 percent, to see tech companies as being biased against conservatives. While a majority of Democrats, 62 percent, said that conservative commentators were more likely to spread misinformation, while only 38 percent said they saw social networking sites as being biased against conservatives. A majority of independents, 58 percent saw unfairness while 42 percent said conservatives were more likely to propagate falsehoods."

source: https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/421238-poll-majority-of-americans-think-social-media-companies-are

 

Faced with criticisms from President Trump that Twitter is “shadow banning” and silencing conservative voices, chief executive Jack Dorsey admitted that those who work for the social media giant have their own biases — and that they’re “more left-leaning.”

Dorsey, however, said in his interview with CNN on Saturday that political ideology does not influence how Twitter determines what is and is not appropriate behavior on the platform.

“The real question behind the question is, ‘Are we doing something according to political ideology or viewpoints?’ And we are not. Period,” Dorsey said. “We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior.”

“We need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is more left-leaning,” he added. “And I think it’s important to articulate our own bias and to share it with people so that people understand us. But we need to remove our bias from how we act and our policies and our enforcement.”

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/08/19/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-admits-left-leaning-bias-says-it-doesnt-influence-company-policy/

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by J4L

[J4L]

Trump’s re-election campaign alone had forecast between $300,000 and $500,000 in Twitter spending for August, the campaign told The Post.

McConnell’s Team Mitch campaign page was suspended Wednesday after posting a video of protesters outside the Senate majority leader’s home that included profane language and violent threats against him.

 

 

“We firmly believe that if a platform allows #massacremitch to trend but locks our account because we posted threats made against him, there is something deeply wrong with that platform,” Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Richard Walters, chief of staff at the Republican National Committee, announced on Twitter that the Trump campaign and the RNC will stand with McConnell.

“Any future ad $ either organization was planning to spend with @Twitter has been halted until they address this disgusting bias,” he wrote.

 

source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gop-will-boycott-buying-twitter-ads-until-mitch-mcconnells-account-is-unlocked-2019-08-08

Edited August 10, 2019 by J4L

[eyeball]

1 hour ago, J4L said:

"Many conservatives believe that social media companies are biased against their views." 

The entire universe is stacked up against you. Get over it already.

[J4L]

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

The entire universe is stacked up against you. Get over it already.

...says the socialist. 

Edited August 10, 2019 by J4L

[eyeball]

47 minutes ago, J4L said:

...says the socialist. 

I'm an optimistic astronomer too.

[Yzermandius19]

3 hours ago, eyeball said:

The entire universe is stacked up against you. Get over it already.

Something tells me that if Twitter mostly only censored left leaning individuals, while giving right leaning individuals a pass for the same behavior, you would not tell lefties complaining about it to get over it already. 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Yzermandius19

[eyeball]

53 minutes ago, Yzermandius19 said:

Something tells me that if Twitter mostly only censored left leaning individuals, while giving right leaning individuals a pass for the same behavior, you would not tell lefties complaining about it to get over it already. 

Me too, like any self-respecting socialist I'd be rounding you all up and putting you into slave labour camps and making you drink out of toilets.

[J4L]

10 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Me too, like any self-respecting socialist I'd be rounding you all up and putting you into slave labour camps and making you drink out of toilets.

I think you may be confusing Socialism with Communism.

[Yzermandius19]

20 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Me too, like any self-respecting socialist I'd be rounding you all up and putting you into slave labour camps and making you drink out of toilets.

Useful idiot who doesn't realize his own tactics will be turned against him and you are going to lose when that happens. If your side wins temporarily, that's the biggest loss of all, because a Stalin type will liquidate useful idiots like yourself and kill more Commies and Socialists than any right wing extremist could ever dream of.

Be careful what you wish for eyeball, you don't want to get the Koba treatment, bet that.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Yzermandius19

[eyeball]

8 hours ago, J4L said:

I think you may be confusing Socialism with Communism.

Wow, you don't see that much nuance around here anymore.  Normally you're a commie by default if you don't identify as a a right-winger.

[Moonlight Graham]

A hugely popular company that facilitates the free speech expression of hundreds of millions having a fairly clear political censoring bias is a problem.  We should all worry about this, except those who want to censor those they disagree with, and those people are tyrants we need to be worried about too.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Moonlight Graham

[scribblet]

The double standards on Twitter are real as is censoring of conservative speech.   Reza Aslan called for genocide against Trump supporters in a tweet ( “eradication” ) but it and other radical language is still up, while others are shut down for much less.   e.g. Mitch McConnell's campaign account.   Aslan, a CNN contributor, stated there is  “no longer any room for nuance”  and said that Ivanka Trump is a “white supremacist” despite the fact that they are Jewish. 

[Michael Hardner]

19 hours ago, Moonlight Graham said:

A hugely popular company that facilitates the free speech expression of hundreds of millions having a fairly clear political censoring bias is a problem.  

Yes, if that is indeed the case.  My feed has lots of examples of people complaining about censorship from the other side of the spectrum and they also seem valid.

Moderation is probably good if people complain about it from all points.  

[J4L]

There is overwhelming evidence that Twitter has a very noticeable anti-Conservative bias. Ever the CEO of Twitter openly admits that his company is left-leaning, and employees with Conservative views feel intimidated to express them in public.  Anyone who cannot see that Twitter holds Conservatives to a different double standard than Progressives, does not spend much time on Twitter.

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by J4L