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Twitter To Get Even Harsher On Trolls (cnbc.com) 183

Twitter is cracking down even harder against trolls, including temporarily barring accounts that are harassing other users. From a report: In a blog posted Wednesday, Twitter's vice president of engineering, Ed Ho, announced more safety measures to stop abuse on its platform. One of the methods includes using the company's internal algorithms to identify problematic accounts and limiting certain account functions -- such as only allowing the aggressor to see their followers -- for a set period of time if they engaged in troublesome behavior. Twitter said it was also open to further action if the harassment continued. Other anti-trolling tools include new filters to let users see what kinds of content they want to view from certain accounts and well as allowing people to "mute" tweets based on keywords, phrases or entire conversations.
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Twitter To Get Even Harsher On Trolls

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  • Trump's and JK Rowling's accounts.

    • The over under on how many posts till trump was 7. You made a lot of people a lot of money.
      • by TWX ( 665546 )
        Seven?

        I expected it as a new variant of the "fist prost"...
        • Vegas figured it differently. Expecting the bots and frist posters to get in on a morning post faster than the trump posters. However, I only came to the comments to make this joke and was not disappointed. Even if the joke was pretty lame.
          • by TWX ( 665546 )
            Well, at least you amused yourself. Sometimes you can't expect more than that.
  • by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @10:38AM (#53953595)

    I can see banning harassers, etc., but trolling is one of the cornerstones of the internet.

    • Re:Whoa - too far! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by TWX ( 665546 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @10:47AM (#53953667)
      It's hard to monetize trolling, there's a maximum cap on how much profit can be derived from it.

      Unfortunately once you grow to maximum-troll, the only way to remove that to attempt to keep growing is to prune hard, which will harm the business in the short to medium term. Just look at what happened to Reddit, their attempts to remove unsavory elements that were preventing growth caused the business to shrink. Perhaps they'll be able to grow, but I haven't been back to Reddit since the 2016 presidential election cycle got going, and I expect that it's still a wretched hive of scum and villany.
      • by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @11:35AM (#53954079)
        They use terms to mean whatever they want anyway.

        Disagreement is now harrassment.
        Mockery is now hate speech.
        Offense is now trauma.
        Criticism is now abuse.
        Compelling criticism is now violence.
        Anyone who talks about subjects the MSM wants to suppress is now a troll.
        Anyone at random is a racist/sexist/white supremacist/nazi/etc if they say so.

        The use of this alarmist (and usually, simply wrong) language is ubiquitous and deliberate. It's all a pretense to justify a disproportionate censorial "response," especially when they know no response is warranted at all. It's also a brazenly transparent tactic, especially since Twitter/Reddit/etc rarely seem to use it against users that properly align with their politics.
    • Trolling is a artform. At least the good trolling of the olden days. Iregardless of how I feel about the old definitions however, it, seems the definition is changing to simply mean "being a dick". That begs the question though of weather we should keep using the old definition. It's just like "cracker"---it used to be used for a good stuff, but the media has made it synonymous with hacker now, implying its uniformly bad. I guess I could care less though. Language changes.

      • Trolling is a artform. At least the good trolling of the olden days. Iregardless of how I feel about the old definitions however, it, seems the definition is changing to simply mean "being a dick".

        Yeah, that's about it. Trolling has more or less become the province of griefers, who have no tact, cleverness, or subtlety. There's no craftsmanship to it anymore. It used to be a good troll could keep people going for days and days, but now it's akin to just taking a dump on the dinner table and running away.

    • by sycodon ( 149926 )

      Soon, only Blue Butt Ferries and unicorns will be allowed in Twitter posts.

  • by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @10:47AM (#53953669)
    >> Ed Ho

    Yes, if this guy went through high school, I could imagine he knows what it means to be a target of abusers.
  • Fuck twitter. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by penandpaper ( 2463226 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @10:51AM (#53953711) Journal

    Twitter? You mean the internet company that doesn't understand the internet?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    No Thank You. I don't need a Trust and Safety council anymore than a Ministry of Truth.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by geek ( 5680 )

      Twitter? You mean the internet company that doesn't understand the internet?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      No Thank You. I don't need a Trust and Safety council anymore than a Ministry of Truth.

      Its really fascinating to me to watch this. Twitter like the Democrat party is doubling down on all of the things that are responsible for their decline.

      When I was a teenager I was pulled over for speeding and had a list of excuses I decided to work through from top to bottom. After about 5 minutes the officer said to me calmly, "When you find yourself in a ditch the best thing to do is quit digging."

      A lesson Liberals desperately need to learn.

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        A lesson Liberals desperately need to learn.

        Liberals? No. Democrats? Yes.

        Dear Democrats: have you forgotten what is is to be liberal?
        * Identity politics: not liberal.
        * Being a moral scold of any variety: not liberal.
        * Dividing people into two groups, the "elite, with proper credentials from the right schools" and "dumb hicks who can't be trusted to know what's good for them": not liberal.

        Yet those three points are all I've seen from the American left for over a decade now.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      A Karl of Swindon video... I hate to ad-hom the guy, but I don't have the will to subject myself to him right now.

      What matters to Twitter is the bottom line. They obviously think that trolling does them more harm than good. The fact that 4chan is dying suggests that they may be right.

      • What matters to Twitter is the bottom line.

        Twitter has never made a profit. They have lost $2 billion in 10 years [time.com].

        Twitter is a weird mix of money-losing leftist propaganda machine and pyramid scheme. It's not a business that makes rational decisions.

        The fact that 4chan is dying suggests that they may be right.

        Well, you're probably the expert on 4chan, but it isn't bleeding money at anywhere near the same rate as Twitter.

      • I don't normally post videos of any flavor of talking heads but that video is relevant to any discussion on Twitters censorship behavior. If there is an issue with that video I will hear you out but if all you do is dismiss it through ad hom then you add nothing to the conversation. If you have an issue with the arguments and evidence portrayed, name it or leave it. I don't need to know your opinion on the presenter and personally I don't care because I am not posting that video for the presenter.

        The reason

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Well, if you like videos, this is a great one about the PewDiePie situation: https://youtu.be/GjNILjFters [youtu.be]

          • He is so right. Nazi jokes are bad as are jokes about the holocaust. My grandfather died in a concentration camp in WW2 when he fell out of the guard tower. Anne Frankly, I am offended when anyone makes fun my families tragedy. We should say enough is enough with these nazi jokes because they make me fuhrerious.

            But seriously...
            WTF am I watching? A guy upset that he doesn't like certain types of satire, doesn't understand context like the WSJ, upset that pewdiepie is successful, doesn't understand humor and

  • Echo, echo, echo... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @10:57AM (#53953753)

    Leave your dissenting opinion at the door please.

  • Twitter: The Confetti of The Internet

    I just wish I had the inclination to piss away my time spurting out pearls of wisdom 140-characters at a time. Oh, wait, no I don't.

  • by Salgak1 ( 20136 ) <salgak.speakeasy@net> on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @11:04AM (#53953821) Homepage

    . . . . more users to Gab [gab.ai], where the only filters on what you see, are the ones **you** set on your own account

    • . . . . more users to Gab [gab.ai], where the only filters on what you see, are the ones **you** set on your own account

      The average celebrity has an order of magnitude more twitter followers than Gab has users.(Heck, even a spoof account does [twitter.com]) As much as I'd like there to be an alternative, a service with 0.04% the users doesn't feel like a challenger.

      • by Salgak1 ( 20136 )

        As a 5-digit Slashdot user. . . .I'm amused. Slashdot wasn't originally a Thing, either (and honestly, no longer as much of a thing as it was in the days of Peak Slashdot).Gab is still in beta and has a waitlist. . .

      • Not to mention its overt political bent, both in intent and in user base. A site with a pepe-lookalike for a mascot infested with far-right wingnuts will never gain mainstream support.

    • Yes, more centipedes in the den of centipedes, and less on Twitter. Everyone wins!

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        Everyone loses. The value of resolving disagreement through frank discussion instead of violence is quite high. It's also a core liberal value.

        • Hurling abuse at black celebrities etc. isn't a form of frank discussion. That's what these people are being banned for, for the most part. And you can't resolve anything through discussion when one party has "alternative facts" that they're sticking to despite the best evidence that they're wrong. At that point, it's like fighting with a pig: you'll both get dirty while achieving nothing, but the pig will enjoy it.

          • by lgw ( 121541 )

            Sure, there's a tiny percentage of the banning that makes sense. Most of it is blatant political bias, though.

  • I can't believe that no law firm has tried to organize a shareholder lawsuit yet. I bet it would be fascinating to see the discovery period when Twitter has to show how much it spent in money and manpower to implement these features at the behest of SJWs and then explain to a jury how they planned to meet their responsibilities to shareholders by openly attacking half of their potential users. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is now in the same sport, if not league, as what was done to Nokia.

    FFS,

    • The reality here is that if there was to be a lawsuit, it would be because Twitter didn't take stronger action sooner. It's pretty strongly suggested that Disney abandoned buying Twitter, which would have made a lot of shareholders a lot of money, precisely because Twitter didn't go after trolls more strongly. In fact, so far as I can tell, a lot of the reason that Twitter is now instituting much stronger measures is to make sure the next buyout isn't scuttled.

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        You can either be a platform for free discussion, or the sort of property Disney would want to own. You obviously can't be both. Twitter's mistake is that they keep trying to straddle the line. They would benefit from moving in either direction firmly, without looking back. Either moderation appropriate for a Disney site, or free speech. Being stuck on blatant political bias makes them toxic.

  • by slapout ( 93640 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @11:14AM (#53953909)

    Are they blocking trolls or just people they disagree with? Also, why aren't the twitter users just ignoring accounts they don't like?

  • They already filter for swear words, yet now the abstract idea of "trolling" is on the table and you will be able to filter any tweet containing a word you don't like. This is literally exactly the way China will not let you speak badly about politicians, except now people will not see any opposing views to their party of choosing. If the country wasn't split evenly it could soon turn into a one party system because you can't even debate or criticize those who would disagree with you on one of those widel
  • by poity ( 465672 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @11:39AM (#53954125)

    Who else would want this but the crybully?

  • by taustin ( 171655 ) on Wednesday March 01, 2017 @11:42AM (#53954151) Homepage Journal

    It isn't even theoretically possible to formulate an objective definition of "abuse," and when all definitions are subjective, all decisions on who is abusive are subjective. There is literally nothing that anyone can say that won't offend someone.

    There is only one thing they could possibly do to "stop the abuse," and that is to shut Twitter down.

    I'd be fine with that.

    If you have something to say that can be said in 140 characters, you have nothing to say.

    • by DogDude ( 805747 )
      It isn't even theoretically possible to formulate an objective definition of "abuse," and when all definitions are subjective, all decisions on who is abusive are subjective.

      Jesus, kid, take a basic Philosophy 101 class, huh? This is basic stuff. Are you also going to say that there are no facts, as well?
      • by taustin ( 171655 )

        The what's your objective definition of what is abusive? If it's that simple, the only reason for you to not provide it is that it's not that simple, and you're lying about it being that simple.

        Take your time. We'll wait.

  • Soon enough they will wake up and say, wow we just took 10 years to re-invent all the features of email clients.
  • by kimvette ( 919543 )

    I'll only believe their intentions are good if they ban Trump. He's the biggest troll on there right now.

  • It's not "harassment", it's all about controlling the narrative against political opponents of Twitter's owners.

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