NYT Editorial Board Member Calls on Twitter to Tackle Disinformation Harder, Suggests New Ways to Censor Users
Media headlines December 2
In today’s media, Chris Cuomo’s suspension has been “difficult” and “divisive” for the network according to an insider, an NBC producer appears to admit to ordering a freelance writer to follow the Rittenhouse jury bus, and ACLU is criticized for a tweet celebrating Abortion.
New York Times Editorial Board member Greg Bensinger used the departure of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to call for change at the tech giant, begging new boss Parag Agrawal to do more to tackling disinformation on the site and suggesting new ways to censor its users.
Bensinger urged Agrawal on Wednesday to “restore confidence” in the site by targeting the spread of disinformation, claimed he was “sparingly enforcing” community standards and suggested that unless he removed the “pure lies and simple, “it censors tweets with tags that dispel” more convincingly. ” myths.
“Twitter has lagged behind its social media peers in recent years, failing to keep pace with new services, acquisitions, user growth and stock prices. most memorable was doubling the tweet character limit to 280, and that was over four years ago, ”Bensinger wrote.
NEW TWITTER RULES, CEO PARAG AGRAWAL REPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT STILL DOESN’T UNDERSTAND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
FILE PHOTO: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Twitter’s algorithms and content monitoring at Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, September 5, 2018. REUTERS / Chris Wattie / File Photo
“The site just walked slowly, being content to be a toy for corporate PR, journalists and politicians. It’s not that popular with ordinary people, who instead turn to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. And for many years, Twitter was less watched, until Donald Trump became a privileged user of Twitter, “he added.
Bensinger said that with Dorsey’s departure the company had the opportunity to “breathe life into what has become a stagnant service.” He argued that with Agrawal as CEO, changes needed to be made to “clean up the service”.
“First, Mr. Agrawal must restore confidence in the site by better controlling the disinformation disseminated by politicians and celebrities,” Bensinger wrote. Like Facebook, Twitter has sparingly applied community standards to its more well-known users, despite strong evidence that politicians are more likely to be believed than ordinary people – even, or perhaps mostly, when they pitch. lies.”
WITH TWITTER’S JACK DORSEY MISSING, NOW IS THE TIME FOR AMERICANS TO TAKE BACK CONTROL OF THEIR COMMUNICATION
Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter
(Twitter | Istock)
He cited examples of tweets from singer Nicki Minaj and former President Trump, who was suspended from Twitter earlier this year, as examples of those spreading “lies”, before also calling the company to crack down on bots.
The New York Times opinion page has its own history of censorship. The left-wing newspaper sparked a volcanic eruption in its ranks last year when it printed Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Appealing to call in troops to quell violent unrest in cities across the country. The paper bent under pressure from Liberal staff members and imprinted heavy corrections on the article, leading Cotton to deride him for leading the “crowd awake.”
Bensinger criticized Twitter’s current use of tags to identify posts containing disinformation, saying the “stuffy language” on the label did not contain enough definitive information. He praised the company’s recent announcement, however, that it was launching a system to make labels more effective.
“If Twitter doesn’t do away with outright lies about democracy, climate change or the pandemic, Mr Agrawal can ensure that Twitter’s labels dispel those myths more convincingly,” he wrote.
This Wednesday, October 26, 2016, the photo shows a Twitter panel outside the company’s San Francisco headquarters. Twitter will enforce stricter policies on violent and abusive content such as hate images or symbols, including those attached to user profiles, the company announced on Monday, December 18, 2017. (AP Photo / Jeff Chiu)
(Reuters)
Bensinger also used more human intervention to monitor heavily followed accounts, saying the automated systems to detect breaches were “garbage.”
He argued that it was also worth considering a suggestion to require politicians’ accounts to have credentials and more restrictions on who they can block, as well as what content they can moderate. .
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Twitter can be fun, surprising, funny, irreverent, and relevant. There just isn’t a better place to quickly find the news of the day and start fleeting commentaries on world events. I hope the new boss can. making it a much less toxic place, too, “Bensinger wrote.
