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0 pointsgregshap3y ago0 comments

VF = Visibility Filtering = "Shadow Banning"

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5 comments · 2 top-level

icare_1er3y ago· 3 in thread

Used to be another "conspiracy theory" yet again proven to be true.

The sloppy definitions allow all sorts of stupid conspiracy theories to be "proven true" when they clearly aren't. Twitter's always limited reach of accounts, that's been in their TOS for 4+ years:

https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/tweet-visibi...

The conspiracy theory that Twitter shadow banned accounts to a level in which even people looking for their Tweets couldn't find them, remains false. Everything that everyone Tweets is visible to everyone who looks at their Timeline. This is explicitly how Musk promised to run the service, "Freedom of speech, not reach" and is basically how Twitter has operated for years with the exception that old Twitter banned people who repeatedly violated the TOS.

chc3y ago

No, everyone knew that this system existed for quite some time. The site's UI even surfaces it by hiding some filtered tweets behind a "view more" button. The conspiracy theory is that the feature was used specifically to silence conservatives for their political views, or that huge conservative accounts that showed up everywhere were somehow suffering from it when their latest brain enhancement pill sale didn't go well enough.

icare_1er3y ago

Oh really, "everyone knew" ? Apparently not certain journalists, like Matt Binder below, or not even Twitter execs at the time back in 2018 when Trump claimed conservatives were shadow-banned... Classic from the left: "first, ridicule it. Second, strongly challenge it. Finally, pretend this has always been the case and every one knew". Clearly in phase 3 here with yet another fakenews from leftits...

Matt Binder: https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1601142989061246976/pho...

Tweeter Execs denying: https://www.newsweek.com/twitter-shadow-banning-republicans-...

2 more replies

gregshapOP3y ago

I think it's helpful to emphasize that "Visibility Filtering" and "Shadow Banning" since they are functionally the same thing, but seem to have very different connotations depending on whether the speaker considers the action to be merited. As many on this forum know, one of the oldest and best ways to limit spam or other unwanted user behavior is to hide the content without informing the user, in order to slow down the arms race between bad actors and moderators.

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