Posted on 06/01/2023 6:37:09 AM PDT by Red Badger
Elon Musk Reveals Line of Code Used to Censor Tweets Containing Certain Key Words
Twitter owner Elon Musk revealed that engineers at the social media company discovered a line of code, which was more than ten years old, which appeared to suppress tweets containing specific words.
During an interview with The Babylon Bee, editor-in-chief Kyle Mann asked Musk:
“One of the craziest things you did when you took over Twitter was start releasing the Twitter files,” he began.
“Who takes over a company and then says, ‘Look, how horrible all this stuff is that’s going on’?”
“If we’re not going to expose the things that were done wrong, why should people believe us in the future? That’s why we’re trying to be as transparent as possible,” Musk responded.
“Don’t take my word for it – literally look at the algorithm; you should be able to recreate the results that you see on Twitter using that algorithm.”
“So we’re trying to make sure that everything is brought to light, not just so there’s no hidden layers or anything,” Musk added.
“We just discovered last week some hidden layer of censorship that was written in 2012.”
The Twitter owner said that “‘censorship’ is probably the wrong word” to describe the code; Twitter had a list of words it would use to evaluate Tweets.
“If you put ‘suck’ in a tweet, then it does not get amplified on the platform,” he explained.
“And that was literally code from, like 2012. We found this relic of code last week.”
Musk later confirmed the line of code was being applied to all tweets, with a thousand words on the list used to suppress tweets.
Watch: VIDEOS AT LINK.................
The news comes just days after Musk pulled his platform out of the EU bloc’s online censorship project, angering EU officials.
Musk pulled Twitter out of the EU’s “Code of Practice,” a pro-censorship project aimed at tackling so-called “disinformation” online,
The move comes after months of mixed messages from Elon Musk, who stated that he wanted to support free speech while insisting that Twitter would support the EU in its censorship program.
Musk reportedly fired 80% of the staff, because they were left-wing activists whose only job was to censor.
The classic limited, modified hangout.
I’m glad Musk took over.
A lesson President Trump should take to heart at the start of his second term.
Whether he means for it to or not Twitter under Musk will never be allowed to be a truly free speech platform.
I have a new account there now that I created after Elon took over. I only use that account casually but I get a huge amount of interaction on it. Just this week, I posted an remark about hikers on Mount Everest and it got over 400,000 impressions!
You cannot have a true free-speech platform, because it will be overrun with people trying to ruin it by posting neo-Nazi crap and all kinds of other stuff. There has to be some level of moderation.
You were ‘shadow banned’............No one saw your tweets..................
Is there any way I can just get animal videos on my usage of Twitter?
I guess I mean free speech under the terms Musk has stated.
Although in a free state anyone should be able to state any kind of opinion, barring lewd or profane speech, threats of violence or pornography.
I was beginning to get traction and was promptly banned for life. Wasn’t told why.
I now use an old account I’ve had for ten years and can’t get a like to save my life. And All I see on my feed now are leftists.
While Musk has unbanned many promenent accounts I’m afraid Twitter is going after smaller nobodies who may get noticed, but lack the clout.
I don’t know.
I’ve never had a Twitter account.................
Not in a free speech society. Hell you can buy nazi stuff all over the internet. Do you plan to censor capitalism also.
That is a fascinating assertion, but an assertion nonetheless. Whether neo-Nazi (which still is National Socialism but somehow "new") to neo-colonialist or whatever, once the Overton window's curtain is closed in to suppress, the only remaining question is "by how much?"
A line or two of code can accomplish this, but as we all have seen, someone can spell using alternative gaming of the system, such as sh"t or the use of spaces such as sh it, to bypass until the gaming is spotted and "line of code" is amended.
It comes down to a purist's argument. How much "free" is there in "free speech."
The answer might lie elsewhere, as these often very unsocial media entities be regulated by legal publisher status, and then have to defend their "publishing."
As to "free speech," I have been named as among the "morons" here on Free Republic, not to mention other fine assertions. I think one is free to write freely.
Until one is not. The remaining question is always how "not" is acceptable in a free society.
It’s not that they are actually Nazis who post it. They are actually leftist provocateurs who don’t want free speech who post them to destroy the platform.
“‘censorship’ is probably the wrong word”
So they don’t have to use the word Marxism
Orwell taps box
Which is a good reason why such speech should be allowed.
So you don’t think constant spamming of stuff like that won’t drive people away from your platform.
If we allowed, say Stormfront articles here, how many people would just go away and never come back?
It all depends on how you define free speech, doesn't it.
Some speech, such as libel, has always been illegal.
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