With all the deserved flak that social media giants have been copping recently in regards to moderating questionable content, some companies have started taking baby steps to correct the problem. Facebook has finally started banning anti-vax content while Twitter has largely eradicated ISIS propaganda off its platform.
However, this has led to a big question: if Twitter can get rid of ISIS content, why can’t it do the same for white supremacist stuff?
Despite Twitter’s policies against “abuse and hateful conduct”, racist and offensive idiots like Donald Trump and former KKK leader David Duke are still hanging around, prompting many to bombard Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with replies of “Jack, ban the Nazis” whenever he tweets anything.
Well folks, best buckle up because the explanation will probably irritate you.
Here's a hint. BAN THE NAZIS.
— Chris Wood (@Den_Matrix) April 25, 2019
According to Motherboard, a Twitter executive spilled the tea and says that while algorithms are good for cleaning up all the rubbish that gets posted on Twitter, too much aggression can mean innocent accounts will get swept up in the cleanse. For ISIS stuff, that’s a small trade-off for Twitter since society is definitely all for being a bother to a few people if it meant getting rid of beheading videos and propaganda.
But for white supremacy, it’s a dicier prospect. Using that same algorithm approach means all the content from conservative Republican politicians in America could get swept up and Twitter are not particularly keen on getting on the bad side of those pollies since that’s like opening up Pandora’s Box of racist tweet replies.
When pressed on why this is, the Twitter executive handwaved it off by saying that while all of society are cool with the trade-off of banning a few innocent people if it meant no more ISIS content, not everyone will be cool with Republican politicians getting banned if it mean no more white supremacy content.
So in short, Twitter won’t ban white supremacy content because it might ban some offensive Republican politicians and the company don’t want to deal with the fallout, the deluge of angry tweets from the likes of Trump and his supporters, and the threat of political retaliation because some pollies no longer get to tweet all the offensive stuff they want.
Extrapolating a little bit, Twitter’s lack of action on white supremacy rubbish means that Australia will also be affected by the company’s lack of action.
Since our country sadly also has its share of white supremacists and horrible people in political positions of power (looking at you, Fraser Anning), it means they’re also going to be free to tweet out all the awful stuff they want and chances are they’ll get away with it.
At the moment, Twitter’s current method of moderating white supremacy rubbish is through human moderators carefully sifting through every unsavoury tweet. If history has taught us anything, getting humans to police content on a social media platform is a surefire way to get people to bang in stairwells to deal with the inevitable trauma so this definitely won’t end well for anyone.
Listen, Twitter, just because getting rid of offensive white supremacy content is a hard problem doesn’t mean you get a pass, racist Republican politician complaints be damned. If Facebook can do it, then surely you can too. The world will be better off without that sort of stuff in it and you can spare your poor employees from dealing with their tweet-induced PTSD by getting freaky with each other in office stairwells during their lunch breaks.
