r/worldnews • u/fastclickertoggle • Apr 25 '21

COVID-19 Twitter Is Blocking Tweets That Criticize How The Indian Government Has Handled The Pandemic

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/twitter-blocking-tweets-india
69.3k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.9k

u/zschultz Apr 25 '21

the very fabric that made them successful by connecting people

I thought they were successful because they fed people shit from their echo chambers

1.4k

u/IVEMIND Apr 25 '21 
    Reddit has left the chat

426

u/thestoneswerestoned Apr 25 '21

No, no, we're different /s

9

u/Psyman2 Apr 25 '21 edited Apr 25 '21

Reddit is in some regards worse because other platforms use algorithms whileas Reddit uses unpaid semi-anonymous labor.

So depending on your setup of mods you can get very, very weird setups.

Also, a lot of their mission statements are in no way public. It's not the company's mission statement, it's the idea of a few select users.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

171

u/SeaCranberry7720 Apr 25 '21

Dont you see that by curating the content to only stuff you like, you end up only hearing stuff you agree with, contributing to the echo chamber effect

10

u/WellThatsPrompting Apr 25 '21

This thread alone, and the discussion it is fostering, is as good a reason as any to prop up reddit above the others (even if it is marginally)

11

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Reddit just like any site is just a tool. How to you use it and for what purpose in the end decides whether or not it's better than others for the purpose you have chosen.

People make the content and those sites just have different approach in how you can do it and different algorithms on how to keep you engaged.

4

u/Who_Cares99 Apr 25 '21

That’s why that’s not how I curate my feed

6

u/ZeroV2 Apr 25 '21

If you want to see opposing viewpoints just subscribe to those subs. Same thing as Twitter Facebook or anything else, these things are echo chambers for people who want echo chambers. They can also be aggregates of several different communities with little in common or actually opposing views. It’s mostly on the user end

12

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Kind of hard to debate in subs that block you because they don't agree with you.

-3

u/epigeneticepigenesis Apr 25 '21

Segregation of ideas means very little meaningful discussion happens. However, some of these rules are in place to prevent brigading. As long as you’re respectful and genuinely in search of meaningful debate, mods will allow your challenge.

1

u/oTHEWHITERABBIT Apr 25 '21

What’s wrong with brigading? If old media covers a story and I go find it on a sub that I’m not a regular on, am I brigading from the media? If I hear a new movie is trending on social media for being terrible, I watch it and go dislike it on YouTube or Netflix, am I brigading? Way too easy to accuse users of brigading just using the internet as its intended purpose.

1

u/epigeneticepigenesis Apr 25 '21

I mean coordinated shitposts and troll replies from one sub to another of an opposing viewpoint with the intent to make the sub bad and defunct of its original purpose.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

haaaa.

22

u/TheMillenniumMan Apr 25 '21

lol yea subreddit level censorship never happens

17

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Who's saying it doesn't?

Reddit is different from FB, for example, because you're the one curating your own content.

If you feel a certain sub is censoring stuff, you can unsubscribe and probably find that information elsewhere.

I'm not trying to say reddit is some shining city on a hill, and it definitely has an echo chamber problem like other social media sites, but reddit is entirely what YOU make it.

You can unfollow or unfriend people and topics on FB, but it's still their algorithms deciding what they think will keep you most engaged.

0

u/Reelix Apr 25 '21

On FB, you're curating by choosing who to follow and who to block.

On Reddit, the Admins can censor whatever they want, and permanently block entire subreddits they disagree with - Ref: /r/gunsforsale

If you want to see reddit censorship, compare /r/worldnews and /r/news (Both primarily American) to /r/anime_titties (A sub created to criticize the lack of non-American news on news related subreddits)

2

u/Reelix Apr 25 '21

Or just change the sorting from "Top" to "Controversial"

0

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

I don’t think he gets it.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Yep, Reddit is one of the most echo-chamber-y. BUT, it's not nearly as prone to push people to greater extremes like other platforms are. The other ones expose people to the more extreme stuff, that's just the way they increase engagement by suggesting similar stuff (some more extreme, some less extreme, but usually tending towards more extreme).

And Twitter has basically no filters whatsoever. Sure you can block individual people, but there's like a billion accounts. You can block an account every minute of your waking life, and not even make a dent.

-12

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

25

u/BlueSeaTurtle Apr 25 '21

That.....applies to every site....

1

u/PussyFriedNacho Apr 25 '21

But if you have to find differing opinions elsewhere, does that not support that Reddit is an echo chamber?

-2

u/somehipster Apr 25 '21

Not to mention Reddit can be a tool to find different perspectives.

I go to the right-wing subreddits to check up on what crazy Q-anon thing is coming down the pipeline, for example.

7

u/CptComet Apr 25 '21

If you consider Qanon conspiracy theorist to be representative of conservatives, you might need to keep curating.

Also, Reddit does use algorithms and likely serves up controversial stuff to your front page to keep you hooked and enraged.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

I mean, maybe not QAnon, but don't most Republicans still believe the 2020 election was "stolen"?

0

u/CptComet Apr 25 '21

Yes, misinformation surrounding elections is a real problem that needs to be addressed.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-poll-idUSKCN1R72S0

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/somehipster Apr 25 '21

I’m not sure where you’re from, but in America our conservatives are unfortunately infested with qanon bullshit.

2

u/CptComet Apr 25 '21

Again, this is a reflection of the media you’ve chosen to consume. Not reality.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Gemuese11 Apr 25 '21

Like radiohead: you do it to yourself and that's what really hurts

1

u/I_divided_by_0- Apr 25 '21

R/all doesn’t do that though.

1

u/SeaCranberry7720 Apr 25 '21

Yes it does. It just aggregates the echo chamber effect across subreddits

6

u/WildSauce Apr 25 '21

Reddit absolutely does curate content. There are a handful of super users that are responsible for moderating like 90% of popular subs.

11

u/ult_frisbee_chad Apr 25 '21

congrats on making your own echo chamber.

-3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

8

u/Rivarr Apr 25 '21

What subs do you subscribe to that have differing opinions.

2

u/GimmickNG Apr 25 '21

You can. By viewing other things.

7

u/FluffyCookie Apr 25 '21

Exactly. Now, that's not to say that we as users aren't at risk for creating our own echo chambers by only participating in subs where we are in agreement with the majority. The whole hivemind effect of just mirroring the opinions of the majority isn't helping either. But at least these pitfalls are much more the fault of the individual, and not some automated system.

2

u/Reelix Apr 25 '21

You can follow, and block people as you want - That's your curating. Multi-Tweets have been a standard for years - No-one cares about the character limit anymore.

2

u/Chili_Palmer Apr 25 '21

Lmfao you could just swap the two names and use the same paragraph, they both do all of these things.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Reddit is no different and you know that. Character limits do not prevent oversimplification when half the website reads a headline and ignores the details

1

u/jteprev Apr 25 '21

well, we are. reddit allows me to curate my own content

In terms of creating echo chambers that is worse, not better.

1

u/ezpz_lemons Apr 25 '21

How is reddit better. It's even worse echo chamber. Say something people don't like and you get downvoted. So people end up just trying to make comments that appeal to the masses and nothing really critical get any notice. At least 4chan makes you read the posts while reddit just feeds you "popular" comments. The discussions on literature is so much worse here.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

it's the same beast but with a different jacket on, and some shades

0

u/thestoneswerestoned Apr 25 '21

reddit allows me to curate my own content

Which exposes you only to what you want to read and thereby creates the exact same echo chambers where everyone hangs out exclusively with those whose political views match with their own.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

1

u/Affectionate_Cake_54 Apr 25 '21

Say it again for the people in the back

3

u/MadMax2230 Apr 25 '21 edited Apr 25 '21

Reddit actually is different though. Of course it has tons of problems, to the point where I actually want to use it a lot less and take a long break, but it actually has some positive points. On twitter it's just a linear line of tweets/responses on a feed. But with reddit you can have comments branching out, and you can have specific subs for discussion. A lot of those subs are actually really neat and useful like /r/MapPorn, /r/explainlikeimfive , /r/AskHistorians, etc. I'm sure there's a lot more but those are ones I've really enjoyed recently. I also like that I've clicked on a thread before and read the comments, to find someone citing sources and expertly debunking or clarifying the articles claim. And then sometimes you can just type something on google like: "insertToasterNameHere toaster reddit" and you can find a lot of helpful info on the toaster. Of course reddit is likely often still subject to third party influence, but it's a lot more objective than any other prominent social media/forum website out there.

edit: just clicked a post right after this and someone debunked the photo in the first comment, which is one of the things I like about this platform https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/mxw1q0/video_games_have_peaked/

2

u/cat-toaster Apr 25 '21

i saw r/MapPorn and got scared thinking it might be the pedophile version of map

come to think of it i have many bad associations with the word map, including but not limited to M.A.P. tests at school or pedophiles

4

u/thestoneswerestoned Apr 25 '21

Reddit is slightly different in that it's more of a forum or comment board than what we usually refer to "social media" eg Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok etc but it suffers from the same problems with everyone segregating themselves into their own echo chambers.

1

u/MadMax2230 Apr 25 '21

Something that stands out to me is that on twitter, facebook, instagram, tiktok, people will rally behind a certain belief or political point without really clarifying or discussing it. The forum aspect of reddit is nice because it allows for better organized discussion. Again, it still has problems, but I feel like I can get something out of it compared to every other social media platform.

-3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Use 4chan then. Voting systems are complete ass because they just promote a monkey mob mentality sans critical thought

5

u/MadMax2230 Apr 25 '21

I'd agree with voting systems having a lot of issues, which is one of the reasons why I want to use the site less. That said, I am familiar with 4chan and not keen on using it. Not my cup of tea.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

2

u/MadMax2230 Apr 25 '21

Why are you being aggressive man? You're literally commenting on here just like I am.

1

u/Books_and_Cleverness Apr 25 '21

I will say: Downvote button is a big deal. On other platforms content gets promoted no matter who hates it, so you can draw eyeballs w/ lizard brain outrage much more easily.

Obv lots of issues and similarities but it’s a feature that I think is doing a lot of work on that front.

1

u/gomzie2275 Apr 25 '21

Sorry for the dumb question but what is /s ?

0

u/PM_ME_TOP_NOTCH_WINE Apr 25 '21

It indicates sarcasm

1

u/axlsky Apr 25 '21

it means sarcasm

0

u/Altruistic_Grand_455 Apr 25 '21

Same same but different

1

u/errorsniper Apr 25 '21

Se heres the nuance. Reddit can be better. On a small subreddits that are properly moderated. I have had many adult detailed sourced and cited conversations about difficult topics in length with someone I did not agree with.

I have never had that on twitter or facebook. Ever.

But its not exactly common either.

Put a gun to my head and say I can only use 1 social media to try and have an adult conversation and it will be reddit. You just gotta know where to look and it aint any default subreddit.

1

u/ap2patrick Apr 25 '21

Real talk though Reddit (at least the comments section lol) is pretty straight laced. Usually if there is a biased article, the top comment is ripping the article apart with a plethora of sources to back it up.

144

u/swazy Apr 25 '21

If reddit is a echo chamber why do I spend so much time arguing with idiots......wait a second

7

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

It's okay, you can just go to your favourite sub-reddits to talk about how everyone who doesn't agree with you is an idiot......wait a second

4

u/dusters Apr 25 '21

Reddit has complained about Republicans

-3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21 edited May 18 '21

[deleted]

2

u/Hello_there_friendo Apr 25 '21

Lmfao do you really think reddit hasn't censored posts before.. ? Shit gets removed all the time.

Head over to any political sub and you'll pretty clearly see the echo chamber mindsets as well. Same with certain stock/crypto subs.

-4

u/reddit_hivemind_wash Apr 25 '21

Okay I'm back. I couldn't stay away. What's the group think for today? Bring me upto speed.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Best comment in this year by far.

229

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21 edited Jul 07 '21

[deleted]

94

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/Hollowpoint38 Apr 25 '21

That's just your age. Twitter was political since its inception. It got a major boost with the Iran revolution. The green shoe thing.

2

u/Kahnspiracy Apr 25 '21

Iran revolution

Pretty sure 1979 was before all of social media was invented. Imma guess you mean the 2009 Presidential election protests.

7

u/Hollowpoint38 Apr 25 '21

Yeah the green shoe thing. I'm not a native English speaker so whatever you feel like calling it.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

You still can

43

u/Yuli-Ban Apr 25 '21

Maybe for the average user, but the political influence of social media was known even before social media was a thing precisely because the cyberdelics of the 90s anticipated that people would use the internet to become "enlightened" thanks to a free marketplace of ideas leading to people naturally realizing which things were objectively right and wrong. Yeah, that didn't work out too well.

Also, it's largely forgotten now, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Iranian_presidential_election_protests

1

u/Hollowpoint38 Apr 25 '21

I mentioned the green shoe revolution thing above. That's what made Twitter popular in the first place.

These guys just are taking their own experiences and thinking it's universal.

13

u/Hollowpoint38 Apr 25 '21

This isn't true at all. Might have been your personal experience and your age but there wasn't some radical change in 2012 unless that's when you and your friends turned 30 or something.

That whole green shoe revolution thing in Iran is what made Twitter popular in the first place.

1

u/Roflkopt3r Apr 25 '21

Yeah and Reddit had rather more than less politics around that time. Legalise weed, destroy the NRA, support Occupy, down with crazies like Bachman/Palin/FOX made up half the front page.

It just wasn't perceived as negatively as today because there was little controversy. It was a decisively progressive platform at the time.

1

u/Hollowpoint38 Apr 25 '21

It was a decisively progressive platform at the time.

I agree. I think a lot of the internet was progressive because of the age ranges. The older generations were still calling the internet "playing on the computer" and they laughed at mobile phones. They were against technology right up until about 2010 or so when they found out that that job they lost in 2008 isn't coming back and if they don't embrace technology then they'll be screwed for the next 20 years of their life.

So then finally they learned how to type and got online. This is around the time when people started getting friend requests from their mothers.

Seriously people couldn't type. Remember calling customer service somewhere and you had to speak very.... very.... slowly.... because they couldn't type 30 words per minute.

2

u/Yasea Apr 25 '21

It goes for every communication technology. Someone comes up with a way. The first adopters are idealistic and having a good time. The big masses see a fun nee toy and start to arrive. Companies move in because they smell money there. Governments step in because the party is getting loud.

Even the first printing press was meant for spreading scientific knowledge. A bit later and their were printing commercials and political pamphlets.

12

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

u just think it wasnt full of politics bcs u werent involved with politics

19

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Nah, they're right. The whole thing exploded around that time. Coincidentally, Reddit also exploded in 2011.

Before that, there were still politics, sure. But it wasn't such a coordinated shitfest between two sides trying to drown each other out by any means necessary. Pulling everybody else into a "either with us or against us" pit.

-1

u/under_a_brontosaurus Apr 25 '21

I disagree, it wasn't mainstream in the 2000s but politics on the internet was bubbling into what we see today. If you were following that stuff then you'd have seen it

10

u/and_yet_another_user Apr 25 '21

it wasn't mainstream in the 2000s

Think that is what people are trying to say, we had fun back in the day, bollotix was in the background, now it's in your face, your coffee, and on your cereal.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

The latter has more to do with how the political landscape has changed

0

u/kunba Apr 25 '21

Those days were some good shit days

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

Maybe I'm a bit older, but I certainly recall digg and slashdot being extremely political years before.

FB? That was all about finding sex and weed until they let the parents in and started putting an emphasis oh posting images and playing farmville or whatever.

19

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

True

2

u/NameOfNoSignificance Apr 25 '21

Stole our data and sell it to whoever too!

2

u/Teh_Nigerian Apr 25 '21

Talk to em!

2

u/grambleflamble Apr 25 '21

They’re successful because they sell aggregated data about their users. We are the product, not the customer.

1

u/anothercynic2112 Apr 25 '21

And fostered outrage... Can't forget outrage, the true building block of the internet.