@mmfa Editor-at-large. @KaylaPekkala's wife. 
book rep: @DaraKaye at @RossYoon. All opinions my own, etc.
You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
Lots of lines in this piece that should raise a few eyebrows and set of some alarms 
https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/7/18656540/googles-youtube-lgbtq-employees-harassment-policies-pride-month …
So, there’s been lots of talk about how some conservatives don’t feel comfortable expressing their views at work... views that often include being anti-LGBTQ. And so companies have been trying to accommodate them... at the expense of, you guessed it, LGBTQ people.pic.twitter.com/YFmqM0NGxk
This is absolutely nuts. Screenshots from internal directories, containing personal information like phone numbers and addresses, ending up on right-wing sites? Yikes.pic.twitter.com/iWpOoZpxRd
Yeah, for all the people saying that demonetizing SC for repeatedly breaking the site’s rules is “silencing” him, they sure don’t seem to care when it’s LGBTQ people getting demonetized when they don’t break rules. Go figure.pic.twitter.com/4edIuAKv6I
But this last one is the BIG takeaway...
Years of RWers yelling that they’re being censored and oppressed and whatnot... to the point where you have members of Congress and the president complaining... It’s created a real incentive for these companies to walk on eggshells so as not to accidentally make them mad.pic.twitter.com/ewrTxaPN38
That last line, though. THAT is the key. This isn’t about achieving “fairness” or “balance” or anything like that. It’s about creating an environment where these companies have to ask, “Is enforcing this policy REALLY worth it?” And it will never, ever, ever end.pic.twitter.com/9JYymE1juZ
And working the refs like this can make a giant difference. Look what happened with Facebook.
I honestly believe it’s possible that the fallout from one shoddy Gizmodo blog post with a terrible clickbait headline may have changed the direction of the 2016 presidential election based on everything that followed.
So, in May 2016, @MichaelFNunez wrote a post at Gizmodo titled “Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News.”
!!! Huge scandal, right?! https://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006 …
Well...pic.twitter.com/IcWpU2o0Ds
When you start reading it, you’ll very quickly note that “workers” (plural) is just... one guy. And oh, he happens to have a personal incentive here based on his own self-identified political views.pic.twitter.com/SSAkdCj8Tm
I have no idea how the writer of this piece verified this line or if he just took the single source’s word for it?pic.twitter.com/FIola7NUz4
But basically, the source argued that there was something that was organically trending on the site, but wasn’t showing up in the actual trending tab.pic.twitter.com/BJtliVi2sP
And at this point, Facebook had been open about the role that the human curators of the trending section would play: they’d keep things moving along, help curate the story selection, make sure that the site was linking to reputable sources. Well...
So let’s see which organically trending topics and news sources the guy was upset weren’t being included in the trending tab. 1. Lois Lerner - right-wing media outlets got really into conspiracy theories involving Lerner, an IRS officialpic.twitter.com/4KaTSNgzhJ
While the story was all over far-right sites, arguing that there was a shadowy conspiracy involving Lerner and the IRS singling out conservative non-profits for extra scrutiny... that was pretty obviously nonsense.https://newrepublic.com/article/118393/irs-scandal-conspiracy-theorists-fall-logical-trap …
In reality, it wasn’t that these non-profits were being targeted for being conservative... liberal-leaning groups were ALSO targeted. Basically, politically-minded groups got extra screening no matter which direction they leaned. https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2017reports/201710054fr.pdf …
There were lists of words people were told to be on the lookout for when screening IRS applications as possibility being political. “Tea Party,” for instance. “Patriot,” “Progressive,” etc. Anyway, it makes total sense that Facebook wasn’t pumping conspiracy theories into trends
2. Drudge Report. Now... there’s a VERY obvious reason a link to this site might not trend on Facebook... any guesses? Answer: Because it doesn’t create any original content. The site is just a list of links. It’s mind-boggling that the guy here doesn’t realize this?pic.twitter.com/eX2NzJaJvm
The author of this story did interview another person, who said that yes, Facebook would try to cite non-partisan sources whenever possible. For instance, if you see something completely wild being reported by ONLY fringe blogs, it’s best to wait to see if a reputable site coverspic.twitter.com/EApUPHx3aR
The author of the Gizmodo story did interview other curators (plural), who said that the single source the “suppression” narrative came from wasn’t telling the truth.pic.twitter.com/6p6zf8ZWnP
Oh, and this is VERY notable. So, the story here was that 1 guy said stories were being suppressed, multiple people said he wasn’t telling the truth, 1 person said they tried to use neutral sources, and... no actual suppression either way was confirmed.pic.twitter.com/EoE6cUVvGs
This story was a cluttered mess that told us absolutely nothing about what happened inside Facebook, just that one man claimed that stories he liked weren’t being promoted by his coworkers. At absolute best, this should have run with a much more toned down headline.
Immediately, the GOP started using this story, as majorly flawed as it was, to create a persecution narrative. https://gop.com/makethistrend-facebook-must-answer-for-liberal-bias/ …pic.twitter.com/kSsZvdBfwn
Read the bold part here. (Also, linking to outlets that do actual reporting and not just write up something someone else did... that’s not “bias.”)pic.twitter.com/KG6QLpcu8z
In August, Facebook fired its entire trending team, replacing it with an algorithm that unleashed absolute chaos on the world, starting with an entirely made-up story about Megyn Kelly being fired shooting to the top of the trend list. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/08/29/a-fake-headline-about-megyn-kelly-was-trending-on-facebook/ …pic.twitter.com/G30QoHxEuT
The news was coming from a site called EndingTheFed... If you were on Facebook during the 2016 election, you probably saw one of ETF’s articles (if not the Megyn Kelly story, maybe the one about the pope endorsing Trump?)pic.twitter.com/3w7BEdoWRB
Ending The Fed was a blog started by Ovidiu Drobota, a 24-year-old man in Romania (and HUGE fan of Trump). He just made stuff up that he thought would help Trump, tossed it on Facebook, and watched his propaganda work its magic. https://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/ending-fed-trump-facebook.html … (Actual fake news)pic.twitter.com/NFKECKbwre
Okay, okay, okay, I missed a step here. Facebook didn’t just happen to fire its human trending curators. They were pushed to. As a result of the backlash to the poorly-sourced Gizmodo blog, Facebook went into absolute panic mode.
And in late May, Mark Zuckerberg met up with a bunch of right-wing personalities, Twitter trolls, propagandists, and even a journalist or two. https://money.cnn.com/2016/05/18/media/facebook-conservative-leaders-meeting/index.html …pic.twitter.com/5kOnEj7KN0
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
