Twitter: Algorithms do not always impartial
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Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has told US lawmakers that the company’s algorithms have not always been “fair”.
He said that the platform of “unfair” reduction of the visibility of 600,000 accounts, including some members of congress.
But he was unable to say immediately if a majority of them were Republicans, democrats or not.
Mr Dorsey is being challenged by the senators on allegations that Twitter censors conservative voices.
Several republicans, including the President of the united states, Donald Trump, has been accused Twitter of bias, which the company denies.
“Twitter does not make use of political ideology to take any decision, whether in relation to the classification of content on our service or how to apply our rules,” said Mr. Dorsey.
However, he said that the company had made errors.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said it would investigate “the increasing concern that these companies may be affecting the competition and intentionally, because that prevents the free exchange of ideas in their platforms.”What is the Twitter of the audience?
The allegations of censorship were fed in when Twitter has added a “quality filter” of the platform and its search results.
Some users noticed that their tweets no longer appeared in the search results, and suggested that its content is hidden, known as “the shadow of prohibition.”
Mr Dorsey told the senators that the platform that is used “hundreds of signs” to decide “what to show, sort, and filter”.
“We don’t shadow-ban anyone because of their political ideology,” he said.
He explained that the algorithm had acted in the behavior of people following accounts – so that some politicians were punished for the behavior of their followers.
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“It was unfair,” said Mr. Dorsey. “We have corrected”.
Several senators at the hearing said that the investigation was a waste of time.
Democrat Paul Sabanes said that the hearing had been caused by the “deep-state of the conspiracy theories offered by the president”, while fellow democrat Jerry McNerney said that it was an effort on the part of the republicans to motivate their voters.
“The president of Victory and many republicans have been peddling conspiracy theories about Twitter and other social media platforms to stir up their base and raise funds,” said democrat Frank Pallone.
Mr Pallone said that Twitter could not be accused of anti-conservative bias while allowing the Chairman of Triumph for the use for “minors tweets and misinformation”.What else did Mr. Dorsey to reveal?
Mr. Engel asked why Twitter does not require people to verify their identity when registering an account. Mr Dorsey said that the platform had systems in place to detect bots and had prevented half a million fake accounts from even being used
Asked why Twitter relied on its users to report inappropriate content, Mr. Dorsey said it was a “matter of scale” but that it responded quickly to the reports in the function of its gravity
Mr Pallone asked how many human moderators Twitter had in the united states and how much they paid. Mr Dorsey was unable to answer
Mr. Upton asked how Twitter determined if someone was trying to manipulate a conversation. Mr Dorsey said that the platform is focused on the “conversation on health”, with factors such as “shared care”, taken into account
Asked if Twitter rules were clear, Mr. Dorsey said that he agreed that were difficult to understand and that it is necessary “more accessible”
Mr Kinzinger asked if Twitter stores user data in Russia. Mr Dorsey replied that Twitter does not have servers in Russia
Mr. Doyle asked explicitly if Twitter had taken steps to censor conservatives. “No,” replied Mr. Dorsey