Twitter - Kentucky Gov Race - And We Are All Doomed!

[Jimmy Higgins]

This sort of thing is floating on the surface and almost nothing is being done about it. It is getting massaged, improved, perfected and will at some point likely control the outcome of an election.

A few hours after polls closed in Kentucky last Tuesday, a Twitter user writing under the handle @Overlordkraken1 posted a message to his 19 followers saying he had “just shredded a box of Republican mail-in ballots.”

It was clear that the Kentucky governor’s race was going to be excruciatingly close and that the Republican incumbent, Matt Bevin, could be headed to defeat. But just in case anyone missed the significance of the destroyed-ballots claim, @Overlordkraken1 added a final touch to his tweet: “Bye-Bye Bevin,” he wrote.
For those eager to cry fraud as a reliably red state leaned blue, the fact that @Overlordkraken1 did not appear to be in Kentucky — Louisville was misspelled in the location tag on his tweet, for one thing — was not going to get in the way of a useful narrative. Nor was Twitter’s decision to suspend his account.

Within hours of @Overlordkraken1’s tweet, as it became apparent that Bevin was trailing in the vote tally, hyperpartisan conservatives and trolls were pushing out a screenshot of the message, boosted by what appeared to be a network of bots, and providing early grist for allegations of electoral theft in Kentucky. High-profile right-wing figures were soon tweeting out their own conspiracy theories about the election being stolen — messages that were in turn pushed by even more trolls and bots — and the Bevin campaign began talking about “irregularities” in the vote without offering any specifics or evidence.

These social media platforms have created avenues for complete strangers to post malicious lies without having any consequences whatsoever.

I remember when Chris Benoit murdered his family and a Wiki-troll got interviewed by the police because of something he posted in Wikipedia prior to it becoming known that Benoit murdered his family. Now days, anyone can post anything, an army of Twitter Bots can repost it, based on however they are designed (based on the agenda of whomever created them), and something can become viral because people want to believe what they see.

 

[ronburgundy]

This sort of thing is floating on the surface and almost nothing is being done about it. It is getting massaged, improved, perfected and will at some point likely control the outcome of an election.

A few hours after polls closed in Kentucky last Tuesday, a Twitter user writing under the handle @Overlordkraken1 posted a message to his 19 followers saying he had “just shredded a box of Republican mail-in ballots.”

It was clear that the Kentucky governor’s race was going to be excruciatingly close and that the Republican incumbent, Matt Bevin, could be headed to defeat. But just in case anyone missed the significance of the destroyed-ballots claim, @Overlordkraken1 added a final touch to his tweet: “Bye-Bye Bevin,” he wrote.
For those eager to cry fraud as a reliably red state leaned blue, the fact that @Overlordkraken1 did not appear to be in Kentucky — Louisville was misspelled in the location tag on his tweet, for one thing — was not going to get in the way of a useful narrative. Nor was Twitter’s decision to suspend his account.

Within hours of @Overlordkraken1’s tweet, as it became apparent that Bevin was trailing in the vote tally, hyperpartisan conservatives and trolls were pushing out a screenshot of the message, boosted by what appeared to be a network of bots, and providing early grist for allegations of electoral theft in Kentucky. High-profile right-wing figures were soon tweeting out their own conspiracy theories about the election being stolen — messages that were in turn pushed by even more trolls and bots — and the Bevin campaign began talking about “irregularities” in the vote without offering any specifics or evidence.

These social media platforms have created avenues for complete strangers to post malicious lies without having any consequences whatsoever.

I remember when Chris Benoit murdered his family and a Wiki-troll got interviewed by the police because of something he posted in Wikipedia prior to it becoming known that Benoit murdered his family. Now days, anyone can post anything, an army of Twitter Bots can repost it, based on however they are designed (based on the agenda of whomever created them), and something can become viral because people want to believe what they see.

And odds are, it was posted by a Bevin supporter, if not actual campaign operative (the level of orchestrated lies and minformation by GOP campaigns warrants using operative instead of staffer).

 

[TSwizzle]

Twitter is for morons. If you are getting your news/information from Twitter, then you too are a moron.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

And odds are, it was posted by a Bevin supporter, if not actual campaign operative (the level of orchestrated lies and minformation by GOP campaigns warrants using operative instead of staffer).

The trouble we run into, is it could be posted by:

• a political operative who wants to create doubt in the electoral process
• a completely disinterested troll who wants to create trouble
• foreign adversary that wants to harm the democratic election

Then you have the troll nets...

• designed to propagate bullshit
• designed to propagate Tweets that match a certain agenda or identity

So we have multiple sources and then multiple nets to blindly distribute Tweets that are complete garbage. Right now, these Tweets aren't casting far enough, but it won't take long for them to completely muddle our democracy.

 

[ronburgundy]

Twitter is for morons. If you are getting your news/information from Twitter, then you too are a moron.

Given that most "news" outlets (both traditional and blog-type) get much of their "news" from twitter and social media, the vast majority of people are getting much of their news from twitter, including probably you without realizing how it's impacting the information you're
getting.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Twitter is for morons.

Trump will not be happy to hear that.

If you are getting your news/information from Twitter, then you too are a moron.

Twitter is a digitized rumor mill. It reminds me of a scene in Arthur Christmas, when the Elves confront Santa and noting "We know you aren't supposed to believe rumors... but we do."

Should people get their news from Twitter? Of course not. Do people use Twitter to get news, yes. Calling them (the President) morons doesn't make the problem go away.

 

[Elixir]

Calling them (the President) morons doesn't make the problem go away.

Making the President go away would solve some of the problem...

 

[TSwizzle]

Given that most "news" outlets (both traditional and blog-type) get much of their "news" from twitter and social media, the vast majority of people are getting much of their news from twitter, including probably you without realizing how it's impacting the information your getting.

Twitter is not where I get my news from, it's mostly garbage and boring. If you get your news from Twitter, you're a moron. The fact that this forum is so frequently spammed with Twitter feeds makes this forum equally moronic.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Twitter is for morons. If you are getting your news/information from Twitter, then you too are a moron.

Given that most "news" outlets (both traditional and blog-type) get much of their "news" from twitter and social media, the vast majority of people are getting much of their news from twitter, including probably you without realizing how it's impacting the information you're
getting.

Twitter can be a useful starting point. However, the information should be confirmed before publishing.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Given that most "news" outlets (both traditional and blog-type) get much of their "news" from twitter and social media, the vast majority of people are getting much of their news from twitter, including probably you without realizing how it's impacting the information your getting.

Twitter is not where I get my news from, it's mostly garbage and boring. If you get your news from Twitter, you're a moron. The fact that this forum is so frequently spammed with Twitter feeds makes this forum equally moronic.

Most of the tweets posted in here are not news, but rather what important people are saying. In that context they are very valid. Twitler's deranged tweets don't say anything useful about the world but they do say a lot about him.

 

[dismal]

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[Jimmy Higgins]

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[Jarhyn]

Twitter is for morons. If you are getting your news/information from Twitter, then you too are a moron.

And the problem remains: morons can be useful, particularly to bad actors