Legacy Thread

[basserdan]

Scott Adams: Am I Shadowbanned on Twitter?

By Scott Adams
April 14th, 2017 @ 9:37am in #Trump #Twitter #shadowban

Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey contacted me to discuss my ongoing public observations that Twitter appears to be “shadowbanning” me because of my writings about Trump. Jack introduced me via Direct Message to Del Harvey, Twitter’s Head of Trust & Safety, for the official answer.

The official answer is that no one, including me, is shadowbanned on Twitter. It has never happened.

Regular readers of this blog know that over the past year, hundreds of my Twitter followers have reported that I am being “shadowbanned” on Twitter. The allegation is that Twitter is systematically “hiding” my tweets from a percentage of my followers to limit my influence. A widespread belief on the Internet is that people who write positive things about Trump are being “throttled” back for political reasons.

I’ve also heard dozens of reports from Twitter followers who say they are being automatically switched from following me to not following. Several say they have reproduced this effect several times in a row.

Other Twitter followers say my tweets often show as “not available” even though you can click the link in the tweet and see that it is available.

Anecdotally, the evidence is overwhelming that I am being shadowbanned. A number of other high-profile Twitter users report the same problem. But anecdotal evidence isn’t real evidence because it can look identical to confirmation bias.

So what we have here is a fascinating situation in which there is either a mass delusion about Twitter shadowbanning political speech on one side … or something evil is happening at Twitter. My operating assumption is that there is no way that I could tell the difference. When you are inside a delusion, it looks totally real to you.

Del asked me to provide some data on this alleged shadowbanning so they can check for any bugs in the system, or perhaps explain to me why it looks like shadowbanning but isn’t. For example, people might not know that Twitter uses an algorithm to decide the order that tweets appear, so my followers might be looking for my tweets in the wrong place. And the “not available” message on some tweets might be nothing but a bug.

To get to the bottom of this mystery, I offered to collect some data on this alleged shadowbanning and provide it to Twitter for analysis. If you can screenshot or otherwise document what you think looks like my tweets being shadowbanned, please put the examples in the comments below or tweet to me at @ScottAdamsSays.

Give me a few weeks to sort things out and I’ll report back to you on whether or not Freedom of Speech is still a functional right in the United States. (Obviously it is still a technical right.)

—

You might enjoy reading my book because it is not shadowbanned.

I’m also on…

Twitter (includes Periscope): @scottadamssays?

YouTube: At this link.

Instagram: ScottAdams925

Facebook Official Page: fb.me/ScottAdamsOfficial

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/159566176596/am-i-shadowbanned-on-twitter