{"id":20346,"date":"2022-12-01T21:50:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T21:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/01\/elon-musk-continues-along-the-content-moderation-learning-curve-but-doesnt-seem-to-be-learning-a-damn-thing\/"},"modified":"2022-12-01T21:50:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T21:50:22","slug":"elon-musk-continues-along-the-content-moderation-learning-curve-but-doesnt-seem-to-be-learning-a-damn-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/01\/elon-musk-continues-along-the-content-moderation-learning-curve-but-doesnt-seem-to-be-learning-a-damn-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk Continues Along The Content Moderation Learning Curve, But Doesn\u2019t Seem To Be Learning A Damn Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

from the doomed-to-groundhog-day-this-shit<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

You know, it was just a few weeks ago that we posted an open letter to Elon Musk laying out just some of the basics of speedrunning the content moderation learning curve<\/a>. And, as people keep reminding me, he seems to be doing all the levels all at once.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the incredible bit: unlike most other sites that actually learn something from all of this, Elon still doesn\u2019t seem to be getting it at all. He\u2019s fucking around and finding out\u2026 but not actually learning anything as he bumps into each level.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s cover some of the highlights. <\/p>\n

First up, Twitter (signed just as \u201cTwitter\u201d rather than naming who wrote it as Twitter used to do), put up a blog post claiming that nothing at all has changed<\/a> in their content moderation policies. Almost everything about the statement is bonkers or easily disproved (or sometimes both). It starts out by claiming that it wants \u201cto be the town square of the internet,\u201d which is a line people have often used to try to describe Twitter, but has always been false. As we\u2019ve noted, the \u201ctown square\u201d is the internet itself. Twitter is one private venue on the town square. Claiming otherwise is counterproductive, because it opens the company up to all sorts of bullshit claims about \u201ccensorship\u201d and whatnot.<\/p>\n

As for the more specific claims in the post:<\/p>\n

\n

First, none of our policies have changed. Our approach to policy enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is demonstrably false. Indeed, just days earlier, Twitter announced that its policies had<\/em> changed, specifically in removing its rules against spreading Covid misinformation. Literally days before insisting that \u201cnone of our policies have changed\u201d Twitter updated its Covid misinformation page<\/a> to say:<\/p>\n

\n

Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\"Screenshot<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

So, I guess feel free to tweet out about<\/a> how SpaceX and Teslas cause Covid? <\/p>\n

Separately, clearly Twitter\u2019s content moderation policies have changed, because Musk did one of his infamous polls and said he was going to \u201cgive amnesty\u201d to accounts that had previously violated the policies, and has been in the process of reinstating approximately 62,000 accounts<\/a> that had previously been banned.<\/p>\n

That\u2026 is a change in policy.<\/p>\n

As for diminishing the \u201creach\u201d of \u201cviolative\u201d posts, that sounds exactly like \u201cshadowbanning,\u201d which was one of the great sins that Musk insisted he was taking over Twitter to cure.<\/p>\n

\n

Our Trust & Safety team continues its diligent work to keep the platform safe from hateful conduct, abusive behavior, and any violation of\u00a0Twitter\u2019s rules<\/a>. The team remains strong and well-resourced, and automated detection plays an increasingly important role in eliminating abuse.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is also bullshit. The Trust & Safety team has been gutted by layoffs<\/a> and the \u201cnon-hardcore\u201d resignations. As that article notes, while Elon Musk keeps claiming publicly that his \u201ctop priority\u201d is to stop child sexual abuse material (CSAM), he has effectively destroyed the already overworked team that was tackling that problem:<\/p>\n

\n

Elon Musk has dramatically reduced the size of the\u00a0Twitter Inc.\u00a0team devoted to tackling child sexual exploitation on the platform, cutting the global team of experts in half and leaving behind an overwhelmed skeleton crew, people familiar with the matter said.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The team now has fewer than 10 specialists to review and escalate reports of child sexual exploitation, three people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified for fear of retaliation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And for things like that you can\u2019t just turn the dial on the \u201cautomated detection\u201d and say \u201cwe now need fewer people.\u201d Anyone with any experience in this stuff knows that while automation is an important tool in the trust & safety toolbox (especially around CSAM) it only works in conjunction with human experts, the majority of whom are no longer at the company.<\/p>\n

Next on Twitter\u2019s list:<\/p>\n

\n

When urgent events manifest on the platform, we ensure that all content moderators have the guidance they need to find and address violative content.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That has not been shown in practice. Indeed, we\u2019re seeing the opposite play out. There has been a rash of highly questionable account suspensions<\/a>, most of which were mass reported by the Trumpist grifter crew.<\/p>\n

And talking about \u201curgent events,\u201d there has been a lot of discussion on Twitter over the last few days about the powerful protests in China regarding that country\u2019s Covid lockdown policies. And China has flooded Twitter with spam<\/a> to try to obscure those reports, making it difficult for people doing searches to find legitimate content about the protests:<\/p>\n

\n

Numerous Chinese-language accounts, some dormant for months or years, came to life early Sunday and started spamming the service with links to escort services and other adult offerings alongside city names.<\/em><\/p>\n

The result: For hours, anyone searching for posts from those cities and using the Chinese names for the locations would see pages and pages of useless tweets instead of information about\u00a0the daring protests\u00a0as they escalated to include calls for Communist Party leaders to resign.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And it\u2019s not at all clear that Twitter has the resources or \u201cguidance\u201d to deal with that. In fact, what we\u2019ve seen is that accounts that were actually promoting on-the-ground reporting about the protests were shut down instead<\/a>. Freelance journalist Clarissa Wei called out two examples: a Hong Kong based journalist and a Taiwanese writer who both had their accounts suspended.<\/p>\n

\"Tweet<\/figure>\n

While later reports said that both accounts had been reinstated, it appears that the Taiwanese writer\u2019s account is still currently offline.<\/p>\n

Also, reports earlier this week highlighted how videos of the Christchurch shooting from a few years ago were being reuploaded to the platform and no longer being caught<\/a> by Twitter\u2019s automated filtering system. That\u2019s\u2026 noteworthy. Because the rapid effort by all of the tech companies to flag and remove exactly that video is literally the prime example<\/a> used by governments and social media companies of how those companies need to be able to respond \u201curgently\u201d to sudden crises. <\/p>\n

And Twitter is now failing that.<\/p>\n

Yes, mistakes like this happen all the time. That\u2019s part of what we\u2019ve always highlighted about the impossibility of content moderation at scale<\/a>. But, understanding that is part of understanding the learning curve.<\/em> <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s somewhat amusing how Musk and his fans were absolutely unwilling to accept the \u201cmistakes happen\u201d explanation for pre-Musk content moderation issues, but now demand<\/em> that everyone be extra forgiving as Musk \u201clearns the ropes\u201d and \u201cexperiments\u201d here.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this new Twitter statement includes a line about giving them the benefit of the doubt as mistakes will inevitably be made:<\/p>\n

\n

Finally, as we embark on this new journey, we will make mistakes, we will learn, and we will also get things right. Throughout, we\u2019ll communicate openly with our users and customers, to get and share your feedback as we build.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And, again, that\u2019s what happened before, but Musk and crew still insist (without any proof) that when those mistakes happened before they were for malicious reasons, but now they\u2019re somehow righteous experiments.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, there are the other aspects of the content moderation learning curve that we\u2019ve discussed: outside pressure from advertisers, governments, and partner companies. And we\u2019re seeing all of them play out in real time as well. Leaked reports say that advertising may be down somewhere around 50%<\/a>. And Elon went ballistic<\/a> over Apple apparently pulling ads and potentially threatening to remove Twitter from the app store, though Elon met with Tim Cook and claimed to have patched things up<\/a>. Apple was apparently Twitter\u2019s largest advertiser<\/a>, so you can see why it was important.<\/p>\n

Of course, as Twitter\u2019s former head of Trust & Safety recently noted, the threats to remove the app from the app store are not a new thing at all. It apparently happens all the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then we have the EU. As we explained all the way back in May, Musk did a very stupid thing in \u201cendorsing\u201d the new Digital Services Act<\/a> which comes into force in January of 2024. Earlier this week, the European Commission\u2019s Thierry Breton (who had met with Musk back in May) had another meeting with Musk and basically warned him that the company did not appear ready<\/a> at all to meet the requirements of the DSA. And, well, that\u2019s because all of the people who were working on getting the company ready (which is a massive job) have left.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s being reported that the EC threatened to ban Twitter, but that\u2019s a bit hyperbolic. The DSA isn\u2019t going to lead to an outright ban. But it will create real issues for Twitter if the company doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t necessarily a good thing. We\u2019ve been screaming about<\/a> the risks and dangers of the DSA for years now. And we should be extremely worried about governments telling companies how to moderate speech. But it is a reality. A reality that Musk now needs to deal with.<\/p>\n

Every one of these things are issues that everyone<\/em> knew was coming. Most of them we\u2019ve written about for years, and highlighted in our \u201cspeedrunning\u201d post.<\/p>\n

But the somewhat incredible part is that Musk doesn\u2019t seem to be learning anything from any of this, and instead seems focused on remaking every single mistake in the book.<\/p>\n

Indeed, he\u2019s even making new and more ridiculous mistakes. Just yesterday he tweeted out that Twitter \u201cinterfered in elections,\u201d which seems quite likely to now show up in lawsuits against Twitter (he seems to not realize that in buying the company he is also now liable for things the company may have done under previous ownership). This is leaving aside that the claim of \u201cinterfering in elections\u201d is almost certainly bullshit. He\u2019s still created a massive new liability for himself.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Elon<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

There are so many examples of this, but it\u2019s quite clear that whereas most people actually seem to pick up some lessons while moving up the learning curve, Elon Musk seems to just be making the same stupid mistakes over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

\nFiled Under: china<\/a>, content moderation<\/a>, dsa<\/a>, elon musk<\/a>, eu<\/a>, learning curve<\/a>, malicious actors<\/a>, spam<\/a>, speedrunning<\/a>
\n
Companies: twitter<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n