Why are people mean on Twitter? - Smarter Every Day 214 

Our Social Media Platforms are under attack. Twitter is being hit with systematic external attacks in the form of meta-manipulation and inauthentic users who attempt to shape the discussion by slowly and methodically radicalizing people. These attackers have demonstrated the desire to promote tribalism and the "us" vs "them" mentality. I propose proactive unity as a countermeasure. It's kind of interesting how crazy typing a sentence like that makes a person sound... but it's absolutely true. My twitter accounts are here (open in new tab?): www.smartereveryday.com/twitter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For those commenting on Twitter having a political agenda: I've read the same articles and listened to the same podcast episodes you have on this subject.... and I've concluded that I seem to take a more nuanced perspective on this than others. Whenever I hear about an individual ban/suspension/censorship, the first thing I do is read about the context of the ban. I then divide them into 2 groups. *Group 1 Suspensions: Bans based off of Twitter's values and policy decisions. * In this case it's clear to me a human actively makes a decision to ban someone, or a specific keyword or phrase etc. I agree that several of their policies (banning certain words, phrases, or "protecting" certain groups but not others) should be discussed and debated openly. In case you're not detecting my stance on this I'll spell it out... I have very strong feelings about these things but I'm avoiding disclosing how I feel in order to shine more light on Group 2 suspensions, which are the result of a far more technical threat. Group 1 Suspensions could be changed tomorrow if certain people change their mind.. Group 2 could not. *Group 2 Suspensions. Bans/Suspensions taking place because Twitter is trying to fight literal armies trying to manipulate our society.* I'm finding my attention drawn more to this group more because the attackers' intentions here are so malicious. While doing research for this video, I found that the majority of the inauthentic behavior is focused on content meant to align with the right. This make people on the left think "those people on the right" are more radicalized than reality thus making them retreat further left. Those on the right are also in danger of being pushed further right. The "Us" vs "Them" thinking starts immediately. The play here is subtle, and quite frankly, this is a very intelligent way to attack us. *The dataset Twitter released has more right leaning accounts than left.* (Look for yourself, here's a spreadsheet URLs to the WayBack machine for each username in that dataset. The Wayback machine didn't image all pages: bit.ly/WaybackTrolls ) .One of the interesting problems that Twitter has, is that BECAUSE the majority of the malicious content is built to look like the political viewpoints from one side, they must test their countermeasure algorithms against inauthentic content that also seems to be authentic content on the right. As a result of the target set being unquestionably biased, I would expect disproportionate amount of "collateral damage" flaggings to be on the right. Whenever I see someone who has been suspended, I try to be intellectually honest and read their complaints and run it through my engineer filter. If they seem emotional, I try to identify what types of emotions are being communicated and use that to figure out what category the ban fits in. Group 1 Bans are usually pretty clear. These bans are usually a process, not a single event. Still, these victims feel that their speech is being controlled (and by definition it is) so they're usually angry. Group 2 Bans are often collateral damage, so the sense of injustice is elevated. From what I can tell, Twitter doesn't provide indicate that the suspension was automatic, therefore the user is forced to assume they have crossed some type of ideological barrier and therefore been deemed "not politially correct". The anger in this case usually has a tiny dash of confusion mixed in. Twitter usually tries to explain that it's a result of automatic filtering.... but without the context of what's going on in this episode, victims of group 2 bans are left to logically assume a political agenda on the part of twitter. They are assume they are the victim of a Group 1 ban. I do not think this is always the case. Heightened emotions lead Group 2 ban victims to tell as many people about the injustices at Twitter, often as loudly as possible. I've noticed when Twitter is notified (as recently happened with the movie "Unplanned" ) the suspension is reversed immediately, followed by a statement by Twitter explaining that the suspension was the result of an autonomous system. To the victim, this explanation is insufficient, and they continue to think Twitter actually wanted to silence them. In the cases I've read, the victims sometime think that because they yelled loud enough the decision was reversed because they publicly shamed Twitter. The implications of this are pretty big for Twitter. The result of all this confusion is that the public ends up thinking Twitter's efforts to "control" things are much lager than they actually are. I think it's a good idea for Twitter to be more transparent about this stuff, and Del said they're moving in that direction which is great. For the record, Twitter was 100% open with me and didn't restrict my message in any way. Because these issues are related to countermeasures, Twitter's sometimes not at liberty to discuss what exactly triggered their system, because knowledge of such systems could lead to exploitation. I'm personally empathetic because I recognize Twitter is fighting a war. ......I also think free speech is awesome.

I work in Cybersecurity and I've been saying this for years. I'm so glad that SmarterEveryDay is covering this topic. Thanks Destin!

Definitely, definitely do Reddit, but I wouldn't expect too much openness from their admins.

Given recent events, this video will probably need a sequel soon.

I watch this video some months ago and one line resonated with me, "...Political Grace. If the point of these attacks is to divide us, then proactive, intentional unity has the potential to be an effective countermeasure on the personal level. Maybe we should just not assume the worst of each other." I came back today to get that line to share it with others.

"After the first episode...I was contacted by NATO..." !!!! is that good or baaaad?

The most under appreciated comment: “this is a lot of work.” Thanks Destin.

"1 percent of 300 million is... a lot" quick maths

I could have sworn Yoel Roth was in this video originally…maybe I’m losing it 😂. Either way would love to see a follow up to this video and your comments post the release of the “Twitter files”

Hats off to you for actually engaging with the criticism about ExpressVPN from last video.

Considering the amount of people requesting to add Reddit to the list, let's be honest, this series of media manipulation isn't really 3 videos long. - The Future of War, and How It Affects YOU (Multi-Domain Operations) - Smarter Every Day 211. - Why Your Newsfeed SUCKS - Smarter Every Day 212. - Manipulating the RU-vid Algorithm - (Part 1/3) Smarter Every Day 213. - Twitter Platform Manipulation - (Part 2/3) Smarter Every Day 214. You already have 4, Destin, and I'm eager to see more of this.

A platform that is limited to 240 something characters is already going to have problem with context and meaning. It’s whole design is to be a quote distributer, which is horrible at presenting legitimate and well thought ideas. The platform is a breeding ground for problems in communication and ingenious methods of mass distribution.

21:46 The Engineer: "Yes, is ALWAYS election time somewhere, all the time FOREVER" That's some tired faces he does XDD

You hit youtube gold with this incredible series, it's helping us, your channel, your sponsors and making this world (internet) a better place

Commenting to help you in the algorithm :)

Destin, as always, I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of your content. I have no doubts that you are truly making a difference in the online world. As an engineering student, I really appreciate your approach to these very pertinent issues. Thank you for all your awesome work!

Love to see a part 2 due to obvious reasons lol

Destin, your hard work and dedication are making the world a smarter, safer, kinder and better-informed place. You are part of the solution, and I thank you, as do all who love our freedoms. From a proud Patreon.

Expanding this to reddit would be great. Loving the series

i like how they slowly relax into "yes it takes a lot of work to control the public's access to information"

I only wish i could like this more! Thank you for getting this critical information out to the world community! This should be required watching for access to all social media platforms! I love your work. Thanks for putting in your time, your life, and your love for others and for knowledge:)

Be kind to one another as the ultimate counter-measure. Huh.

"Trust and Safety Council" sounds like the least trustworthy name they could come up with.

I have never had a Twitter account, but have all the others and I have been caught up in some of what you are talking about. Gut reaction is to back away from all this internet stuff, and then you said what you said about playing in the the hacker's hands. You are good and I appreciated the information and have forwarded it to my friends so they understand the pitfalls to watch out for. Thank you.

I really love how much work you put into your videos. They are always well researched and you're a real inspiration for me. You got me interested in so many topics like physiks, engineering or computer science that I wasn't interested in at all before. Thank you for that!

I'd like to see one about reddit indeed, perhaps with a look at voat, the purgatory of reddit exiles, too.

SmarterEveryDay pls come to brazil!

Thanks for all your hard work. This series is exactly what needs to be taught and understood across the globe. You are doing very influential work! Thank you!

Brilliant. Thanks, Destin, for your keen analyses, ever exploding curiosity and relentless energy for this kind of investigation. Your research helps me codify my own suspicions about truth decay in social media. Thanks, too, for representing viewer doubts and questions, which are undoubtedly shared by many.

I absolutely love the "look for the nudge" concept.

So glad I found this series today. It is so well done and easily shareable. Thank you very much for all your hard work.

Destin, I have to say, I am totally blow away by this series on social media. I knew there were issues, attacks, etc. but had not idea as to the depth of the problem. Thank you.

YO, you are getting PUBLICITY with this series! 👏👏👏👏 Also, this is FASCINATING! 👀

Yes add REDDIT please!!! Would be interesting to see that platform and its' unique structure! Excellent video as always and cool info about ExpressVPN ram storage!

Destin, thanks for putting in the hard work. I believe there is a culture of wanting to understand and know more, but its too easy to just skip to the next 'thing'. Subconsciously choosing an easier path. Your channel provides the easier path to growing our understanding of the world, and is essentially the tl;dr of every textbook and research paper we never took the time to read. Thanks again.

Thanks. Your interviews are great! I appreciate the reminder to be mindful: when a headlines is too good (just what I wish I'd said) or when we are nudged into Them vs Us -- that's a good time to look again.

Anyone distracted by that rocket on the top right corner of his room ? Everytime the scene cuts back to him the rocket bit moved. 😂😂

Yes! Please expand it to include Reddit aswell. This is an awesome series, thank you! :)

I sure appreciate your personal HEALTHY attitude about a problem we have...and find a way to help us still trust those around us! Thanks for the education and tips!

I know you don't need it, but you deserve some documentary award for this. Super high quality content as always!

"I don't want to reveal too much." Now, maybe they didn't check for human scroll speeds... but maybe they do now :P

Purposeful unity is the only effective countermeasure. Wow, it's about time somebody said that.

Thank you Destin, I'm an avid follower of your content, definitely appreciate you taking the time to do this, definitely opened up my eyes to youtube and facebook. So being as others have commented, I am commenting also to help the algorithm. Keep up the great content.

Amazing series, Destin. Thanks for your hard work and passion to educate us!

you should see if you can get a tour of express vpn like you did with 23 and me, I'm intrigued by the concept of RAM servers. Great video, keep up the good work.

Reddit you do. I got goosebumps from - keep an eye out for us vs them talks. Hard to over estimate how important this is

Thank you for doing this, Destin. It's obvious this video won't get as many views as your other videos but it adds to the body of knowledge that someone will find really useful. We need it, as much as we need videos of blowing stuff up.

I think the k hole reference went right over destin but the engineer knows the score:) yeah boi

30 minutes wasn't too long to watch, it may be because this is a really good video (and series (and channel))

21:47 "It's an election somewhere, all the time, forever." I'd never though of it that way, but yea. O.O

Thanks for taking the time to really dig into such an important issue!

Wish really good videos like this one would get even more views. I feel like in this series you have mentioned some of THE biggest challenges we're facing for the future of the internet and in society. The problem is that people who are NOT native to technology (like my parents and most of their generation) can't even start to grasp what this means and how extensive these problems/challenges are. Thank you so much for making this as digestible as possible!

"Twitter needs to own that" Couldn't have said it better myself. I love when intelligent people let themselves be intelligent. Great video, can't wait for part 3.

This series is EXTREMELY fascinating and I do believe, 100%, that it deserves to win awards AND be seen by the most amount of people possible. Thank you, Destin (not Destino, ok ok :p).

I have suspected this for a long time but never researched it myself. Thanks for the great info!!!

Thank you, Destin. I'm way late to this series, but it's been very interesting to watch so far.

This video needs to go viral RIGHT NOW

The only explination is that Destin is a Bot Lord and this is the longest con in recorded history.

Destin great job on the series. Making me want to add a cybersecurity backing to my computer network engineering degree. I especially like your info on the ExpressVPN service and the complete virtualization of their servers. The forthout to keep your personal data safe by never physically written anything to disk is brilliant. Keep up the great work.

I love getting smarter every day! Thank you Destin for your hard work and quality content!

Reddit or maybe even add instagram?

You're an incredible asset to the online community. Thanks

@SmarterEveryDay: You clearly put a LOT of work into your videos-way more than most content creators. You deserve all the views and followers you get. I wish I found your channel earlier, but now I have a lot of your vids to watch to catch up!

Great work Destin! I am learning about media manipulation at my University and this helps soo much! More people should see this!

This should seriously be covering most of social media and I'm sure that extends beyond three parts, Reddit should be good too!

Yes on the reddit part.

This is a fascinating subject. I appreciate you shining light on it and making it accessible at the same time. Keep up the excellent work.

Thanks for what you are doing with this social media series. It really is important,

Storing user data on RAM doesn't say anything good about the company... Logging off doesn't mean they're powering off your entire data storage segment...

I have never listened to a promotional message and then thought "Hey, that's pretty cool". That Express VPN explanation you gave was interesting. Still not gonna buy it, sorry. But i think you're selling them right.

Loving this series, lots of things to think about, I follow a lot of military news accounts and see things that stand out as “propaganda” and that’s what it is just on a new platform fed to us in a different way that manipulates how we think, scary stuff really. A massive thank you for your awesome content, I really appreciate the time you take to create it for us. 👊🏼

I found your channel yesterday and I absolutely love it! Why, because I’m a nerd but besides that you explain things that are complex and break it down. But there is another reason too. This series. I was a person who always tried to see the good in technology but then at some point I lost that faith in technology used for the greater good and started seeing it as a way to exploit and use people to do things they want like make money off our misery. But these videos helped restore my faith in not only technology but in humanity. Actually talking to the people at the large tech companies that work on protecting these platforms against foreign actors or just fake accounts. Sharing there stories about what they do is awesome. We need more content that is like your. And you take a neutral stance which is GREAT. Thank you for creating such amazing videos. Now I have to watch the other 300+ videos on your channel. Do you realize what you did to my next two weeks. Lol

This is a great series so far, well all your videos are great. Keep them coming. Thank you Destin!

Great video! And the RAM explanation made me so much more trusting of VPN's! Thank you!

I love this channel and all the content, I really do I feel like I’ve learned something after each episode. I do gotta give my observation though, this is the first time I’ve seen Destin speaking on something that has him looking so very concerned and quite serious even though he is still very upbeat, I can see it in his eyes that what he has learned is scaring him. I never base my opinion based on anyone else, I always do my own research and form my own thesis, but Destin just has this look like we really need to be listening to what he says. The first part and this one combined with the information in this episode along with Destin has me convinced that the very least we can do is listen to and retain this information.

Thanks for this information. I appreciate learning how the social aspects of the internet are used and engineered.

loving your work Destin, I especially love the No Dumb Questions chat you two had about this topic

25:00 Most important part of this video!! Thank you!!! "Maybe we should just not assume the worst of each other" YES!!

Super interesting! I was wondering how these sort of things worked and this series is very insightful and educational. Thank you for posting it!

Love this series that you're doing! So needed in today's social environment.

"Specifically the Brazilian Beliebers." Say no more, I know exactly what you're talking about lmao

1:00 Twitter is "a beautiful platform made for free, open discussion about different ideas"? AHHAHAHAHHA

This is a fascinating window into the challenges facing these platforms. Nice to see this done in an educational and and non-partisan way.

Wow. This did not age well, in the world of “Twitter Files.”

You seem to give them the benefit of the doubt. I am a bit more skeptical of their intentions and political bias. However thanks for the increased perspective.

Top stuff man! The storytelling is fantastic, and most people won't even recognize the difficulty of editing all that together seamlessly. 👏 (looking forward to Fb and Reddit :)

this has to be one of the most effective promo videos i’ve come across 😂 but that aside, thank you so much for all the work you’ve put into gathering the information for the many of us and for constantly putting out actually quality stuff and educating every one of us to be, smarter every day. just thank you!

*Destin* you genuinely are a great guy. I always thought this but with this serie you are really demonstrating us with your research based on real facts brought by professional and competent people some situations that might not be considered by the general audience. Keep it up with your content, the future of us all depends on people like you not only from the science topics you and other people bring to us but also from the scientific method based on doubts. Sometime we forget to analyze the world with positive scepticism and you, but also many other certified and genuine youtubers influencer, remind us to never be caught in the generalism and indifference that permeates us all. We as a community are really proud of people like you, that acts as a means of information. Again and again *THANK YOU*

"Authenticity Laundering"; having legitimate sources retweet false info.

Destin: "Our social media is being used to hack our brains." Me: **focusing on the cool graffiti in the background**

Twitter is such a wild place, you have this hugely potent cocktail of celebrities, journalists, and a whole bunch of cunning people who want to game the system. This is a very well researched video that did a good job of giving credit to Twitter for what they're doing in the background and how hard that job is. Well done.

Thank you for pointing out the "nudge" at 18:52. The devisive us verses "them" prospective. Most excellent. I'm subscribing. :)

Thank you Destin for setting apart politics and Science and maintaining a healthy relationship between them. Although I'm not a religious person you have taught me RESPECT people with alternate views and constructively criticise them. Thanks (You're awesome )

Nice Scripture tag, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood...” Thank you for the time, effort, and research you put into these videos. Roll Tide, btw. ;)

This is a really good reminder how easy it is to criticize a platform (or a person) without understanding the real nature of the problems they face.

Thanks buddy your videos are truly well made and informative. Always like to see them. Many thanks.

I would have loved to have seen this on my social sciences classes on source criticism. Keep doing this! You were one of my first RU-vid subscriptions.

Best thing to do is delete your Facebook and Twitter and dont look back😱🤔

I just started following your great work helping people getting smarter every day and it was a nice surprise to identify the “Plaça dels Traginers” in my home town Barcelona while interviewing the NATO Strategic Comunications COE in this video.

FINALLY got around to watching this series. Brilliant. Good work!