MC Weekly Update 4/3: Behold, The Algorithm (or, parts of it, sort of)
Alex and Evelyn chat with Sol Messing, Research Associate Professor at New York University with the Center for Social Media and Politics, about what to make of the open source info Twitter provided on its ranking algorithm. They also chat about the blue tick debacle, concerns about YouTube's treatment of political videos in India, and Midjourney's pretty not-okay approach to content moderation.
Moderated Content · Evelyn Douek, Alex Stamos, Sol Messing
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (cdn.simplecast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
Twitter is (partially) open sourcing its recommendation algorithm. In this special episode, Evelyn and Alex are joined by New York University Research Associate Professor Sol Messing to talk through what he found in the code.
- Twitter Corner
- Musk is now the most followed person on Twitter, passing former President Barack Obama. Hope it was worth every cent! - Emma Roth/ The Verge
- Twitter verification is officially pay-to-play as the platform began to slowly remove legacy blue ticks on April Fools’ Day. - Associated Press, Rachel Lerman, Faiz Siddiqui/ The Washington Post
- In a blow to Musk’s core constituency, @catturd2 and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) were upset about their temporary suspensions for sharing posts supporting a “Trans Day of Vengeance” protest. - @MattBinder, Barbara Ortutay/ Associated Press
- YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said the company is looking into claims that videos from Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi are being artificially suppressed as he faces jail time for alleged defamation against the ruling party. - Newley Purnell/ The Wall Street Journal
- Midjourney took these content moderation capitulations and said “hold my beer.” The tool was recently used to generate a viral graphic of the pope in a white puffer jacket and visuals of Trump fleeing arrest in New York, but you can’t generate images of Xi Jinping — that’s too controversial. - Isaac Stanley-Becker, Drew Harwell/ The Washington Post
Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.
Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.
Like what you heard? Don’t forget to
the podcast with friends!