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Reflections on Birdwatch: Week 1

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Reflections on Birdwatch: Week 1

one week in. Is Birdwatch ready for prime time?

Alex Power
May 12, 2022
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Reflections on Birdwatch: Week 1

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In an earlier post, we noted that one of Twitter’s not-so-secret projects is named Birdwatch.

Twitter avatar for @TwitterSupport
Twitter Support @TwitterSupport
🐦 Today we’re introducing @birdwatch, a community-driven approach to addressing misleading information. And we want your help. (1/3)
6:07 PM ∙ Jan 25, 2021
17,535Likes5,296Retweets

Recently, one of the Newslettr’s editors was added to the Birdwatch open-beta program.

The project is not as complete as we had hoped.

Regardless, they have reached the “there are a lot of questions” stage of the project. Perhaps we will have some answers.


Writing the News

How does a Birdwatch comment start? A member of the program sees a Tweet, and writes

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a commentary on it. There is no queue
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of “high-volume Tweets that might need a Birdwatch comment” — at least not publicly.

After a week, I have one comment: it is impossible to write Birdwatch comments quickly while getting the tone right. After a few comments, there is a tendency to find you are writing “neutral commentary” that takes the form of “Mr. So-and-so is a stupid person who enjoys lying in order to mislead the public”.

On the other hand, the “I am a partisan pretending to be non-partisan in order to write partisan-leaning comments” tone is quite easy to get right.

In conclusion: you can’t rate Birdwatch commenters on an “Uber-like” 5-star system, where dropping to 4 stars means you’re fired

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. That only rewards the consistently mediocre. And, well, Twitter is often mediocre without Birdwatch, there’s no need to rush more mediocrity.


Birdwatch Delayed is Birdwatch Denied

The saying goes that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put its boots on.

Twitter actually could fix this. Twitter could just say that Tweets only travel at 3000mph. To send a message from New York to Sydney on Twitter would now take three hours. I think our Aussie friends can survive with a delay in Elon Musk’s commentary.

But, that drastic a change might be a bridge too far. A far more elegant solution would be to simply have Birdwatch responses be ready faster.

Right now it takes 24-48 hours right now to get Birdwatch responses up. For a production-quality service, this needs to be done in a maximum of 6 hours. If you have enough workers, and the right priority-system, this shouldn’t be hard.

I assume it is slow because there isn’t a large enough army of anonymous volunteers who are willing to make complicated politically-charged decisions for no financial compensation.

I assume there is a second reason it is slow: unpleasant reviews tend to clog the system. An employee might be required to spend 10 minutes reviewing a Birdwatch comment on an unpleasant topic as part of their job duties. A volunteer will simply … not do that. And if there are enough unpleasant reviews, the volunteers will simply … not volunteer.


The Wheel of Content

Twitter avatar for @historydefined
History Defined @historydefined
Salvador Dali swimming and painting. Venice, Italy.
Image
1:35 AM ∙ May 11, 2022
25,678Likes2,804Retweets

The tweet above is from a content-mill account: it posts a historical image approximately once per hour. In the case above, it got the attribution wrong: the photograph is not of Salvador Dali, but of Alberto Cristini.

To a certain extent, Twitter should be paid by @historydefined if it is in the business of verifying facts. This is something of a “fire-and-forget” account: with a high volume of posts, and with no editors having any accountability, it is certain that errors will creep in.

If Twitter steps in and says “this caption is definitely wrong”, does that create a liability for Twitter to assess every other caption from this account as well?


The Israel-Palestine Situation

Dateline: Wednesday, May 11, 2022. According to France24, “Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American who was among the network's most prominent figures, was shot dead Wednesday as she covered an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank.”

This set off a variety of partisans promoting their own versions of the truth.

Twitter avatar for @ymenken
Rabbi Yaakov Menken @ymenken
.@RashidaTlaib omits that Akleh was in the middle of a pitched battle between terrorists trying to murder Jews & the IDF stopping those murders, & blames IDF with no evidence. It is time for decent Americans to stand up against her racist, #Antisemitic inversions of reality.
Twitter avatar for @RashidaTlaib
Rashida Tlaib @RashidaTlaib
When will the world and those who stand by Apartheid Israel that continues to murder, torture and commit war crimes finally say: "Enough"? Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered by a government that receives unconditional funding by our country with zero accountability. https://t.co/c2yLpM7UC1
2:17 PM ∙ May 11, 2022
Twitter avatar for @MsJulieLenarz
Julie Lenarz @MsJulieLenarz
Here’s what we know: “The forensic institute in Ramallah said the first stage of the autopsy was completed…there was no evidence so far that could allow officials to determine who shot her.” Everything else is anti-Israel fiction, lies, propaganda.
axios.comPalestinian American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh killed during West Bank clashesIsraeli and Palestinian officials gave disputing accounts of her death.
8:16 PM ∙ May 11, 2022
16Likes5Retweets
Twitter avatar for @johnbradysf
John Brady TD @johnbradysf
The murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli occupation forces must be investigated as a war crime. It is clear that this attack is part of ongoing attempts by the Israelis to obscure the truth & reality of the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Image
3:11 PM ∙ May 11, 2022
1,098Likes338Retweets

There is only a minimal distinction between the partisan takes in Tweets, and the “neutral rebuttals” found in the Birdwatch queue. The Birdwatch replies to a Tweet by Rep. Andre Carson are an excellent example of “not very helpful”.

When there is nothing useful to be said, only those who have useless things to say will speak up. In other words: don’t expect Birdwatch to help matters here.


The Exaggerating Partisan

Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) is … well, a serial exaggerator. He has become a “Twitter personality” by spewing invectives and political opinions at break-neck speeds.

A lot of his tweets are problematic, particularly on abortion. (This pattern isn’t unique to Mr. Cohen. Most of the high-profile takes on abortion in the past week have been bad.)

Twitter avatar for @NoLieWithBTC
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC
Until we eliminate the filibuster, a tiny hateful minority of the country will continue to take away the rights of the vast majority.
8:47 PM ∙ May 11, 2022
19,094Likes4,327Retweets

Of course, it isn’t a tiny hateful minority of the country trying to “take away rights”. It is, by every account, a substantial majority

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of the populations of multiple states.

As another example, if Mr. Cohen says “let’s be clear”, it is a tell-tale sign he isn’t being clear, he is simply using half-truths to stir up shit.

Twitter avatar for @NoLieWithBTC
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC
Let’s be clear about what just happened in the Senate: Every single Republican just voted to allow the Supreme Court to force victims of rape and incest to give birth.
9:08 PM ∙ May 11, 2022
57,744Likes18,059Retweets

And a final example, this one from a Matt Schlapp.

Twitter avatar for @mschlapp
Matt Schlapp @mschlapp
Our dishwasher broke yesterday. I was informed that a replacement will take over a year. I barely remember the Carter years. No one will ever forget the Biden years. A year to wait on a common appliance. Socialists have made building things in America a Green Nightmare.
6:37 PM ∙ May 11, 2022
20,885Likes3,859Retweets

Presumably somebody informed him of something. However, it is a drop-dead certainty that Home Depot has at least one dishwasher available at a local store.

The only answer for zealots is tone-coloring

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. Having the same Birdwatch comment: “Mr. Cohen is prone to hyperbole and partisan zealotry. You should not assume he or anyone else believes the literal truths of his statement.” repeated every day simply won’t work. It needs to be a symbolic indicator.


The Rumor Mill

Twitter avatar for @Chicago1Ray
Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 @Chicago1Ray
A Trucker just emailed @dbongino and he says the reason for the shortage of baby formula is that Truckloads of it are being shipped to Ukraine and the border THIS IS TREASON ✔️ IMPEACH BIDEN
5:32 PM ∙ May 12, 2022
1,941Likes1,165Retweets

Presumably, Mr. @Chicago1Ray is technically correct. Presumably somebody emailed such a statement. Possibly Chicago Ray himself. Doesn’t make the statement true.

There’s really nothing that “Birdwatch” can do to combat the likes of Chicago Ray. The only approach is escalating bans for violations of bright-line rules.

And “rumor-mongering” like this from a high-profile account needs a bright-line rule that leads to a block

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. There is nothing Twitter can say here other than “you have to stop”.


Also, there is the detail that many of the people involved in “using Twitter to lie to the public” are quite litigious

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. Perhaps Twitter does need to wait until it is de-listed to ensure that it isn’t trapped in legal hell.

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There is one suggestion so obvious I assume Twitter is working on it: you can have GPT-3 do the comments. My best estimate is that type of software is 3-5 years away from working well enough to make a difference.

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Well, if you follow enough people, you will see most of the super-viral tweets.

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the Newslettr hated it when Uber ran its business that way, but at least it was fit-to-purpose.

4

Also, it is dishonest to the point of willful fraud to blame “the filibuster” for the fact that a motion which was opposed by a majority of senators failed. Then again, the Newslettr has retired from coverage of internecine Democratic messaging debates.

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Tone coloring is “all the liberal propaganda is colored blue and all the conservative propaganda is colored red”, with a few dozen safety precautions on the side.

There are a few different ways of doing tone-coloring. Some of the simple approaches include: 1. Colored text. 2. Colored text background. 3. A pattern on the left side of the tweet. 4. the Checkmark system.

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Perhaps with a “well, if we have a KYC relationship with someone who is paying us money, maybe we can unblock you” caveat …

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Some of those people are above litigation, they simply point to an army. For some reason I doubt Mr. Putin would be happy with Twitter labeling a bunch of accounts as “zealous Muscovite partisans”.

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Reflections on Birdwatch: Week 1

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