Hey tech enthusiasts, ready to dive into the enigmatic realm of shadowbanning and the digital twists it holds? Buckle up as we journey through Elon Musk's ambitious promises to illuminate the dark corners of social media's shadowy practice.
Not a day goes by when any new claim or update from Elon Musk is not made. The Tesla owner never fails to get out of the picture, no matter what. Besides everything, we still lowkey want Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to have that cage fight, just for a change. Anyway, let's come to the point.
Picture this: you're scrolling through X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, and suddenly, your posts seem to vanish into thin digital air.
That is the controversial shadowbanning technique, in which your content discreetly slips away from public view with no formal ban notification. Now, the man behind X, Elon Musk, aims to shed light on this obscure procedure, vowing to explain why users' stuff slips into stealth mode.
Musk, ever the transparency crusader, has acknowledged the necessity of consumers knowing if they are in the shadowban zone. Musk stated at the Viva Tech conference that X was working on a mechanism to warn users if their account was subject to any Twitter-related limitations.
However, Musk's latest update on the issue left many perplexed. He shed light on the complexities, lamenting the multiple layers of "trust & safety" software that hinder the swift identification of shadowbans. His solution? A ground-up rewrite of the codebase to streamline the process.
While Musk's response was a little opaque, Yoel Roth, the former head of Twitter's Trust and Safety department, joined in with some illuminating observations. Roth discussed the complexities of shadowbanning barriers in a post on the decentralized Twitter alternative, Bluesky.
Roth investigated the evolution of how social media sites detect and handle bans. Beginning with simple means such as spreadsheets or Google Docs, the practice improves as networks grow, connecting the data with user accounts for improved administration. On the other hand, Twitter's solution left some loose ends hanging, storing critical enforcement data in free-text notes and complicating automated processing.
The "Guano" system at Twitter (yes, everything's got a cute bird name there) often featured notes like "Yoel banned this user for posting death threats." Roth conceded that while humans comprehend such notes, automating notifications requires structured formats.
He praised Musk's decision to overhaul Twitter's enforcement code, which was planned before the acquisition and is set to be completed this year before any potential interruptions.
But now comes the technical part. Roth pulled back layers of complexity, showing Twitter's plethora of models and heuristics for combating spam, making exact shadowban attributions problematic. He praised Twitter's infrastructure makeover, wished them success, and teased that he'd left a how-to guide in his Google Drive.
So, the path is long when it comes to solving shadow-banning mysteries. Although praiseworthy, Musk's desire to decipher the mysteries of shadowbans meets the perplexing obstacles of restructuring. The issue is whether X can cast a light on shadowbans "soon" or whether the complicated code network will unravel more slowly. Time, and some tech wizardry, will surely tell.
Read next: Advertisers Hit Pause on X After Pro-Nazi Content Debacle
Not a day goes by when any new claim or update from Elon Musk is not made. The Tesla owner never fails to get out of the picture, no matter what. Besides everything, we still lowkey want Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to have that cage fight, just for a change. Anyway, let's come to the point.
Picture this: you're scrolling through X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, and suddenly, your posts seem to vanish into thin digital air.
That is the controversial shadowbanning technique, in which your content discreetly slips away from public view with no formal ban notification. Now, the man behind X, Elon Musk, aims to shed light on this obscure procedure, vowing to explain why users' stuff slips into stealth mode.
Musk, ever the transparency crusader, has acknowledged the necessity of consumers knowing if they are in the shadowban zone. Musk stated at the Viva Tech conference that X was working on a mechanism to warn users if their account was subject to any Twitter-related limitations.
However, Musk's latest update on the issue left many perplexed. He shed light on the complexities, lamenting the multiple layers of "trust & safety" software that hinder the swift identification of shadowbans. His solution? A ground-up rewrite of the codebase to streamline the process.
While Musk's response was a little opaque, Yoel Roth, the former head of Twitter's Trust and Safety department, joined in with some illuminating observations. Roth discussed the complexities of shadowbanning barriers in a post on the decentralized Twitter alternative, Bluesky.
Roth investigated the evolution of how social media sites detect and handle bans. Beginning with simple means such as spreadsheets or Google Docs, the practice improves as networks grow, connecting the data with user accounts for improved administration. On the other hand, Twitter's solution left some loose ends hanging, storing critical enforcement data in free-text notes and complicating automated processing.
The "Guano" system at Twitter (yes, everything's got a cute bird name there) often featured notes like "Yoel banned this user for posting death threats." Roth conceded that while humans comprehend such notes, automating notifications requires structured formats.
He praised Musk's decision to overhaul Twitter's enforcement code, which was planned before the acquisition and is set to be completed this year before any potential interruptions.
But now comes the technical part. Roth pulled back layers of complexity, showing Twitter's plethora of models and heuristics for combating spam, making exact shadowban attributions problematic. He praised Twitter's infrastructure makeover, wished them success, and teased that he'd left a how-to guide in his Google Drive.
So, the path is long when it comes to solving shadow-banning mysteries. Although praiseworthy, Musk's desire to decipher the mysteries of shadowbans meets the perplexing obstacles of restructuring. The issue is whether X can cast a light on shadowbans "soon" or whether the complicated code network will unravel more slowly. Time, and some tech wizardry, will surely tell.
Read next: Advertisers Hit Pause on X After Pro-Nazi Content Debacle
