In January, I wrote about a USA Today article about a New York University study that supposedly disproved the claim that social media platforms discriminate against conservatives.
USA Today said that despite repeated charges of anti-conservative bias from former President Donald Trump and other GOP critics, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are not slanted against right-leaning users.
The deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights said that the study would be done.
Republicans, or more broadly conservatives, have been spreading a form of disinformation on how they’re treated on social media. They complain they’re censored and suppressed but, not only is there not evidence to support that, what evidence exists actually cuts in the other direction.
I wrote.
Tell this to singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, to cite just one example, who on Jan. 2 posted his new music video critical of President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. YouTube first attached a warning that the video’s images violated the platform’s ‘graphic content policy,’ making it unsuitable for younger audiences. But five days and 250,000 views later, YouTube removed it altogether. Nine hours later, when conservatives and, one hopes, others complained, YouTube restored it, although it added another warning labeling the video ‘inappropriate or offensive to some audiences.’
About its abrupt takedown and restoration, YouTube explained: ‘This was our mistake and we’ve reinstated your video. So sorry this happened and thanks for being patient while we worked this out.’ What was there to ‘work out’? As Ondrasik pointed out, a number of videos on YouTube displaying ‘similar Taliban atrocities’ not only remain on the platform but are monetized, actually making money for whoever posted it.
The campaign for governor of California ended in September of 2021. Over the course of several weeks, I lost over 25,000 followers and lost hundreds of followers per day. The erosion continued for months. I also regularly post content on both Facebook andInstagram.
Conservatives have similar stories about a sudden loss of followers on the social media platform. The NYU study dismissed these suspicions as baseless.
Shortly after Musk announced his purchase of Twitter, something strange happened. I gained nearly 9000 followers in a 48 hour period.
The follower numbers of other conservatives suddenly went up. The Daily Mail reported.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr. and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—three of America’s most forthright conservative mouthpieces—have experienced an influx of 175,960, 301,570 and 286,559 followers respectively since the news of Musk’s takeover broke earlier this week.
Big-name liberals, with the exception of former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden, experienced steep drops in their follower count. The Daily Mail wrote.
Alexandra (sic) Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres have witnessed an exodus of 26,072, 21,424 and 27,141 Twitter followers respectively in the past four days. Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris lost over 28,000 of her supporters and Michelle Obama dropped a dramatic 32,073.
The company stopped anyone within it from changing its algorithm to avoid internal sabotage from workers who might be unhappy with Musk's purchase. If true, this means that the suspicion that employees might be covering their anti-conservative biases in order to keep their jobs is not true.
Who knows? The platform suddenly and dramatically appears more welcoming to conservatives after Musk bought it. Expect another New York University study to give an innocent and rational explanation.
Maybe Musk will purchase The New York Times and turn it into a newspaper. Or, maybe, buy The Washington Post and hire real journalists. One can hope.
All rights reserved LAURENCE A. ElDER.
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