Saturday, November 16, 2024

Rising Tensions on X Since Musk Takeover

Social media platforms are becoming a digital town square where everyone claims their right to an opinion. Tensions rise instantly when political questions are broached, with X at the epicenter. So much so that political abuse has become a defining feature of the platform.

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...A study by a joint research team from City St George's, University of London; the University of Venice; Central European University; Technical University of Munich; Sapienza University of Rome; and Alan Turing Institute suggests that despite their political views (left or right), X users engage equally in abusing their political opponents.

Individuals who stray from their party's norms are swiftly treated as political enemies on X. Based on the data from nine countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the USA -- the confrontation in the tweets followed a common ally-enemy structure.

Researchers analyzed data from 375 million tweets collected over a 24-hour period in September 2022. They mapped these users' posts to a separate sample of more than 1,800 politicians with active X accounts.

By tracking which users retweeted which politicians, researchers were able to estimate users' political leanings and categorize them as either left or right.

They also assessed the toxicity of political posts to measure political abuse on X. The study found that posts mentioning political opponents were consistently more toxic than those mentioning political allies. Political interactions were more toxic than non-political ones across all countries included in the data.

"Many of these trends may have worsened: Since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, and the restrictions on data introduced, we no longer have access to the high-quality data required to study these issues," said lead author of the study Dr. Max Falkenberg, currently at the Department of Network & Data Science, Central European University. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-16 12:46 AM

Everyone has a right to an opinion. Twitter pre Elon denied that right.

#2 | Posted by Robson at 2024-11-16 07:54 PM

#2 | Posted by Robson

Jesus wept.

What a moron.

#3 | Posted by Angrydad at 2024-11-16 08:14 PM

#2

Opinions are like --------. Everybody has one. Stop being one 24/7, you weak-minded dilhole.

#4 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-11-17 11:10 AM

Robson is an opinion over facts kinda guy.

It's his opinion that the sun normally rises in the west, so that's where it rises.

Trumpers and facts are like oil and water.

#5 | Posted by Corky at 2024-11-17 11:14 AM

@#5 ... Trumpers and facts are like oil and water. ...

I'd say, facts to MAGA are more like kryptonite's effect upon Superman.

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-17 06:22 PM

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