Misinformation

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Bluesky can be whatever you want. The default "following" is just the people you actually follow, mostly in chronological order(I think it boosts some very active or popular posts if you also follow them). Pick reliable people and interests. It doesn't drop Elon's favourite banger of the day in there. They have a discover feed that is based on your own interests and clicks. If you use the default feed, you aren't getting algorithmicly fed stuff. You can even make your own.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I find the people who most loudly #### on Bluesky have zero idea how it actually works, and just assume it's Xitter for the far left, because they can't possibly imagine something that doesn't exist as a "both sides" conversation.

Ok let's check it out (I've used Bluesky sporadically before and have it on my phone but let's give it a blank slate)

Created brand new account just now.

Recommended accounts to follow - Mary L Trump

Skip all categories, follows and interests

1st post to introduce me to BlueSky - a literal furry post. I #### you not (@jayrnski.bsky.social if you want to see that I'm not making it up)

4rd post and 6th post on Discover by Aaron Rupar on US messing up with Iran

8th post by Christopher Webb

11th post by Aaron Rupar quoting Elizabeth Warren

12th post by Noah Shachtman saying how Rubio's BFF is an accused foreign agent

15th post by MeidasTouch

Yeah...**cough cough** bull####.

Why is BlueSky feeding anti-Trump American politics when I'm in Canada on a brand new account with zero ties to anything, in the middle of cute cat and dog posts?

Explain this sir.

So basically BlueSky's default is furries, cute pet pictures and anti-Trump politics. The default sure as heck isn't neutral. I would expect a neutral state to be clear of all politics, maybe have a current news event, and inoffensive posts.

Like I don't mind BlueSky, it's a good platform and use it at times, but let's not start pretending that it isn't heavily slanted even by default.

[Fuzz]

So you got a mix of all sorts of things, many not relevant to your interests it knows nothing about, from cats to furies to politics, not related to who you are, where you are, and what your interests are. Essentially the timeline feed of posts that are made.

To me, that sounds like it's working exactly how it should. No, it's not all that useful to your interests, because you haven't followed anyone.

I'm curious, what were you expecting?


FWIW I haven't seen a furry post since I signed up, because I have no interest, and have specified other interests, so I see those instead. On Xitter, you'd see that stuff no matter what,because Musk re-xits it, and everyone sees Musk's posts.

[Firebot]

Half the posts are people raging about Trump or clear sworn adversaries. Again, I literally just tried it as an experiment.

Probably missed my edit, but I would expect a neutral state to be clear of all politics, maybe have a current news event, and inoffensive posts. There are minors that sign up to this.

And I know of X's slant to push Elon Musk all the time, the claim was that BlueSky does not have a slant and has a both sides. That's not at all my default experience.

Furries should never be a default anything. People on BlueSky are weird.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I like to keep things simple. This graphic, which has been in production for many years and is constantly being updated, seems to be a good baseline.

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by Firebot

People on BlueSky are weird.

Oh boy, this won't be good

[FlamesAddiction]

In general. I say stay away from social media as a source for news. I don't care if it's Twitter, Blue Sky, Tik Tok, Facebook, etc... If you see something on social media, don't rush to post it elsewhere on the internet.

Mainstream media isn't without bias, but it's still more reliable than fringe media companies, especially ones that are centered around one specific gripe.

Be wary of photos and still images. Mainstream media will go out of their way to sell things and aren't above staging photos or using photography techniques to create images that might be more compelling, but are also more misleading. They are, like everyone else, in the business of selling a product in a very competitive environment. I trust them more not to blatantly lie, but I don't trust them not to try and manipulate feelings and emotions.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I didn't include Fox in my list. You'll find bias to one degree or another in every one of those outlets - usually by framing and context. But you won't find outright assertions of things that are not factually true. Which is what misinformation is.

You can get a wide ranged of factual (if biased) information from mainstream media. If you choose instead to wade into the fever swamps of freelance social media personalities, don't be surprised if you come away with outright lies and misinformation.

You did not include FOX, but my point was more about "fear of lawsuit" not really being a true fear for big, mainstream media companies. Usually they settle without ever admitting wrongdoing and on they go about their days. Cost of doing business expense basically. The reputational hit is a bigger fear than a lawsuit, but in todays media age even that doesn't scare much.

And yeah using Twitter as your news source isn't great (although it used to be far more reliable before Elon lit $44 billion on fire), but as mainstream and legacy media keep trying to stay relevant to audiences (or to serve their owners interests), their quality and reliability will inevitably decline too.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Firebot

Half the posts are people raging about Trump or clear sworn adversaries. Again, I literally just tried it as an experiment.

Probably missed my edit, but I would expect a neutral state to be clear of all politics, maybe have a current news event, and inoffensive posts. There are minors that sign up to this.

And I know of X's slant to push Elon Musk all the time, the claim was that BlueSky does not have a slant and has a both sides. That's not at all my default experience.

Furries should never be a default anything. People on BlueSky are weird.

You are asking for it to curate a default feed in a way you find tuned to your tastes. What is "neutral"? What if someone hates nature, or birds, or movies? The fact it isn't tuned to anyone's should be proof enough? Or do you think politics and furies are all followed by the same people?


It's also my understanding you can put an age thing in, and you can allow or dis-allow NSFW posts. I'm not sure how well that works.


Once you start following though, that's where it is an improvement over other sites, because it doesn't toss stuff in your feed you don't want, and if it's a re-post from someone you like, you can mark down the re-post and then it knows you don't like it. This isn't how other social networks work. You can make your own feed with exactly what you want, if that's your choice. The point is there isn't an algorithm feeding you rage-bait just because others make it popular. You get to decide. You can't do that on most other platforms.


Be interesting to compare a blank X account with Bluesky...

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Be interesting to compare a blank X account with Bluesky...

Just did a new X account one (forced me to follow someone so I selected @ratedogs)

First post dog

2nd post a verse of the day from the Quran from @allahgreatquran

Kermit meme

A goldfish

A few very extremely random posts Including cricket, and someone vacationing in Milan Italy

First political post @nothoodlum complaining about Erika Kirk

one calling out Sam Antar / Eddie Anthar

Cats and Kittens

Touchline

More cats

Liverpool football meme

Someone complaining about Iran war and the US's plan for it

An account called Not your average Liberal bashing Nancy Mace about defending a pedophile

Another dog post


Seems pretty all over the place, even a slightly left leaning feel from that random batch of posts (surprisingly no Elon Musk). Default seems much more balanced.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

You are asking for it to curate a default feed in a way you find tuned to your tastes. What is "neutral"? What if someone hates nature, or birds, or movies? The fact it isn't tuned to anyone's should be proof enough? Or do you think politics and furies are all followed by the same people?

C'mon now. You are tripping and grasping at straws in defense. "What if someone hates nature, birds or movies?"


Neutral isn't half the posts in a default feed coming from various 'independent' journalists bashing Trump. There's an inherent slant built into BlueSky from a purely neutral perspective (whether that is due to the platform being far more attractive to left leaning posters and more likely to switch from X is up to debate). There should be zero to little politics in a default / neutral feed.

Overall - Default balance just from the experimental test X > BlueSky. Less politics = good

[Jason14h]

I for one am completely astonished that a platform built to compete with X would in any way tailor their algorithm to the exact people they are trying to attract as an alternative to X in a competitive business environment

I will stay up all night trying to solve this mystery.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Yeah if you actually have a feed on Twitter you'd know Elon shoves right wing #### down your throat no matter how much you curate your feed. I block everything politics in the hopes my feed is nothing but animals and sports, but I still get random right wing grift posts popping up from time to time.

And yeah, of course Bluesky is left leaning, it's basically Twitter counter programming. Are there even any big time right wing grifters on there?

[Drak]

Twitter used to do a bit of a better job cracking down on bots and trolls before Musk, although it still had significant issues. When Musk took over the bots and trolls ran hog wild and became unbearable. Bluesky doesn’t seem to have the same level of problems.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

I for one am completely astonished that a platform built to compete with X would in any way tailor their algorithm to the exact people they are trying to attract as an alternative to X in a competitive business environment

I will stay up all night trying to solve this mystery.

OK, forget it. Y'all aren't actually interested in understanding how things work.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Yeah if you actually have a feed on Twitter you'd know Elon shoves right wing #### down your throat no matter how much you curate your feed. I block everything politics in the hopes my feed is nothing but animals and sports, but I still get random right wing grift posts popping up from time to time.

And yeah, of course Bluesky is left leaning, it's basically Twitter counter programming. Are there even any big time right wing grifters on there?

Any time I've read about them showing up they get all butthurt and run back to X because people on Bluesky block them, and they don't think people should be blocking opinions they don't agree with, even if those opinions are Nazi adjacent. The users, however, value the choice in being able to silent racists, trolls, and sea-lions from their feeds. I guess some people value that stuff? I dunno, if my local mall had Nazis hanging out at the cafeteria, I'd be a bit annoyed they let Nazis in, and not hangout there. But that's me.

[blankall]

X is complete nonsense right now. I get where Musk is coming from with freedom of speech, but his execution lacks any kind of basic rationality. You cannot allow a bots, trolls, grifters etc.. to have unlimited access to a format like X and expect it to hold any kind of integrity.

[Drak]

Spreading hate and disinformation crosses the line of freedom of speech. It’s weaponized war level propaganda with the objective of radicalizing people and destroying from within.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

I for one am completely astonished that a platform built to compete with X would in any way tailor their algorithm to the exact people they are trying to attract as an alternative to X in a competitive business environment

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

And yeah, of course Bluesky is left leaning, it's basically Twitter counter programming.

Easy way to prove the slant:

Do search for "AI" on the new X account

I get Claude, OpenAI, reputable AI experts, Google Cloud. Real current AI related news from real reputable sources.


Do search for "AI" on the new BlueSky account

A complete cess pool of anti AI hate and raging against AI. Not a single post about AI news. Not a single AI based company news. I am literally staring at a post , 3rd one talking about how even with BlueSky's overall hostility to AI, that the AI enthusiasts still around on BlueSky are smarter for choosing BlueSky.

Again, both default searches with no prior search.

The slant is real.

[PepsiFree]

If only scientists had ever thought to study these things. Then we wouldn’t have to rely on one guy’s 15 minute experiment.

Oh well. Guess we’ll never really know.

[Firebot]

Fuzz, try it out, search for AI and try to get real info on BlueSky. Why would I go on BlueSky for certain topics or interests when it's that heavily slanted?