The question is not at all hypothetical .
Much of the coverage of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey ’s ongoing jam tour of duty has focused on splashier word , like him appearing on the podcast ofantivaxxerBen Greenfield to recount his alarmingpersonal health pattern . But in guest spot on the podcasts of atheist philosopher Sam Harris and standup - turn - MMA - reviewer Joe Rogan in recent month , Dorsey blurted out call about the behaviour of diary keeper on Twitter that suggest something more troubling .
“ One of the things that was very evident during the lead - up to the [ 2016 ] election was , just look at our journalist constituency , which was — is one of the most important constituencies on Twitter , ” Dorsey tell duringhis February 5th appearanceon Making good sense With Sam Harris , “ the amount of journalists on the left who were stick with folks on the right end of the spectrum was very , very small . The amount of diary keeper on the veracious end of the spectrum follow kinsfolk on the left wing was passing high-pitched . ”
Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty)
That users ostensibly in the same profession would act so differently establish on their political belief is sure as shooting an interesting piece of information . That is , if anyone could hold on where this title come from .
“ Jack was actually referencing a study done by MIT , ” a Twitter representative initially narrate Gizmodo nearly three weeks ago . “ MIT and Cortico are probably better set to suffice your questions . ” At that time , the spokesperson linked toa studycarried out by a research firm called Graphika , which was published in , but is not directly connect with , the MIT Technology Review .
Gizmodo spoke extensively with one of that study ’s co - authors , Camille Francois , who confirmed Graphika ’s workplace had not examined the follow relationship between journalists of diverge political appetites on Twitter . She could not recall any public academic study that had .
Of course , the Twitter voice may have simply admit the wrong link . After all , Cortico is a genuine inquiry radical associated with MIT ’s Media Lab , which has publishedresearchon Twitter ’s colloquial dynamic — inquiry Twitter continued to insist was the source of Dorsey ’s remarks . But when we reached out to Cortico , they , too , could n’t source Dorsey ’s claim .
“ In our Media Lab enquiry mathematical group — the science lab for Social Machines — we did do a discipline of the 2016 election [ … ] which reference journalists ’ locating in the meshing we map , ” a Cortico representative told Gizmodo , “ but has nothing to do with diarist following each other . ” Vice News , which alone black market insurance coverage on the subject , noted that control journalist were “ mostly disconnected from Trump protagonist ” and Trump jock “ formed a particularly insular group”—a trouble in its own right , but not at all the same claim made by Dorsey .
Given the want of patent source for the comment , the Twitter voice then suggest Dorsey may have “ misspoke , ” only to later save the following ( emphasis ours ):
I ’m look into resolution to your specific questions , but in general , no , we do n’t cut across political affiliations .
But if Dorsey ’s title came from internal inquiry , remarks he made on The Joe Rogan Experience a calendar month after the Sam Harris interview propose substance abuser ’ political feeling are indeed something Twitter track internally . Onepisode 1258 , carbon monoxide - guest Tim Pool and Dorsey portion out thefollowing exchange(again , emphasis ours ):
kitty : I consider you mention on Sam Harris that the left … these left large-minded journalists only travel along each other —
Dorsey : Yeah , in the political campaign - up to the 2016 elections
Pool : Yeah , and so , I still believe that to be true and I ’ve worked in these offices —
Dorsey : It has change . They ’ve done the study again , the visual image , and now there is a lot more grouchy - pollination . But what we see is folks who are [ inaudible ] on the remaining end of the spectrum mainly keep up ethnic music on the left , and common people on the right field follow everyone .
grant the “ they ” in Jack ’s command is vague — but verifiably neither MIT ’s Media Lab or Graphika have repeated their respective filter bubble studies since the 2016 election . Prior to the publishing of this story , a 2d spokesperson for Twitter fight back on the contentions of the first , claiming to be ineffective to locate any such internal studies .
Both spokespeople repeatedly declined request to speak with Dorsey or a member of the product engineering team .
So what accounts for Dorsey ’s repeat claim that left - leaning journalists were substantially less heart-to-heart - minded than their conservative counterparts in 2016 ? ( A title that is much tailored to invoke to bourgeois - leaning listeners of Rogan and Harris . ) allow ’s generously rule out the possibility Dorsey is knowingly lying or inventing name out of whole textile . That pass on two options : Either Dorsey misunderstood donnish work about his own platform and mischaracterized that data publicly , double ; or he shared only the most enticing art object of data from inquiry his ship’s company carried out on users ’ political leanings — research the company has refused to make public .
Whether justified or not , the political biases of societal medium company are being fiercely debate right now . Public speculation has led to three freestanding congressional hearing — one of which Dorsey testified at personally . Given this level of scrutiny , if Twitter has relevant internal study on bias design , it ’s strange it would keep them hide . Just as strange would be Dorsey himself spreading misinformation , knowingly or unwittingly , about a topic so important to his companionship ’s reputation .
Lacking any additional clarify selective information from Twitter , we could really use your help . Are you a current or former Twitter employee with cognition about interior studies like this ? What other variety of research is Twitter behave that it has n’t made public ? Send us anemail , or meet us confidentially onKeybaseorSecuredrop . We would , of course , receive answers from Mr. Dorsey himself as well .
Jack DorseyX ( Twitter )
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