Win or Lose

Yesterday, Twitter showed me a phrase that's trending: YOU LOST. Naturally, it grabbed my attention and I clicked on the phrase to find out. What actually happens is a bunch of incoherent tweets that contain the phrase, case insensitive. It's like searching for "we can" or "I will". Clearly, the mechanism Twitter employs to determine what's trending is broken. Any commonly used phrase can be classified as trending, which is absurd. If we dig deeper, the problem is serious, for if it's a manipulated insult, then Twitter is a political hack, else if it's a algorithm, then Twitter is utterly incompetent.

As a result, there is no surprise that Twitter can be turned into a propaganda machine that serves dubious political purposes, and eventually requires regulation to maintain sanity. Tech regulation is dangerous, because it potentially undermines free speech. Yet Twitter seems content with the push to the absurd that risks everybody's right to speak.

Win or lose?

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