It has been a long time talking about the arrival of the downvotes on twitter and, in fact, the function has taken off in recent weeks, extending its trial period to everyone. In recent days, however, it is already spreading among the common users of the social network.
As we say, the story comes from afar and has taken different directions throughout its development: Were negative votes needed on Twitter? Is the nature of the platform such that users need to rate what is published there as if it were Netflix or Spotify content?
Unfortunately, it seems that way. And you have to understand this Unfortunatelybecause the little bird’s social network is not only a great source of information, it is also a battlefield where extremes proliferate and where a large part of the users exudes hatred for their opposite without paying much attention to the exercise of reasoning that the very nature of the platform – the limitation of characters per message – makes it so difficult.
Consequently, the introduction of negative votes on Twitter will only bring more radicalization and, of course, more censorship. Because, in fact, that is the purpose of this change, although it is not said in the same words. Not to say, it is not even called negative, but “irrelevant.” This is how they explain it want Twitter.
Put like this, this whole thing about the negatives on Twitter seems like a good measure, since there is always some idiot out there who enters the conversation to divert the subject or sow discord and having the option of marking an answer as irrelevant seems a priori a good idea. But is that we are talking about twitterthe -it bears repeating- social network of hate in which any minimally sensitive or controversial issue generates… exactly: more hate.
It is enough to go through the profile of any politician regardless of the party, or of any user with many followers and who touches on political, cultural or ideological issues, to see how many of the responses you will get to your tweets are from people offended by the opposite ‘side’, to name it in some way.
Twitter already offers tools to hide responses from the discussion that the authors of the tweets do not like, as well as offering the possibility of muting or blocking users who are annoying, although again this function is commonly distorted so that the most pitiful users get rid of the opinions that you don’t like, reinforcing your echo chamber in the social network.
This being the case, and with few exceptions, the only thing that the implementation of negative votes on Twitter will produce is a more pro-censorship movement of the contrary, but not individually and for oneself, as has been the case up to now, but en masse and for all, what’s worse. Now, how exactly does this negative work on Twitter? What is known is what it says in the image above and what you see is…
Negatives on Twitter: that’s how they happen… but I didn’t do it!
One more button. Nothing special. Nor is it strange that the negatives on Twitter are restricted to responses and not the tweets themselves, or are private, to thus mitigate the personal impact, but also to encourage its use, as a sneak of the regime in power. In addition, they can be given, but they can also be removed, just in case your finger slips when it shouldn’t.
But what is the effect of the negatives on Twitter with respect to the responses of a thread? Of that if nothing has been said. I myself have done the test in a specific thread and both before and after giving negative to several messages, the order of responses looked the same in the same account, but different in others and even without account.
Presumably the spring in charge of applying the corresponding changes (reducing the visibility of the response so that it does not appear among the first ones, no matter how I like that you have; or delete it directly, although that does not seem to be the purpose if we stick to the «prioritize the contents») as a result of the negatives received will act in one way or another in relation to the number of votes.
In short, another entertainment for the angry masses that swarm Twitter. If the notification that you already have it has not yet appeared, be calm, because it will not be long in coming. And no, this has nothing to do with removing negatives from YouTube. It is less harmful, but harmful after all.
