Nov 5, 2018
A couple weeks ago, Joe talked about his dismay at the social media communications from his local power company during a more than two day power outage in Ottawa following a devastating tornado. Well, you listened, and you told us that we (at least Joe) was being too demanding in what he expected of communicators in a crisis. We received some thoughtful feedback which we read and react to on this week's episode. Thank you Chip Griffin, Sean O'Driscoll and Shannah Hayley. Your comments made us think twice about our expectations of social media.
We also discuss Twitter's release of the Tweets from foreign Trolls trying to influence the US election. It's clear that the mischief makers are constantly revising their approach, presenting a moving target for researchers and members of the public who are trying to protect themselves form their influence. The bottom line: they targeted the most active people, presenting extreme positions on both sides of wedge issues, with the intention of undermining trust and pushing people into extreme positions.
Finally, we look at reports that Twitter soon will provide greater transparency about whether a tweet was removed voluntarily or was in fact taken down for a violation of the platform's terms of use. Displaying a notification that a tweet has been removed because of a violation of the terms of reference will provide even casual readers with a visual cue about the quality of an account. A small move, but one that will make a contribution to our ability to spot trollish accounts.