[otakucode]

I would imagine the issue is certainly because they can't. What is hateful to you is charming and encouraging to someone else. Social norms and cultural differences are gigantic. Look at the recent controversy with the conservative guy on YouTube who referred to a reported from Vox as their 'queer Latino reporter' and it was seen as hate speech... despite the Vox reporter openly and frequently labelling themselves as Voxs queer Latino reporter. How is a computer supposed to interpret that? How is it supposed to know that when person A says something and when person B says the exact same words, referring to the exact same subject, that the greater context of the speakers background political affiliations and those of their audience actually determine the 'meaning' behind the statement, not the statement itself?

This is not an easy problem, and it does no one any good to pretend that it is. Tackling the issue also requires those considering it to consider other social situations. Is someone supporting equal treatment of women in Saudia Arabia practicing hate speech against the conservative ruling party? If we'd had systems that let us actively regulate speech in the way we can now, would it have been appropriate to block Martin Luther King Jr. because his message was growing civil disobedience and causing families to bicker over race politics? Why are we so damn certain that any argument today will necessarily be decided by a regression rather than a wider acceptance of more progress? Change in human societies is always ugly, always comes at the cost of pain and strife, and on the balance has usually moved us in a forward direction. I can't say the same for censorship. Censorship makes impossible any forward movement, and only serves to leave regressive mindsets to fester and make-believe that they have more support than they actually do.

[freehunter]

We're not talking about banning these posts, or hiding them, or censoring them. Just not showing them as widely as they do other posts. It doesn't even need to go as deep as "this is hateful", but rather "this has the potential to be hateful" or giving the author the ability to control how widely the message is being shared.

I see these people here trying to debate solutions like good engineers, but unless they work at Twitter, it's a waste. We can guess all day and come up with a million solutions but when it comes down to it, Twitter absolutely has the ability to control posts that spiral out of control. What they don't have is the desire to do so.

[benj111]

What's the line between censoring and "not showing them as widely as other posts"?

[ivalm]

It can be smoothly related with probability of post being undesirable. So if algo thinks it's 50% undesirable simply count it as "half a weight." Or tune this function to be whatever you want. Twitter/etc already makes arbitrary choices about what gets shown.

[freehunter]

Not every post gets shown as widely as some do. What's that line? That's where I'd start.

[lonelappd]

For every mean-spirited hate post that gets promoted, another tweet about knitting is not promoted. Why is censorship only bad if the content is hateful?

[benj111]

"How is it supposed to know that when person A says something and when person B says the exact same words....."

I was about to argue against this but then realised its worse than you suggest.

If I as a white person used the N word to describe a black person I would be labelled a racist, whereas a black person can say it all day long. But even if I black up and say it, its even worse. But then with gender the rules are almost reversed, I can declare myself a woman and expect that to be somewhat respected.

And on the internet no one knows you're a dog, or a transvestite in black face.