This is currently happening again, this time with some guy who says food poverty is idleness. Seems every liberal on Twitter has rebroadcast his thoughts with a comment intended to put him down. Except they're just warming up the algorithm for whatever the guy wants to say next. https://twitter.com/LewisWiltshire/status/1162000776463618048

If you see a tweet you disagree with and you quote-tweet it with what feels to you like a super sassy smackdown, please be aware that what the algorithm sees is this: "I endorse this person as interesting. Their subsequent messages should be seen by as many people as possible."

If you really, really have to rebroadcast someone you vehemently disagree with, at least screengrab it (which is algorithm-proof) rather than giving them a platform. OK, they won't see your smackdown, but they don't care about that anyway. You won't change their mind ...

In an era of Trump, Johnson, Hopkins + Morgan, everyone must know there is no greater currency than attention. If you broadcast the thoughts of someone you disagree with, you are effectively endorsing that view. No matter how sassy your smackdown. Algorithms do not see sentiment!

If you see a smackdown of an objectionable opinion, and if you like it, that's rebroadcasting it. Most people do not change the default (algorithmic timeline) so they see stuff because you liked it. You liked the smackdown, but you're broadcasting the thing that was smacked down!

I spend my working life explaining algorithms on Twitter/FB/Insta to clients (last two more algorithmic than the first; of those two one more prone to viral than the other) and I am out here on a BH talking algorithms because people keep broadcasting those they disagree with!

Anyway, football!

actually, cricket!