Has social media made the UK more right wing?

[I'm With Stupid]

I'll rephrase what I said and I think this is important - I think the politics forum on here is mostly left leaning with a sprinkling of far left. It makes sense that the most politically energised people would participate in the politics part of the forum and also the demographic of this forum reflects Manchester which like any city is left leaning.

Let's be honest though, a lot of that is simply due to the government we have. People moan about the government, so if the government is right wing, the most vocal criticism are likely to come from the left. Particularly with the current government, which even most Tory voters would admit is on its last legs at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if the posts from the final days of Gordon Brown made the forum seem more right wing.

One thing I do remember was that during the Brexit vote, there was a poll on this forum that got it pretty much bang on.

 

[Postman Pep]

Maybe! Who knows :) My perception is I'll be voting Labour this year and since Corbyn was booted out Labour often get bad press on here for some reason...

Yeah because under Corbyn Labour never got a bad press on here ...... Incredible even by your standards.

 

[Blue and true]

Social media isn't evil. You're evil.

Social media isn't biased. You're biased.

Within tolerable margins of error, social media algorithms are completely politically neutral. They are programmed to show you one thing, and that is what you personally engage with more. Not the whole world, just you. If you engage with inflammatory posts more then the algorithm believes you want more of this content and will test it by putting it on your timeline/FYP/etc. If you ignore it then it doesn't.

Moreover, social media is a public square. It is your job to moderate your reading and not a Government or a company. You might create an echo chamber or a flame tower but whichever one you create is very much your own doing.

That's a great post.

But I'm going to pull you up on one thing; social media isn't a public square, it's a safe haven. And that's the key distinction. If some people said some of the things they say on social media in a public square, one of two things would happen:

A.) they would be filled in pretty quickly
B.) they would be apprehended/arrested

For most people, both of the above are strong deterrents. The issue with social media is that those who spit their venom are faceless, and given the logistical impossibility of policing everyone online, are encouraged to become more "powerful". Yes, we are responsible for our own algorithms, but too many are irresponsible, and that's the issue. Social media isn't inherently evil, you are right; but it is, unequivocally, a petri dish for hate.

I came off twitter months ago and I can't articulate in words how much better I feel for it.

 

[Rascal]

I actually think that social media targets everybody in a way that is far more inclusive than you think. Nothing sums it up more than the title of this thread because I know that Rascal sits on the far left. His views mean that quite literally anything will sit to the right of him so of course the perception will be that social media is dominated by the right.

The majority of this forum similarly sits on the left and sometimes far left so of course many people are going to be concerned on here about this 'rise' of the right. However, the reality is it couldn't be further from the truth, it's just that normal, common opinions appear to be on the right. I mean look at the polling for the next election, if we're all being influenced to the true right then how are Labour set to win a landslide election this year?

What many people on here hate is the fact that most average and relatively apolitical people do not sit on the left, instead they mostly sit in the centre and centrist votes are often not decided by ideological lines. The reason why there is concern over the picture painted to centrists above all else is because it is this group that will decide any election.

At the end of the day you cannot have a socialist utopia or a far right empire unless the centrists agree to it. This is why both the right and left hate the way in which social media operates, it's because social media generates profit from participation from all corners of the spectrum.

That is an interesting post because now being a Socialist means I am far left, where once being a Socialist was mainstream, think Atlee, Bevan Benn et al, even Corbyn who was to the right of those people was ostracised as a communist.

It backs up my thinking that left wing ideals are being ostracised on social media.

Can i summise then that social media is heavily influenced and manipulated by the right?

 

[cleavers]

Social media isn't evil. You're evil.

Social media isn't biased. You're biased.

Within tolerable margins of error, social media algorithms are completely politically neutral. They are programmed to show you one thing, and that is what you personally engage with more. Not the whole world, just you. If you engage with inflammatory posts more then the algorithm believes you want more of this content and will test it by putting it on your timeline/FYP/etc. If you ignore it then it doesn't.

Moreover, social media is a public square. It is your job to moderate your reading and not a Government or a company. You might create an echo chamber or a flame tower but whichever one you create is very much your own doing.

I largely agree with this, which is why I pick what I read carefully (even on here).

 

[BlueHammer85]

You're correct, I recently made a new X account as Elon has made it impossible to use without a login now. All you get are racially motivated posts, sex workers advertising or clear anti western propaganda. And I don't follow any accounts remotely related to anything of the sort. It is unusable, I don't even use it for Ukraine war info anymore as it's just full of russia propaganda.

But I still need it to follow an important account that gives updates for a compensation battle im involved in.

I’m off it end of season , few hammers accounts I’ve enjoyed stuff from - other than that I’m just seeing some real evil stuff, beatings, stabbings etc racism everywhere, wind up accounts constantly baiting. It’s awful and the more I seem to hide and block the more I get fed this shite.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Social media isn't evil. You're evil.

Social media isn't biased. You're biased.

Within tolerable margins of error, social media algorithms are completely politically neutral. They are programmed to show you one thing, and that is what you personally engage with more. Not the whole world, just you. If you engage with inflammatory posts more then the algorithm believes you want more of this content and will test it by putting it on your timeline/FYP/etc. If you ignore it then it doesn't.

Moreover, social media is a public square. It is your job to moderate your reading and not a Government or a company. You might create an echo chamber or a flame tower but whichever one you create is very much your own doing.

Do you really think all of the companies that operate the various social media platforms have absolutely nothing to do with the content on their platforms or what content populates the feeds of individuals or user cohorts? And that none of them influence their algorithms to encourage specific types of user behaviour? Nor any other external entities working to manipulate the algorithms for nefarious aims?

(Just to be clear, I think users are ultimately responsible for their own behaviour and consumption on social media platforms).

 

[cleavers]

That is an interesting post because now being a Socialist means I am far left, where once being a Socialist was mainstream, think Atlee, Bevan Benn et al, even Corbyn who was to the right of those people was ostracised as a communist.

It backs up my thinking that left wing ideals are being ostracised on social media.

Can i summise then that social media is heavily influenced and manipulated by the right?

Yours is also an interesting post Rascal, because what you describe there as "Socialist was mainstream", it never was to me, centrist was "mainstream", which sadly seems to have mostly disappeared.

I have voted both (all) sides of the equation, but I prefer some sort of centrist political solution, younger I probably tended to pretty liberal, I'm more centre right now, but I hate extreme views left or right.

My mother is what I would describe as "right wing" (not extreme), and some of her views I find quite embarassasing, she's probably only ever voted conservative, and whilst my dad is certainly more central, he has drifted right over recent years (they're mid to late 80's), both brought up in fairly poor families, and a pretty racist time if we're honest, they both use (or at least access) social media despite their age.

My missus has some right wing views that I'm not keen on either, and she comes from a very working class, and quite poor scottish family, she reads all manner of shit on social media, which worries me.

My daughter is probably quite left facing, her boyfriend more so, yet my son is quite right wing on some things (but not all), and I think social media has definitely influenced both, and pushed the wider from the centre.

Geographically we all live in very different parts of the UK politically, so another question rears it's head, does the region you live have influence too ? I think it probably does, as do the people you regularly mix with.

 

[BlueAnorak]

People love acting like arseholes with no comeback. Social media is perfect for this. Indeed, If folks said what they say on social media in public they'd be twatted fairly quickly.

Social media is also an echo chamber for like minded opinions - left, right, religion and tin-foil-hat. People join groups that match their opinions and are gratified that others share them. It also emphasises and hardens their opinions as they don't have to face their opinions being scrutinised by others. That also breeds intolerance and that is probably the biggest problem with modern societies the world over.

To be honnest this politics forum is a bit of an echo chamber for those of a socialist persuasion. Centrists through Right wingers avoid it like the plague for the most part.

 

[BlueAnorak]

I think people are going to vote Labour because of their own personal experience of living under the Tories more than anything else. A lot of the criticism of the Tories (and Brexit) over the last 14 years has been theoretical, ideological, or affecting 'someone else.' I think we've finally got to the stage where almost everyone, not just 'benefit scroungers,' young families and the working classes, has suffered a drop in living standards. Even people on low six figure incomes are noticing the problems now. Mortgage prices up, energy prices up, taxes up, and every public service delivering a worse service. I reckon that's got more to do with it than Twitter.

On the main question, I think people have short memories tbh. I remember when the whole political discourse was determined by a handful of right-wing media sources. The Sun and the Star were doing "PC-gone-mad" long before the "woke brigade" was a term. Explicitly homophobic and racist headlines were commonplace.

There's definitely an argument that it makes this more polarized, but let's not pretend that people reading these newspapers back in the day were getting some sort of carefully curated, balanced view of the news.

I think it's made some people more extreme in general, but that's not exclusive to the right wing. Out-and-out conspiracies are definitely more of an issue though, because as bad as the newspapers above are, they do have a certain amount of legal responsibility that doesn't exist for social media.

Labour will win the next election because a huge chunk of the Tory vote won't turn up or will vote Reform - not for people changing to vote Labour - though their will be a few percentage points of that.
They simply can't see the point of voting for a Tory party that, in reality is slightly more left wing than Blairs first government!