ItalianoGACKT Official X update. Translation below
Recently, I posted to X about the time I quit smoking.
The number of replies displayed in response to it exceeded 2,000.
Curious to see what kind of reactions there were, I checked the replies from my own account.
However,
less than 100 comments were displayed.
Feeling very uneasy, I asked my secretary to check my post from X’s account.
It was true that the secretary’s account displayed more comments than the one I could see myself.
However,
it still fell well short of 2,000.
Clearly, there were a huge number of replies that were not displayed.
What was going on?
I investigated thoroughly.
First of all,
X has a filter.
Officially, they strongly deny this,
but it seems that visibility is actually controlled for certain categories.
– Emotional replies
– Provocation
– Mass posts with the same tone
It’s understandable that these types of things would be automatically blocked.
However,
among the messages that could be viewed on the secretary’s account,
there were many calm thoughts and dispassionate opinions.
They have all been hidden.
This means that
a large number of other ordinary messages
must also be hidden.
First of all,
Elon Musk
explained why he acquired X:
He concluded that the old Twitter was dominated by
– censorship
– political bias
– opaque algorithms
and that by acquiring Twitter himself,
he could change the structure without external pressure.
He has publicly stated that this was his main reason for the acquisition.
And the goals of X are listed as follows:
1. Maximize freedom of speech
– Do not suppress opinions unless they are illegal.
2. Build infrastructure for public speech
– Build a “digital public square” rather than a social networking site.
3. Make algorithms transparent
– Do not manipulate influence behind the scenes.
As a concept,
it is perfectly reasonable.
However,
judging from actual behavior,
there is a clear bias in the reply comments.
After investigating, I came to the following conclusion:
X claims to have “complete freedom of speech,”
but that only applies to the sender’s post itself.
Replies and reactions to those posts are subject to strict visibility control.
This is not deletion,
but since they are not displayed,
it is effectively suppression.
This mechanism is apparently called
“structural noise removal.”
Honestly, it’s disappointing.
X is not much different from other social media platforms.
In the end,
the fact is that information is controlled.
I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking, “That’s no big deal…”
That’s how it all started this morning.
Now, I’ll get ready for tomorrow’s live show.
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA