Twitter’s analogy of Redirect

After I followed @realDonaldTrump on Twitter, Twitter immediately suggested me to follow Hillary Clinton and CNN Breaking News. Do people who follow Donald Trump want to follow Hillary and CNN Faking News? No, they don’t. Twitter attempts to persuade Trump supporters to switch switch to the opposite political side. That reminds me Google’ Jigsaw and its Redirect method, allegedly developed to counter ISIS recruitment, but  deployed against American conservatives.

When I followed Joe Biden (after closing the browser and logging in Twitter again), Twitter suggested me to follow Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Elisabeth Warren. It didn’t suggest any Republican or conservative news outlet.

Twitter redirects followers of Donald Trump to Hillary and CNN

Twitter not using Redirect on Biden followers

I repeated the experiment: unfollowed Trump and Biden, exited and logged in into Twitter, followed Bernie Sanders. Twitter suggested me to follow Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. Then I followed Ted Cruz (after closing the browser and logging in Twitter again). Twitter suggested me to follow Marco Rubio, Senator Rand Paul, and former Congressman Paul Ryan.

Following Sanders - Twitter offers more of his cohort

<no screenshot for Ted Cruz>

When I unfollowed all the politicians and followed @realDonaldTrump again, Twitter suggested me to follow Barack Obama.

Twitter uses Redirect against Trump

The experiment was conducted today, morning of June 27, 2019, in Austin TX.

Twitter feed frequently shows me and other users tweets from people whom we haven’t followed and which aren’t promoted or sponsored.

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