"It also points to a possible solution, he says: “Simple limits on retweets would constrain the spread of this information while having little effect on the vast majority of users.”
This is a good solution. I remember a while ago, I believe it was in India, WhatsApp limited the number of users you could share something with as a response to the platform being used for riling up ethnic violence. Putting an inhibitor on this cascading virality has to improve the sanity in any communication network.
Individual accounts broadcasting at the rate of major TV news stations with no scrutiny isn't a combination that was ever going to produce something approaching the truth. The entire premise of how groups produce truth is through a representative wisdom-of-the-crowds effect. 0.1% of highly correlated users swinging every discussion is extremely pathological.
Most glaring problem is of course that limiting your most viral users is complete anathema to the business incentives of any for-profit social media platform, so in particular I don't see it happening on Twitter.
This is a good solution. I remember a while ago, I believe it was in India, WhatsApp limited the number of users you could share something with as a response to the platform being used for riling up ethnic violence. Putting an inhibitor on this cascading virality has to improve the sanity in any communication network.
Individual accounts broadcasting at the rate of major TV news stations with no scrutiny isn't a combination that was ever going to produce something approaching the truth. The entire premise of how groups produce truth is through a representative wisdom-of-the-crowds effect. 0.1% of highly correlated users swinging every discussion is extremely pathological.
Most glaring problem is of course that limiting your most viral users is complete anathema to the business incentives of any for-profit social media platform, so in particular I don't see it happening on Twitter.