GR used to claim that it didn't shadow ban; affected users said otherwise. I was skeptical but I've noticed since that reviews from certain accounts have had their visibility reduced. One account I come across now and then is a self-important, hard right, white supremacist user with a private profile who writes long reviews of philosophy books. His reviews get quite a few likes and comments and yet, as he says, they're sometimes pushed down to the bottom. Could this be random? Possibly. Might they have noticed his leanings? Also possible. Maybe even probable.
I have a white supremacist GR 'friend' - she's subtle about it - and she's friended to many WS/far right accounts which is why I see a lot of this stuff. Reading their reviews is as much fun as having an ant farm. XD And because I do that, and because I'm a GR librarian, I've noticed how many WS/far right books have had reviews and comments disabled by GR employees (or maybe AI now). My guess is that it's only far right books. I don't like it because a) you should be able to review and rate anything you read b) some of the books are garbage but some are works of historical interest published by mainstream publishers and c) I hate censorship of any kind.
If it's not censorship, if there are problems with the book's metadata or the edition doesn't exist or it's a duplicate entry or it's not an actual book, then the metadata can be edited or the book deleted. The only way to explain leaving the book on the site but disallowing interactions with it is censorship. At the same time, I've come across books of that sort that haven't had reviews disabled. Of course, GR is a mess so mixed in with purposeful censorship there's also a lot of randomness and dysfunction.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2025-05-13 08:33 pm (UTC)I have a white supremacist GR 'friend' - she's subtle about it - and she's friended to many WS/far right accounts which is why I see a lot of this stuff. Reading their reviews is as much fun as having an ant farm. XD And because I do that, and because I'm a GR librarian, I've noticed how many WS/far right books have had reviews and comments disabled by GR employees (or maybe AI now). My guess is that it's only far right books. I don't like it because a) you should be able to review and rate anything you read b) some of the books are garbage but some are works of historical interest published by mainstream publishers and c) I hate censorship of any kind.
If it's not censorship, if there are problems with the book's metadata or the edition doesn't exist or it's a duplicate entry or it's not an actual book, then the metadata can be edited or the book deleted. The only way to explain leaving the book on the site but disallowing interactions with it is censorship. At the same time, I've come across books of that sort that haven't had reviews disabled. Of course, GR is a mess so mixed in with purposeful censorship there's also a lot of randomness and dysfunction.