Twitter hashtags aren’t as useful as they used to be

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last summer, with misinformation swirling about the death of Jeffrey Epstein, I joined the chorus of voices calling for an end to Twitter’s trending topics. The feature is generated by algorithms with little editorial oversight, is easily gamed by bots and bad actors, and yet continues to drive the news cycle anyway. Get rid of it — or have humans run it — and Twitter would only be better for it. Many of those arguments have been re-litigated over the past day as journalists dig into #NeverWarren, a hashtag that was briefly trending on Twitter in the wake of a dustup between Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Warren spoke sharply to Sanders after their most recent debate. Here’s Eric Newcomer at... Continue reading…