Twitter 🐦 Bird 💀 Flu
According to Ben Sandofsky, Twitter X's value comes from the sheer number of its users. And despite technologically interesting alternatives, those users seemed to always return to Twitter X — ably assisted by mis/dis information, conspiracy theories and A B C D-lister celebrity dramas, racism and homophobia. A network effect indeed! 😱
But that's changed now with Bluesky, Mastodon and Threads all taking considerable user share away from Twitter X. And any substantial loss of users has serious implications for the strength of a network because it fragments it into less substantial (i.e., less marketable and/or profitable) sub-networks.
The value of a network isn't the nodes (or people) but the connections between the nodes. Bob Metcalfe, an internet guy.
And that's why social networks like Facebook constantly try to connect users with other users e.g., ‘People You Might Know’. Plus, some connections are one-way traffic: single accounts followed by thousands/millions of followers making them ‘super-connectors’. So, if these connectors leave their followers can too — imagine the effect of a Taylor Swift abandoning Twitter X!?
Remember users wanting to customise their Twitter accounts?
The non-democratic C🪨al-ition promoting cunts at News Corp bought MySpace to make money instead of updating/upgrading it to compete with (then) new-kid-on-the-block Facebook (not withstanding, Facebook is dodgy and was started by a weird-looking little dude so he and other incels could masturbate 👉✊ 🫴🍆 over pics of uni chicks) which killed MySpace.
… some of these people have pretty horrendous Facebook pictures. I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive. Autistic-looking Mark 'me masturbate' Zuckerberg, being ironic.
Plus, they made it easy to switch over and they kept iterating — with video to kill Vine, Instagram Stories for WhatsApp and were agile enough to see when that wasn't enough, they 💰 bought them out. Now there's Threads …
Musk's Twitter X changes have not been ‘successful’ (obviously, discounting Trump/Vance) as the continuing rise of lies, porn, scams and hate-speech — often via ‘Premium’ accounts — have contributed to the loss of connectors.
Constraint fosters creativity and 140 character
Enter the Dragon 🐘 Mastodon 🫵
Mastodon is a non-profit decentralised (with no central control) social media. You sign up through a Mastodon ‘instance’ (provider). The down-side (or at least the perception) is that it's a bit too technical. Unsurprisingly, therefore, its members tend to be on the ‘techy’ side. Twitter should have picked up on this but because its earliest adopters where frequently the same people.
Mastodon's software is NGO funded via donations and grants using a public protocol and is run across instances their own governance and funding model — making it decentralised and federated.
Pulling 🧶 Threads 🫵
Facebook interprets Twitter as nothing more than an endless dopamine factory that only exists to waste your time. Ben Sandofsky, another internet guy.
Threads is integrated with Instagram making it easy to be a node but it's criticised for its bot-friendly algorithmic timeline and Facebook-feeding feeds. And this led to it featuring distasteful content — which they've ‘worked’ on fixing — to keep Threads as bland as marketers need or want, or not.
Fly 🦋 Bluesky Fly 🫵
Bluesky features good user experience and quirky vibe aesthetic and their Starter Packs create instant connections. They built it and celebrities did come. But, technologically, Bluesky is complicated — requiring Personal Data Servers (PDS), Relays and App Views.
Whether the crypto-VC backers of Bluesky can keep this a positive cause remains to be seen but — when will the for-profit deal kick in for Bluesky because investors always expect returns? 💰 🤑
Regardless of the services you select, anything without creepy cunts like Elon having a say in your day is a bloody good thing!
Update 9 January, 2025 🫵
Reports say that Meta's main masturbator — Mark 'me masturbate' Zuckerberg — has canned his mob's ‘fact checking’ section in order to appease right-wing extremists DJ Trump and VD Vance so the incel, racist, ignorant and stupid (i.e., not just the C🪨al-ition) users of social media can shit-can immigrants, trans, gay and people of colour or any other minority they dislike.
He's justified it by claiming that these are ‘political’ topics of discussion (i.e., validating bigotry over decency and truth) and so they're just providing a forum for free speech cunty behaviour. And they've solidified this position by giving jobs to conservative cunts like Joel ‘cunty ’Kaplan and angry dickhead Dana White.
The zuck took time out (i.e., took his hand off his cock to stop pulling it) to explain his posturing, something like:
- Starting in the US [because that's where the most angry, racist, greedy, gullible, ignorant and uninformed people are], we are ending our third party [see, it really wasn't us] fact-checking program and moving to a ‘Community Notes’ model [so racists and incels can self-moderate — a win-win].
- We will allow more speech 😶 by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse [so, what would for any normal, well-adjusted adult be seen as ignorant, vile and/or offensive just isn't because there are so many angry greedy stupid ignorant and uninformed racist rednecks talking about them so, like, they're valid].
- We will be focusing our enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations (which are nebulous notions which we can manipulate and do nothing without ramificiation).
- We will take a more personalized approach to political content, so that people who want to see more of it [i.e., see more racist, uninformed ignrant conspiratorial incels crap] in their feeds can.
We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It’s time to get back to our roots [to obscenely misappropriatearound free expression,” Zuckerberg said in a video.
He acknowledged the role of the recent US elections in his thinking, saying they “feel like a cultural tipping point, towards once again prioritising speech”. Elon Musk: Zuckerberg’s change follows X’s embrace of community notes.
Elon Musk: Zuckerberg’s change follows X’s embrace of community notes. Credit: Bloomberg
In place of a formal fact-checking program to address dubious claims posted on Meta’s platforms, Zuckerberg instead plans to implement a system of “community notes” similar to that used on Elon Musk-owned X.
Meta also will focus its automated systems on removing “high-severity violations” and illegal content such as terrorism and illicit drugs, Zuckerberg said. It will stop proactively scanning for hate speech and other types of rule-breaking, and review such posts only in response to user reports.
The company will move safety teams overseeing content policies and review out of California, including to Texas, he added.
A Meta spokesperson declined to say which specific teams would be moving to Texas and whether any would be moving to other places. The spokesperson also declined to cite examples of mistakes or bias on the part of fact-checkers.
The demise of the fact-checking program, started in 2016, caught partner organisations by surprise.
“We didn’t know that this move was happening, and it comes as a shock to us. This is definitely going to affect us,” said Jesse Stiller, managing editor at Check Your Fact.
The head of the International Fact-Checking Network, Angie Drobnic Holan, challenged Zuckerberg’s characterisation of its members as biased or censorious.
“Fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; it’s added information and context to controversial claims, and it’s debunked hoax content and conspiracies. The fact-checkers used by Meta follow a Code of Principles requiring nonpartisanship and transparency,” she said in a statement.
Kristin Roberts, Gannett Media’s chief content officer, said “truth and facts serve everyone – not the right or the left – and that’s what we will continue to deliver”.
“We’ve learned the news as everyone has today. It’s a hard hit for the fact-checking community and journalism. We’re assessing the situation,” AFP said in an emailed response to Reuters.
Other partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Reuters declined to comment. Meta’s independent oversight board welcomed the move.
Zuckerberg in recent months has expressed regret over certain content moderation actions on topics including COVID-19. Meta also donated $US1 million ($1.6 million) to Trump’s inaugural fund, in a departure from its past practice.
“This is a major step back for content moderation at a time when disinformation and harmful content are evolving faster than ever,” said Ross Burley, co-founder for non-profit Centre for Information Resilience.
“This move seems more about political appeasement than smart policy.”
When asked about the company’s plan to end fact-checking, Trump said, “They have come a long way – Meta. The man [Zuckerberg] was very impressive.”
He added that Zuckerberg was probably responding to threats made to him.
Musk’s X is already under European Commission investigation over dissemination of illegal content in the EU and the effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation, including the community notes system.
Meta said it would start phasing in community notes in the US over the next couple of months and improve the model over the year.
It will allow users to call out posts that are potentially misleading and need more context, rather than placing the responsibility on independent fact-checking organisations and experts.
Meta said it would not intervene in the adding of community notes to posts on its platforms.
Reuters
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