If you wanted to know what was going on a few hours after a group of people took the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or when Russian tanks cross the border of Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022, you may not have looked. local television station. But if it was your job to report on these issues, you would have one page open on Twitter.
When Pew Research asked Americans in 2021 about what they do about news, 23% reported using Twitter. Of those surveyed, 69% reported using the site as a news source, and 70% used Twitter as a place to follow breaking news. Pew didn’t directly poll the media, but if they did, the numbers would be like 100%, 100%, and 100%.
That’s why for more than ten years between its expansion and its rapid decline, Twitter represents a list of news, journalists, and experts who have not been anywhere else on the Internet. It was a place where a reporter could report on an impending bombshell hours before it made the front pages of any paper or hit the headlines on television. It was also a place to research an mRNA specialist, or to skim through complicated legal documents.
Now Twitter is dying. The community that made it possible is already broke, looking for another way to transform their old home. And when many turn to the question of what is to come, the most appropriate answer is: nothing.
Most people have always hated Twitter—and for good reason. The site was never far from being rocked by trolls and even the “friendly” side of Twitter had a level of disability that was often demeaning. The area can be seen as boring and loose, its appearance is cold and confusing, the arrangement of the place is strange and unchanging.
And that was in nice days.
As a dozen recent startups have shown, the software behind Twitter is very limited. A programmer can also create many websites in a day. In fact, it all started as a brainstorming tool designed for use within the podcasting company where college student Jack Dorsey worked. It was not the result of one programmer; there were two.
What Twitter has always done is two things: brevity and moderation.
The brief appearance of the Twitter post forced the writer to think hard. For many journalists, it has always been an exercise to take a paragraph of a story they have written and put it in the margins of one Twitter page to see what is left of it.
It was writer Francine Prose whose advice to writers was to “put every word to the test for its life.” On Twitter, these tests are performed several times a day. The result was often stories that were razor sharp, cut from the cloth of news. The number of words that were exaggerated and eventually killed was countless.
Many users are worried that when the service changes the limit from 140 characters to 280 characters in 2017, it will “destroy Twitter.” They were almost right.
However, the short-term relevance that made Twitter a great way to get news also made it the perfect weapon to fire misinformation, falsehoods, and outright hate. That’s when self-control came in.
Moderation was one of the biggest and most expensive aspects of Twitter during its growth. This included thousands of people working to prevent intentional violence and abuse. They also included public tools that raise awareness around hundreds of millions of messages every day, and a system of blue checkmarks that were given not only to celebrities with millions of followers, but to journalists and others who are known to be trustworthy. All that combined, on its best day, it couldn’t stay ahead of the hordes of bots, trolls, and neo-Nazis that constantly threaten to destroy the site and extinguish the “brand” that was so visible in its heyday. Twitter.
But for all its faults, moderation on Twitter does what it does everywhere: define territory.
The loyal and tireless team at Daily Kos doesn’t exist because the software is incomparable (sorry, IT) or because the front page is painted with unknown intelligence (sorry, me). This community exists because of self-control, with a truly caring and self-monitoring team that has worked for Daily Kos since it was brought back to the Permian. They continue to give this place an incomparable gift: you.
On Twitter, he created a community full of those who had news, made news, and made good news. Of the more than 500 million people who used Twitter, the group may not have made up a tenth of that, but they gave Twitter a power unlike any other social media site.
That is until, of course, Elon Musk took control of the site at the end of 2022 and began systematically destroying it.
It wasn’t hard to see why the Twitter board was eager to seal the deal with “the richest man in the world.” Musk opened his rarely used mouth and spat out a price that was more than any price. To make him go through with it, even if it meant the sure and final destruction of what he had built, falls under the obscure technical word of “business.” They got their $44 billion, left the room, and never looked back.
At the same time, Musk tore into groups that fight against the constant threat of racism, tears, and discrimination against LGBTQ +. Why? Because in Musk’s middle-school, still-dreaming-of-having-sex-with-Dagny-Taggart idea of freedom is where denigrating people because of their race, sex, sexuality, or disability is cool.
They then collected checks that served as a way to protect users from duplicate accounts and sources of fake news and sold them at prices to duplicate accounts, sources of fake news, and Nazis — mostly Nazis.
On any given day, it’s easy to find news where Twitter has become a place to spread hate and unwarranted violence. It’s easy to find stories about Musk participants happy and active putting innocent lives at risk. And it’s not hard to find Musk selling medical advice to an unsuspecting personpromotion cryptocurrency pyramid schemeor calling “crocodile weighing contest” and fellow social media tyrant Mark Zuckerberg (a call that looks like Musk is trying to rush the match promised by Meta’s CEO).
With each step down the Fury Road of pointless destruction, Twitter has turned its users off to other things. In the past “federated” platform is not known Mastodon it was promoted early and it looks very good because of its multi-billion-proof features, although many who went to see the service found this elephant to be too strong when it comes to its appearance and the ability to find friends on its many servers. . Others like it Visible and CounterSocial they mimic the look and feel of Twitter, but so far they have failed to capture large enough areas to exert sufficient gravity. BlueSky, created by Twitter founder (and anti-vaccination woo woo) Jack Dorsey, may have been controversial months ago, but the team there has been deliberately slow the growth of the platform and accuse users sent to purgatory waiting for those who can. months ago. However, BlueSky is attractive because its ownership is designed to protect against the interests of its founder.
The biggest competition now – and one that is misleading Twitter users as if the two were connected by a mile-long pipeline – is. Thread. Threads is currently mobile-only, but since Threads is Instagram’s youth-oriented feature, it comes with a mobile audience. It’s also similar to Twitter that Musk is already threatening to sue when he sees the water in his pool going down. And down.
The main days of Twitter, which are still supported by the news of the new criticism of Trump or Musk’s rocket that broke in the sky in Texas, are now unable to reach the number of traffic that the site had on a mid-day at the beginning of the year.
NPR showed the virtues of tough love after Musk decided it would be fun to call it fake news, but for many of us, even in his death, Twitter remains relevant. It’s just that the price is going down, and this drop is getting worse with every word Musk says.
Do you remember when Musk wanted to make someone big at Twitter and let him run the show so he could leave the platform and focus on other things? That’s fine, even Musk. He continues to treat his $44 billion toy as a way to increase the hatred, intolerance, and humor already known.
He will continue to do so, improving his large sites like 8Chan, until he has a smaller site with the same audience as 8Chan. Then they can grab the remaining withered vine and start enjoying having all those libs. And now, time to dance.
Vice.com announced that Musk had just received a major endorsement for all his efforts to remake Twitter into its disgraceful image.
Anas Haqqani, a Taliban think-tank who links to families and leadership, has officially endorsed Twitter in competition with Facebook.
But before the Taliban decide to bring their services to Twitter, they may want to check the situation. a common source of intolerance and violent activist, Tucker Carlson.
The popular social media personality launched a new program, Tucker on Twitter, which launched in June with what appeared to be strong results. Its premiere garnered more than 26 million “views,” a Twitter metric that counts as anyone who watches a video for more than 2 seconds.
However, viewership for even two seconds of Tucker has plummeted to the point where his latest show “only had 3.8 million views.”
This puts Carlson’s “show” behind the tweets of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Greta Thunberg, and behind the tweet from Musk. threatening to put cocaine back into Cokebut at least Carlson beat Musk’s joke about Zuckerberg’s penis.
Twitter is dying. We’ve all known it for months, the disease is only getting worse, and the wisest have packed their bags. Maybe BlueSky will finally open the doors and the old gang will gather there again. Maybe the Threads are crossed the disgust itself to “politics and ‘hard news'” and realize that these things can be as true as beauty tips and celebrity gossip.
Maybe all of this will never happen. Meanwhile, Meta seems determined to do to Threads what it did to Facebook: retain control over how news is reported and delivered. And that my first attempt at this site led me to be connected to my niece, a chiropractor I went to a while ago eight years ago, a real estate agent who bought one of my houses, and a company I had previously ordered from. Previous employers’ desks don’t make me think much of their concept of “privacy.” BlueSky lacks basic features such as video transmission. The company seems to be growing so fast that five months after its launch, it still has ideas to experiment with.
Twitter will die. Social media will continue. And there is no single place that can have a place that is always open to every journalist. However, Elon can grumble to himself about how he got the money. I believe it was worth it.