Why I quit Elon Musk's Twitter - Op-Ed NewYorker

[BootinUp]

snip

My decision to leave yielded a tide of farewells but also two other types of responses. The first was low-grade trolling that had the effect of validating my decision to depart. But the second was more nuanced and complicated, an argument that leaving offered a concession to the abusive, reactionary elements whose presence has become increasingly prominent since Musk took over. One person paraphrased the writer Sarah Kendzior, urging users to “never cede ground in an information war.” Those arguments are increasingly frail, though. If there is, in fact, an information war raging on Twitter, Musk is a profiteer. Twitter is what it always was: a money-making venture—just more nakedly so. And it now subsidizes a billionaire who understands free speech to be synonymous with the right to abuse others. (While claiming to champion free speech, Musk has selectively granted it, suspending accounts that are critical of him and firing employees who dissented from his view of how the company should be run.) The tech industry’s gimmick to monetize our attention has been astoundingly successful even if Twitter has habitually struggled to be profitable. In the end, Musk’s leadership of the company appears to be a cynical form of trolling—creating a welcoming environment for some of the platform’s worst actors while simultaneously hailing his new order for its inclusivity.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-i-quit-elon-musks-twitter

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[bucolic_frolic]

1. The Last Days of Twitter

are on the horizon. I will leave when Eloon needs me most. That will be when it's all shaken out and needs growth. There is no growth remaining in the platform. Those who leave are gone for good. You can't grow on 44% of America, half of whom couldn't be bothered or can't read, and the other half can't think. It's an echo chamber. It's kaput.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Was an info war on Twit. Mollusk fired all the shelter maintainers, so now no shelter. Bye bye

I never made an account, but frequently clicked through to read.

Now that it is a mass-murder manifesto cesspool, I hardly do even that.

[ananda]

3. Luckily, I didn't use my real name.

And they have no real info.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Only "cede ground" on level battlefields. If it is landmined with no shelters, leave it to the orcs.

Decent people avoid cesspools, minefields, and garbage dumps.

Ceding ground in a garbage dump is fine. Let 'em talk to themselves.

Expend energy building and defending the town squares even though they are small at the moment, as the Twitter monopoly is still teetering on the edge. The town squares online where decent people can interact with deplorables and still have some civility and defenses against disinformation.

Ceding Twitter is a terrible loss, but it is out of our hands and entirely in Egoloon's hands. He wants "free-for-all", no holds barred grudge matches. He will get them. But not with decent people.

Let Twitter go and in six months it will be filled with orcs fighting over looted washing machines and shitting on each other's ancestry. Fight desperate battles against the hordes and it will delay the inevitable by a month.

[orthoclad]

7. It's not really a battlefield,

it's private property where a capitalist owns the users, via their personal data and participation. Pick a battlefield that isn't owned by the enemy.

Under public ownership, there was the figleaf of shareholder control, but the essential nature as property is now clear.

It seems that Mastodon is more like a club than a corporation, like the old bulletin boards.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Info battlefield is against disinfo. But your characterizations of Twitter and Mastodon are good. nt

[orthoclad]

13. Metaphors like "battlefield"

are imprecise, but these things are true:
-we're in a struggle for power
-the property laws of capitalism are very clear

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Correct re metaphor, struggle, and property laws. . . . nt

[Clash City Rocker]

5. I've seen that second argument here

I don’t get it. You don’t fight racism by supporting a platform that encourages racism. I wouldn’t even buy a Tesla at this point because I don’t want to help Musk in any way.

[lapfog_1]

6. the argument about don't leave because the orcs will "win"

is the same thing as "join truth social so that the orcs don't win"...

The platform (the umpires if you will) is no longer neutral.

[orthoclad]

8. Capitalism always won

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Open social media (open code, open curation, own-control filtering) are neutral. But not quite here

Mastodon idea is getting there. I should probably give it a whirl to nose around a bit.

But really, the curation (moderation, tagging, reputation-earning, etc.) is not well understood or developed. It is the key.

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

https://archive.ph/gavqT

[Voltaire2]

10. Advertisers pay for the audience.

No audience, no advertisers, no twitter.

This isn't rocket science

[Emrys]

15. I don't think we should be blatantly spelling out how to get around paywalls in OPs.

As for the OP, everybody has their own thresholds for when enough Musk will be enough. I'm not going anywhere until I meet mine, and no amount of pressure or guilt-tripping on DU is going to change that.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

16. What is wrong with clearing a cookie on your own device?