I recently took Tube City Online off of X/Twitter after 15 years. We never got many incoming clicks from it anyway (Meta is a far better platform for our demographic) but I needed to make sure we had a Linktree, and I also had to move our Fediverse (Mastodon) account to a new server.
And then Elon Musk changed his X/Twitter name to a far-right, anti-semitic slur. That was the final straw, as if I needed one.
If you want to stay on X/Twitter, that’s up to you. But I was reminded of a famous story in broadcasting circles about a TV show called “Turn-On” that was literally cancelled while the first episode was airing, due to the number of complaints the network received.
One station manager sent a telegram to ABC: “If your naughty little boys have to write dirty words on the walls, please don’t use our walls.”
Journalists need to stop engaging on X/Twitter, and brands need to consider whether it’s worth having your messages and logos next to literal Nazi content.
Yes, of course your message on X/Twitter is clean, but you’re surrounded by naughty little boys writing slurs on your walls. Is it worth it? And is that really an audience you want to reach? I don’t.
And I know a lot of people think they’re part of a “Twitter resistance,” which is going to force the platform to return to civility.
You poor, sweet, summer children. Good luck with that. Watch out for snipe hunts and wallet inspectors.
Meanwhile: Meta/Facebook has announced that they’re going to stop fact-checking posts. (This comes as a shock to anyone who’s sifted through the sewer of misinformation on Facebook — they had fact-checkers? What have they been doing all day?)
Meta — which made a large cash donation to Trump’s inauguration — now says the fact-checking process is “politically biased,” which is another way of saying that right-wing misinformation is far more common on Facebook than left-wing misinformation, and so it needs to stop fact-checking, lest it run afoul of the new administration full of thin-skinned, vindictive bullies.
As a result of this change, Meta has warned that users may start seeing an increase in sexist, racist, violent and homophobic content on Facebook.
Again, I ask: How we will be able to tell the difference?
Meta defends these changes in the name of “free speech.” But Meta isn’t interested in free speech; try posting articles that criticize white supremacy or Facebook itself, and see how fast you get a notification that you’ve violated “community standards.”
Instead, Meta is inviting naughty little boys to write dirty words on its walls, as long as the dirty words don’t criticize Meta or its investors. Outrage is good for business; the madder you are at something you see on Facebook or Instagram, the more time you spend on Facebook or Instagram, having vicious but pointless arguments.
In what I’m sure is a coincidence, Meta has appointed Trump’s friend, the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its board of directors.
Social media is hitting the wall of diminishing returns everywhere. The platforms that work best are those with strong moderation and a lot of community control. The only social media platform I spend much time on these days is Mastodon, which has a fraction of the reach of Meta, I know, but it’s much more pleasant, and it gives me much more control over what I see. A lot of folks have gone to Bluesky, but they’ve already announced they’re going to start charging you for what you used to get for free.
It’s always been obvious that Meta, X, LinkedIn, Bluesky etc., don’t have their users’ best interests at heart; they’re just not bothering to hide it any more.
We are not their clients, we are their products, and they are using us up. When we’re no longer useful, they throw us in the trash.
Anyway. Apropos of nothing, in writing this entry, I had to look at a bunch of photos of Elon, and it occurred to me that if Peter Lorre were alive, he would have been a great choice to play Musk in a movie. He was just the right combination of whiny, fragile, creepy and paranoid.
I can hear him now at Mar-a-Lago, shouting, “You … you imbecile. You bloated idiot. You stupid fathead, you!”
Update: Rolling Stone and other outlets report that Musk has recently begun responding to his critics on X by calling them “r-tards.” Yeah. It’s dead. Not looking back.