By "social media" we mean any large computer network that allows people to interact in shared communities. The big ones of course are Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram, but we can't forget newer platforms like Discord and Slack.
Dedicated video sites are off-topic here and YouTube has its own separate thread
.
What we should discuss in this OTC topic are news items, business operations, and activities by the networks themselves, not specific things posted by users. Those should go into threads appropriate to the subjects of those posts. For example, if an actor tweets about a film, we'd discuss that in the Media forum topic for the film, not here. If Facebook changes its policies, that could be discussed here.
The politics, motives, competency and wider business activities of the owners and leaders of social media companies (e.g. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg) are also off-topic — except in situations where they are directly making specific policy for the platform.
Talking about a particular Instagram policy change (or a high-profile ban on a specific user) directly announced by Mark Zuckerberg would be acceptable in this thread, speculating about Zuckerberg's wider motivations wouldn't be.
The thread's also not about "dumb thing [public figure] said on [social media platform]". If there isn't a specific thread related to the subject of the statement (e.g. US Politics), then it's probably gossip and not worth talking about.
created back in 2020 that we never opened. Unfortunately, it's a little stale, so bumping it isn't going to work very well, but I would like to restart it. The reason I'm doing so is that the Computer Thread seems to have become the de facto place for this sort of talk, and it's a big tonal clash with talking about computer tech.
The hot topic of the day is Elon Musk's bid to acquire Twitter. We first discussed it in the Computer Thread, starting roughly here, and I am not going to rehash the entire discussion. Instead, I am going to resume from the last post:
CNBC: Twitter is reportedly taking another look at Musk takeover bid
Twitter's board is reportedly meeting with Elon Musk and may seek to negotiate on his buyout offer. Musk claims to have secured $46 billion in funding to buy the company at a valuation of $43 billion and is preparing to make a tender offer to its shareholders.
While the board has passed a poison pill, it could be facing resistance to that from groups of shareholders and will want to talk things out rather than face a hostile takeover. It's also possible that Twitter's stock could crash if the offer fails to go through.
Another possible topic was originally posted here.
Ars Technica: EU to unveil landmark law to force Big Tech to police illegal content
Following on from the recently passed Digital Markets Act, which requires large tech companies to unbundle first-party software from hardware platforms, the proposed Digital Services Act will require medium and large social media platforms and search engines to police hate speech and disinformation while adding additional protections for children against targeted marketing.
It also bans "dark patterns", which manipulate or trick people into clicking on ads or other content. The article doesn't explicitly say what that means, but I assume it includes things like disguising ads to look like parts of a site's user interface, hiding "close" buttons, and such.
For large companies, the requirements would go into effect immediately. For medium companies, they would have a grace period to implement the changes.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, has warned that Big Tech has become “too big to care.”
This phrase, "too big to care", intrigues me. It's an indictment of the idea that these companies have decided that growth and engagement metrics overwhelm any sense of social responsibility.
In my opinion, a law like this would be impossible in the United States, since it would be challenged (likely successfully) on First Amendment grounds.
Edited by Mrph1 on Dec 12th 2023 at 11:24:56 AM
Lost in Space
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Think about it. What big astronomical event happened today in North America?
I'm going to draw attention to the header of this thread:
I guess it's technically a post for the space thread, but c'mon, y'all, it's just an eclipse joke.
It's been fun.
Musk lost his legal bid to keep his deposition sealed from a lawsuit over him amplifying a right wing conspiracy theory that wrongly accused a Jewish man of being a government agent running a false flag to get neo-Nazis in legal trouble. The man had to move him and his family out of their home as the tweet Musk retweeted included his personal details including address and was seen millions of times because Musk quite tweeted it.
The article has the highlights, the key takeaways are that Musk doesn't consider the risk of falsely defaming someone worth the effort of verifying if the claim is true, that he doesn't actually understand what he's being sued over and that he doesn't think the person suing him was harmed from having his home address and other private information shared on Twitter and amified by Musk
Oh, bother.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Didn't he recently have twitter moderation run cover for a far-right cartoonist because people started posting his full name, or something to that effect?
Oh, bother.
That's why I don't buy the argument claiming ignorance of the harm doxxing can do. He's perfectly aware of how harmful it is.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Oh, bother.
Team Rocket Boss.
I've been saying that Musk's strategy for improving Twitter is to just make it into an alt-right safe haven with the smug belief that their favorite targets would have no where else to go.
Oh, bother.
Team Rocket Boss.
he/him
As the pinned post says, matters relating to particular social media posts and users are off-topic here. The thread is intended to discuss platforms and policies, not user-generated content.
This was already pointed out further up the page, in response to the NASA eclipse joke.
The news about Musk's deposition is on-topic, as it includes court discussion about his role within Twitter/X, not just the specific tweets that led to legal action.
The follow-up posts about Musk's behaviour are largely off-topic, as they're just talking about his life. Some of them are also fact-free insults, which would be likely to attract civility thumps even if they were on-topic.
Please follow the thread guidance on this stuff.
Team Rocket Boss.
So back on my on topic, topic how many left leaning users here still use Twitter despite the politically alt right actions of it's owner?
Like I said, his strategy relies on the alt right customer base.
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
he/him
Anecdotally, I'm getting the impression that Bluesky is picking up a lot of that now. A lot of the comic/gaming folk who were professionally on Twitter now seem to have migrated.
Never used twitter for politics, have not seen any difference before and after as a result, so I am.
Besides, if any thing Elon's shift is to the left of what the Japanese side of political twitter was any way, and yes I am well aware of what that is like.... but uhhh there is regular genocide denial with photos, alt-right bullshit imports, racism that doesn't bother with dog whistles and so on.
Shit looked like a 4chan board some days.
Twitters non English policy has always pretty much been "our staff doesn't speak it so we don't care" where as the English one at least has to put up a facade occasionally.
Edited by Imca on Apr 11th 2024 at 11:06:22 PM
Lost in Space
I still use X regularly; it's my primary source of news on topics that I follow. I try to avoid the political BS.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
I've only ever used Twitter to look at fanart for some series I liked and to message artists about commissions. Most of them have other sites they use too but prefer Twitter because its notifications of DMs is better...
So back on my on topic, topic how many left leaning users here still use Twitter despite the politically alt right actions of it's owner?
Mostly to promote my books.
The reality is that even if you dont like the direction Twitter is heading it's incredibly hard to actualy replace it for the kinds of things most people use it for.
Until a critical mass of people decide to go some where else at least.
But they arent really going to move until every one else does.
Creating a catch 22 that all the attempts to replace twitter so far have run into.
People dont use Twitter for Twitter, they use it for access to Twitter's userbase.
Edited by Imca on Apr 12th 2024 at 12:06:46 AM
Lost in Space
Basically this. I use it because I've built up a set of followed accounts that provide timely information on topics that interest me, much like my YouTube feed. It would be a great deal of effort to redo all this on another site, and so I won't do it unless that site offers an equivalent experience. (Preferably a better one.)
On X today, the NASA Moon account posted
that it had blocked the NASA Sun & Space account. Well played, sirs, well played.
Edited by Fighteer on Apr 8th 2024 at 4:26:12 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"