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
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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
I don't understand, though. I never see porn in my feed. Not sure why/how it's hitting some people so hard and not others.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Oh, bother.
Not every widespread problem hits everyone. That's as true for bots as it is for videogame launch bugs.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Lost in Space
Okay, fine, but there's clearly some reason beyond "it's just random lol" why my experience is so different from other people's. My feed used to be half crypto spam before Musk took over, and now it's basically gone. Rarely got porn. Still a bunch of stupid ads, though.
Maybe it depends on the topics you follow. SEO applies to bots as much as it does to everyone else.
Edited by Fighteer on Apr 1st 2024 at 11:40:26 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Am I a weirdo?
Yeah, it's probably just a matter of what topics you follow. I imagine an Elon Musk-owned social media site probably goes harder after porn bots that post on threads about space travel and electric cars, for example.
Bigotry will NEVER be welcome on TV Tropes.
Professional Forum Ninja
Will they auto play sound?
As much as I understand that server space, electricity, etc. aren't free and Discord has to pay the bills somehow, it sounds like this will even target Nitro users, which is only going to piss off the people who are already giving Discord money.
And the ads are apparently "quests" that include doing specific tasks in games while streaming to at least one friend. I can't see that going over well.
It's been fun.
And what about those who neither stream nor use Discord's gaming integration?
How are the Truth Social stocks doing?
Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.
Calendar enthusiast
That's a good start, hopefully it tanks further.
Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.
Redmess
They dropped 4 billion dollars.
That's still a billion dollars, but yeah, what a crash.
Optimism is a duty.
he/him
It probably won't help that Trump Media was propped up by loans from ES Family Trust, a shell company for Anton Postolnikov and Paxum Bank.
Postolnikov Is the nephew of one of Putin's closest allies, and Paxum Bank is not authorised to trade in the USA, so there are suggestions ES Family Trust was created purely to obscure the source of the loan.
Redmess
Do those loans also affect the stock price?
Optimism is a duty.
he/him
Postolnikov is apparently a person of interest for the FBI and DHS, so it's certainly not going to help the stock price.
Team Rocket Boss.
Is Trump even using Truth Social?
I thought that was the appeal for his base.
I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Yes, the former guy still uses Truth Social and continues to make insane inflamatory posts.
Its worth noting that the discord quests are just discord drops but with a rebrand.
Rember this guy for instance? Its just him but with a new name.
If you look at there git commits, the whole process is pretty blatant
I heard some one sugest its because there trying to seperate it from twitch drops.
Redmess
Yes, he's posting there all the time, late show hosts occasionally comment on them, too.
Optimism is a duty.
Lost in Space
People thought the apocalypse was coming when X reinstated Trump, but he's got his own little playground now and he's not gonna come out.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
I think he's actually under contract to only post on Truth Social.
Not Three Laws compliant.
Lost in Space
Trump being "under contract" is one of the funnier things I've heard this week.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
Yeah, I checked, he's actually contracted to only use Truth Social.
I don't think the contract itself would be much of a control on him...but, if it combines with his ego to end up at "I refuse to go back to twitter because that might mean that Truth Social was a mistake AND I DON'T MAKE MISTAKES and I refuse to pay the penalty for breaking the contract." it'd explain a lot.
Not Three Laws compliant.
Redmess
I find it hard to believe that he would enter into such a contract, especially since it is his platform. Are you sure about that contract?
And honestly, I thought he would jump at being able to go back to Twitter, but apparently he is serious about this particular vendetta.
Optimism is a duty.
It's like I said a while back — you can't cut your way to success.
Disgusted, but not surprised