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The Social Media Thread

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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.

One exception is Truth Social, due to its connection to Donald Trump. As there is a forum ban on US Politics, all discussion of Truth Social is off-topic and posts about the platform may be thumped.

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, then it's probably gossip and not worth talking about.


     Thread OP 
So, I was looking for a dedicated social media thread and apparently there was this one 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 Nov 8th 2024 at 5:16:31 PM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#4901: Nov 20th 2022 at 7:44:31 AM

disgusting Deviants!

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#4902: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:25:18 AM

I only remember Newsgrounds from Flash games, anything from decent quality to bottom-of-the-barrel garbage.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Kayeka (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4903: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:26:40 AM

And I just learned that Newgrounds is apparently still a thing. I assumed it went under along with Flash.

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#4904: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:27:18 AM

Did you also know MySpace still exists?

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#4905: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:27:26 AM

Heard Andrew Tate is being unbanned as well...

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Wheatleyfangirl White Lily Dawnbreaker from Crispa Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: SEDUCE ME!
White Lily Dawnbreaker
#4906: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:27:44 AM

[up][up][up]

Nope. Last time I checked, it's still up and running.

Edited by Wheatleyfangirl on Nov 20th 2022 at 11:28:12 AM

Beast Yeast episode 12 was peak. Everyone in that episode was great. Especially White Lily.
SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4907: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:33:56 AM

Newgrounds still houses artwork, though I think the NSFW stuff you have to log in to see.

Demongodofchaos2 Face me now, bitch! from In a Cultivation World (Ancient one) Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Face me now, bitch!
#4908: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:54:57 AM

You can also toggle NSFW art and voicework off and on, too, via the the rating system buttons there.

Watch Symphogear
doomrider7 (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4909: Nov 20th 2022 at 8:56:40 AM

Still have a New Grounds account and yes the site has a LOT of artwork and it's all curated rather well based on rating that can easily be toggled on or off.

Edit: Fixed. Meant New Grounds not Deviantart. [nja]

Edited by doomrider7 on Nov 20th 2022 at 12:31:02 PM

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#4910: Nov 20th 2022 at 9:10:20 AM

I've heard Deviant Art isn't moderated very well though. For example, if there's bullying or harassment, hate speech of any kind, nobody gets flagged or banned.

Like creepy stories? Check out my book!
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#4911: Nov 20th 2022 at 9:12:27 AM

I have a weird problem with Twitch. When I try to create a new account, it asks me to verify with my phone number, but then it says my phone number is already registered. And when I try to recover my user name with that phone number, it gives an error.

Any ideas?

Edited by Redmess on Nov 20th 2022 at 6:12:36 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4912: Nov 20th 2022 at 9:13:45 AM

Plus, Deviant Art tried to source out all artwork on the site to be used for AI art without the consent of any users. That's kind of fucked.

doomrider7 (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4913: Nov 20th 2022 at 9:29:43 AM

[up]x3

That I don't know how it works. I just used it to save whatever cool art and music I found. I never interactacted with the community.

[up]

I heard Deviantart got busted doing that, but hadn't heard of New Grounds too.

Edit: Fucked up my previous comment. Meant to say New Grounds which curated its content quite well using various ratings not dissimilar to ESRB(E to AO). No idea how Deviantart works on these things.

Edited by doomrider7 on Nov 20th 2022 at 12:33:13 PM

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#4914: Nov 20th 2022 at 9:46:47 AM

I think is 18+ or not, and dunno how clear the line between the two is, really.

Wake me up at your own risk.
FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#4915: Nov 20th 2022 at 10:12:57 AM

Hentai-Foundry also exists everyone.

DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#4916: Nov 20th 2022 at 10:16:13 AM

[up]

Which has its own fair share of problems, which is probably why a lot of people aren't using it (or not anymore).

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#4917: Nov 20th 2022 at 11:10:18 AM

I'm seeing links to videos of Jason David Frank's recent suicide. Hopefully they are just misinformation, but be careful if you come across them.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#4918: Nov 20th 2022 at 11:19:52 AM

re DeviantArt and AI; that's not what actually happened but people are confused because their Twitter account's PR skill is apparently total garbage and they completely flubbed the announcements and gave everyone the wrong idea.

What happened is two separate changes, made simultaneously:

  1. The implementation of the "noai" flag, originally opt-in but later made opt-out, which signals to spiders gathering data for image-generation AIs that you don't want your work added to their dataset. This was an attempt to create a new protocol similar to the Do Not Track flag — previously, these spiders would just pick up everything they found and there was no way to stop them. (Whether any bot actually obeys this flag in future is... well, see what happened with DNT.)
  2. The release of DreamUp, DA's own AI art generator, which was intended to properly credit the artists whose work it was... inspired by? If a human did this you'd say "inspired by" so let's say that for the bot too. The idea was to serve as an example for how to do this in hopes that other art-creation bots would follow it. And naturally, it would obey your noai settings.

There are apparently "mods crying in the Discord" over the complete failure to communicate here.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Nov 20th 2022 at 2:24:05 PM

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#4919: Nov 20th 2022 at 2:48:55 PM

Plus, Deviant Art tried to source out all artwork on the site to be used for AI art without the consent of any users. That's kind of fucked.

re Deviant Art and AI; that's not what actually happened but people are confused because their Twitter account's PR skill is apparently total garbage and they completely flubbed the announcements and gave everyone the wrong idea.

I mean it's technically exactly what happened. When you make the no ai flag Opt In by default (as was the original iteration), you have effectively sourced all the artwork on the site without users consent.

And it's definitely not just a communication SNAFU. Making the flag opt in by default (and by individual art piece) was definitely an implementation faux-pas. You effectively made it that any user who can't toggle the flag (Say, by virtue of being dead), now is free game for all the AI to draw from.

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 20th 2022 at 2:49:59 AM

VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#4920: Nov 20th 2022 at 2:55:40 PM

Film Theory just posted this video, on which they started work well before Musk bought Twitter.

TL;DW: Twitter is much less popular than the media thinks; few people actually have Twitter accounts, and of those that do, 25% of users make 97% of tweets. However, Twitter is very popular specifically among journalists and people in the media, and since they use it and all their colleagues use it, they perceive it as incredibly popular and a useful sample of public opinion.

The writers delve into publicly-available Twitter data, box office returns, and Nielsen ratings to show that there is very little correlation between what trends on Twitter and what people actually watch. The punchline of the video is that the most popular TV series right now is Yellowstone, a massive show with multiple spinoffs that all do impressive numbers. However, because the people watching it mostly don't use Twitter, Twitter has no idea it even exists.

The comments raise some other issues, but since these points were made by YouTube comments, treat them with all appropriate scepticism. Apparently, the trending bar doesn't reflect what is actually trending; Twitter workers remove topics they don't want to get popular and add things they want people to talk about. I do seem to recall that even in the site's early days, the people running it actively prevented #JustinBieber from trending. Moreover, Trump's Musk's layoffs include all mods and admins for the Asia Pacific region except for one person in Korea; as a result, APPARENTLY it is for the first time ever reflecting what is actually trending in Japan, and as such the Trending bar has gone from political topics to anime and bird flu.

Edited by VampireBuddha on Nov 20th 2022 at 11:13:46 AM

Ukrainian Red Cross
DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#4921: Nov 20th 2022 at 3:02:55 PM

Moreover, Trump's layoffs include all mods and admins for the Asia Pacific region except for one person in Korea

Well, that's a Freudian slip, if I ever saw one. tongue

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#4922: Nov 20th 2022 at 3:03:45 PM

I don't think that's too surprising, that sort of service usually has a small core of fervent users and a long tail of increasingly sparse users, and an ever growing tail of ghost accounts that neither read or post.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#4923: Nov 20th 2022 at 3:15:15 PM

Still, 'tis a bit odd that people are proclaiming Facebook is dead when it has an order of magnitude more users of Twitter.

Not that Facebook is doing well at the moment; it's also coming apart at the seams, but much slower.

Edited by VampireBuddha on Nov 20th 2022 at 11:16:22 AM

Ukrainian Red Cross
wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
mys. minty from the silly dimension
#4924: Nov 20th 2022 at 3:16:17 PM

>You effectively made it that any user who can't toggle the flag (Say, by virtue of being dead), now is free game for all the AI to draw from.

But they didn't make that the case. It was already the case; they've just created an option to make it stop being the case (provided that any bot actually listens to that option), and set that option to "leave things how they were before" by default.

You can certainly make arguments that this isn't the correct defaultnote  but no art is in actual fact more accessible to AI now than it was before.


Also, lmao at Facebook being dead. It should be dead, but it's not and it's not gonna be.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Nov 20th 2022 at 6:17:05 AM

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#4925: Nov 20th 2022 at 3:16:30 PM

its too mainstream and thus 'no longer cool' so it's 'dead' to them.

have a listen and have a link to my discord server

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