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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

PhoenixAct Since: Feb, 2011
#18376: Jul 7th 2025 at 10:03:55 AM

Except that slashing various teams was one of the first things Musk did when he took over; and call me crazy, but I'd think slashing the teams responsible to getting rid of spam would in fact lead to an increase in spam.

Edited by PhoenixAct on Jul 7th 2025 at 10:04:08 AM

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#18377: Jul 7th 2025 at 10:06:48 AM

None of us can possibly know that for certain. By many accounts, Twitter was bloated even by Silicon Valley standards when it was bought out, and the spam problem has gotten worse across all social media platforms over time. We don't have a perfect lens to look at the changes made to Twitter/X and judge them all as good or bad.

We should be wary, in these discussions, of conflating issues. You can hate Musk all you want; it's not necessary or rational to assert that every problem is his fault, especially those that existed before he came into the picture and will exist long after he's out.

If spam were easy to stop, it would have been stopped by now.

Edited by Fighteer on Jul 7th 2025 at 1:08:34 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Risa123 Since: Dec, 2021 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#18378: Jul 7th 2025 at 10:08:31 AM

[up] I should note that the argument is not that spome did not exist, but rather that it got worse.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#18379: Jul 7th 2025 at 10:31:18 AM

I'd be interested in seeing numbers on that claim, broken out by platform. I get spam text messages on my phone almost daily. That's fairly recent and I'm pretty sure X isn't responsible.

Edited by Fighteer on Jul 7th 2025 at 1:31:41 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#18380: Jul 7th 2025 at 10:45:38 AM

There's definitely been a massive surge in email spam lately, too.

My musician page
GearFriedTheKnight BLOCKING - A weapon for the 21st century. from The nearest road that can be raced (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
BLOCKING - A weapon for the 21st century.
#18381: Jul 7th 2025 at 3:17:24 PM

You know, it's shocking just how better I have been feeling mentally since I just cut social media out of my life entirely starting last year. No more drama, no more flame baits, no more people who feel confident to say horrible things just behind their screens... No more trends or discourse! Just refreshing overall, allowing me to focus on things that deserve my attention and energy such as my writing.

''There's no magic in tuning; yet, it's something that tends to escape from any logic."
Shaoken (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Dating Catwoman
#18382: Jul 7th 2025 at 6:36:57 PM

The spam DM on Twitter has definitely increased more for me this calendar year than any other other calendar I've used the platform since 2016. I barely got any in the years leading up to Musk buying the platform, got it sporadically more after but there has definitely been a massive uptick of it this year.

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#18383: Jul 7th 2025 at 8:30:35 PM

I would get a good amount of spam in my messages and I felt it got worse when Musk took over. I deleted my account so I can't see if it got any worse since 2 years after I left.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#18384: Jul 7th 2025 at 8:38:06 PM

Like I said, I get zero spam in my DMs because I set them to private. Sometimes simple solutions are the best ones.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Chariot King of Anime Since: Jul, 2014
King of Anime
#18385: Jul 7th 2025 at 10:04:48 PM

I mean different people can have different experiences. I've been on Twitter since 2017 and never had any issues with spam in DMs until a few years after COVID hit. Like I went at least 4 years without spam DMs despite having my inbox open and while I can't say it got worse once Elon took over since I started getting spam pre-buyout, I can see why people are saying it's gotten worse if that's been their experience.

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
#18386: Jul 7th 2025 at 11:22:36 PM

I've been getting a whole lot more spam calls in the past few months. I don't know what the cause is, but I can reasonably assume it's not Elon Musk. If nothing else, I don't get the impression he cares about phones.

I'm also getting more spam DMs on Tumblr, though "more" is still a pretty small number there.

So I think something is just making spam in general worse.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Jul 7th 2025 at 2:23:04 PM

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
Travsam The Reconqueror from The Spanish side of Europe Since: Sep, 2023 Relationship Status: My elf kissing days are over
The Reconqueror
#18387: Jul 8th 2025 at 12:07:38 AM

I am trying to get my configurations to avoid spamming in my personal network, just enough to keep track of what I am like to read. Sometimes wanting to silence some users (like the CM of Hideo Kojima, I admire Kojima's work, but it seems that if the CM got an euro for every post he makes, we would get richer than Kojima himself XD)..., but so far, the spamming in DM is not happening here...

ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#18388: Jul 8th 2025 at 2:13:21 AM

[up][up]I suspect it has to do with the rise of AI.

My musician page
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#18389: Jul 8th 2025 at 6:10:43 AM

Robocalls are rising fast in 2025 – especially in these US cities

“It’s really fascinating, the bigger cities are very similar to last year – slight increases or decreases,” he said. “It’s the mid-tier cities, especially in the Midwest seeing big jumps.”

"t has to do with a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule change earlier this year. The agency was trying to make it so that when you give consent for a company to contact you, you’re only agreeing to be contacted by that specific company. But that rule was tossed out in court, and now companies can often share your contact information with others who may want it."

The article gives a list of US cities that have seen the highest increase in robocalls—and Southfield Michigan is at the top of the list. Guess where I live?

I suspect there is a local telemarketer that is ultimately responsible.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#18390: Jul 8th 2025 at 7:00:06 AM

While I'm not an US citizen, but I managed to correlate me using my healthcare services on large clinics with a streak of spam calls. I specially when I started getting the area code from the cities I had my health inspections in.

This is really annoying, specially whenever you are forced to sign up and give contact info.

Inter arma enim silent leges
Shaoken (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Dating Catwoman
#18391: Jul 8th 2025 at 7:48:31 PM

So what I'm gathering is that there is an uptick in spam in recent years but it's across the board in general rather than isolated to Twitter and any changes Musk made. Seems reasonable.

However to bring things back to changes Musk made, the latest changes to Grok on Twitter have resulted in it spewing anti-semetic propaganda and praising Hitler. I've seen other screenshots of Grok describing committing SA against specific people.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#18392: Jul 8th 2025 at 7:55:37 PM

Twitter X was so pissed off at Grok having a reality "bias" they made it go full Nazi.

At this point they might as well replace the X with a swastika.

It's a bit of skewed priorities too. Rather than work on the actual technical problems Twitter X has after firing so many of its staff, they focused on making their chatbot more of a racist.

Edited by M84 on Jul 8th 2025 at 10:58:31 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
doineedaname from Eastern US Since: Nov, 2010
#18393: Jul 8th 2025 at 8:17:50 PM

[up] Don't really even need to replace it, IIRC the ascii code for a capital X is coincidentally 88.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#18394: Jul 9th 2025 at 7:07:09 AM

I saw that pop up yesterday, but Grok was quickly taken offline for retraining, so evidently someone with sense was there to pull the plug.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#18395: Jul 9th 2025 at 11:12:09 AM

Linda Yaccarino is leaving X. I guess this means she has finished her tell-all book.

Ukrainian Red Cross
Falrinn Since: Dec, 2014
#18396: Jul 9th 2025 at 3:22:46 PM

Honestly I always thought she was in it for the paycheck, and with Musk taking a more active role in managing the site she asked herself if it was worth putting up with his antics now that she's collected a CEO's salary for a few years and decided it was not.

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#18397: Jul 9th 2025 at 3:25:38 PM

If she did, she probably was staring at the clock the whole time. The kinda PR and other messes she had to clean up were probably a constant migraine.

Wake me up at your own risk.
Shaoken (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Dating Catwoman
#18398: Jul 9th 2025 at 3:51:39 PM

It's hard to say, in a reporting piece last year she came off as being in line with Musk and how he ran things, even as his ego fucked up all the efforts she was doing to make the platform profitable (I.E she spends weeks dealing with advertisers to convince them it was safe to come back and advertise on Twitter again only for Elon to tell the same advertisers to go fuck themselves, working out a deal to host an interview program on Twitter for views only for Musk to be the first guest and then promptly cancel the deal the next day).

Within the same 24 hour period she quit there were also high profile resignations from Tesla, Tesla Europe, and Open AI, all companies Musk owns. Could easily just be a coincidence and only one of those companies has more or a link with Twitter than just sharing an owner, but it is a bad look. Just a question of if anything else happens over the next week or if everything settles down again.

doineedaname from Eastern US Since: Nov, 2010
#18399: Jul 9th 2025 at 6:13:40 PM

[up] Tesla was also IIRC facing 27 major investors demanding a date be set for its annual shareholder meeting as its close to missing the legal deadline for one.

alekos23 Since: Mar, 2013
#18400: Jul 27th 2025 at 4:16:22 AM

Did the EU do anything like the UK involving ID for Xitter? Been hearing about it but I haven't seen it on my own account yet.


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