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It does confuse me that these mobs have such power on decision makers at companies and media outlets like this. The interesting thing about Twitter "mobs" is th
by gfodor 7y ago
It does confuse me that these mobs have such power on decision makers at companies and media outlets like this. The interesting thing about Twitter "mobs" is that if you look away from the computer screen or hit the button on the side of your phone, they are suddenly silent and may as well not exist. You can, in fact, log out of Twitter and never log back in again. Most of the time doing so will have zero long term negative impact, since the mob is fickle, trapped in their filter bubbles, and will move onto the next outrage in days if not hours.
The mobs that cause doxing or have credible threats of harm upon on individuals (like job loss or even violence) do in fact wield incredible, terrifying power though.
- the_snooze 7y agoIs there really much of a difference between the two? A sufficiently large angry only mob is bound to have at least a couple people who are willing to take things too far.
- _vertigo 7y agoWhat is confusing? Even if you yourself log out of Twitter, other people are still looking at it. In that sense, they don't cease to exist when you put your phone down, because other people are still paying attention to them. Sure, as long as they don't know who you are, then it's not such a big deal. An online mob that's mad at you but doesn't know who you are is easy enough to ignore - just log out, as you said. But increasingly it feels like it is less and less likely that the mob does not know who you are. A Twitter mob knows that its outrage is for naught unless it can cause lasting harm to its target, and so it goes to great efforts to dox those targets. Almost always, it seems, the target is doxxed and then their life is ripped to shreds.
- quietbritishjim 7y ago> It does confuse me that these mobs have such power on decision makers at companies and media outlets like this. The interesting thing about Twitter "mobs" is that if you look away from the computer screen or hit the button on the side of your phone, they are suddenly silent and may as well not exist. If you are a company then bad stories on Twitter could cause a significant drop in business. So if you just choose to ignore Twitter, that does not mean that it may as well not exist.
- __i___ii____ 7y agoThe angry vocal minority on twitter (people who may not even be customers, perhaps likely are not) really has such an effect on a company's sales? Got any examples?
- Wistar 7y agoWell, there is the Uriah’s Heating and Cooling case in Ohio last year. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20180729/theodore-decker-column-racist-words-blow-back-on-man-family-and-business https://www.dispatch.com/news/20180729/theodore-decker-colum...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- naasking 7y ago> If you are a company then bad stories on Twitter could cause a significant drop in business. But does it cause a drop seems like the pertinent question. New media isn't like the old media where bad press was big deal. Maybe it's just not anymore for exactly these reasons.
- rwc 7y agoSure ... here you go: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/us/oberlin-bakery-lawsuit.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/us/oberlin-bakery-lawsuit...
- smsm42 7y agoFor Gibsons it wasn't just Twitter complaints. People literally picketed their store (and Oberlin admin managed and helped the protests) and Oberlin itself cut off orders from them - it was direct financial pressure. Surely when a large college that a bakery served for decades suddenly decides to cut off all orders it can hurt much more than a bunch of people putting words into a website.
- meruru 7y agoI think part of the problem is that it's just as likely to cause a raise (from the increased exposure) as it is to cause a drop, which creates an incentive to do things that will incite outrage.
- detaro 7y agoThe criticism of the NYT cartoon wasn't just on Twitter, but had demonstrations in front of their office, other large organizations weighting in, ...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]