4 ms·

> It’s a shame that the world’s richest man might derail that progress in the service of amusing himself. Twitter isn't important. It doesn't matter if it fail

> It’s a shame that the world’s richest man might derail that progress in the service of amusing himself. Twitter isn't important. It doesn't matter if it fails. MySpace declined into irrelevancy. The world didn't end.

gigatexal 5y ago
My guess is you’re bearish on all social media. I’m not. I happen to really enjoy twitter. It got better when trump was kicked off. It’s getting better now. So called free speech champion Musk will only ruin it.
- adastra22 5y ago
  It's... social media. Life doesn't revolve around social media. Social media didn't exist two decades ago, and things were just fine. Multiple social media platforms have come and gone, and things are just fine. It's a freaking media platform, nothing else.
  - randomdata 5y ago
    > Social media didn't exist two decades ago There was Usenet in 1980.
    - adastra22 5y ago
      Usenet isn’t social media though? There’s no social aspect to it. No friend feeds, like buttons, etc. So there’s no amplifying effect.
      - randomdata 5y ago
        It is absolutely social media. It is not a clone of Facebook (rather Facebook is not a clone of Usenet), but that's not what defines social media.
- johng 5y ago
  I'm curious how it got better when Trump was kicked off? Also, deleting all posts and links to the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election might have drastically changed the election. Is asking them to be fair for stories on the right as well as stories on the left asking too much?
  - gigatexal 5y ago
    Trump is a toxic individual that used the platform to bully and lie. His lies about Covid got his followers to avoid the vaccine and some died. His lies about the election undermine democracy. There’s no reasoning with him. His removal cleaned up the site a lot. Though this is my opinion and Trump-loving HN is going to downvote me for it.
    - johng 5y ago
      I agree with you that he is a toxic individual and he definitely told lots of lies. This happens on Twitter all the time though. Politicians from both sides do this but they don't get banned for life.... and never a sitting or ex President. What about the other censorship I mentioned, ie. banning all Hunter Biden content for being "false" when it was (and always has been, and still is) actually true?
      - gigatexal 5y ago
        In the grand scheme of things a laptop is a lot less important than a sitting President inciting a riot to overturn an election. You know neither are even in the same realm of magnitude. Stop making three equal. But even if Twitter was censoring the right so be it. They don’t have to be fair to any one side. The right can build their own platform and censor the left. I won’t join it. Because and I don’t know how many times this needs to be reiterated: Twitter has no obligation to be fair to anything or anyone. It’s not a public square. It’s not a federal institution. It’s a platform. And platforms can make editorial decisions.
        john_the_writer 5y ago

gigatexal 5y ago

My guess is you’re bearish on all social media. I’m not. I happen to really enjoy twitter. It got better when trump was kicked off. It’s getting better now. So called free speech champion Musk will only ruin it.

adastra22 5y ago
It's... social media. Life doesn't revolve around social media. Social media didn't exist two decades ago, and things were just fine. Multiple social media platforms have come and gone, and things are just fine. It's a freaking media platform, nothing else.
- randomdata 5y ago
  > Social media didn't exist two decades ago There was Usenet in 1980.
  - adastra22 5y ago
    Usenet isn’t social media though? There’s no social aspect to it. No friend feeds, like buttons, etc. So there’s no amplifying effect.
    - randomdata 5y ago
      It is absolutely social media. It is not a clone of Facebook (rather Facebook is not a clone of Usenet), but that's not what defines social media.
johng 5y ago
I'm curious how it got better when Trump was kicked off? Also, deleting all posts and links to the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election might have drastically changed the election. Is asking them to be fair for stories on the right as well as stories on the left asking too much?
- gigatexal 5y ago
  Trump is a toxic individual that used the platform to bully and lie. His lies about Covid got his followers to avoid the vaccine and some died. His lies about the election undermine democracy. There’s no reasoning with him. His removal cleaned up the site a lot. Though this is my opinion and Trump-loving HN is going to downvote me for it.
  - johng 5y ago
    I agree with you that he is a toxic individual and he definitely told lots of lies. This happens on Twitter all the time though. Politicians from both sides do this but they don't get banned for life.... and never a sitting or ex President. What about the other censorship I mentioned, ie. banning all Hunter Biden content for being "false" when it was (and always has been, and still is) actually true?
    - gigatexal 5y ago
      In the grand scheme of things a laptop is a lot less important than a sitting President inciting a riot to overturn an election. You know neither are even in the same realm of magnitude. Stop making three equal. But even if Twitter was censoring the right so be it. They don’t have to be fair to any one side. The right can build their own platform and censor the left. I won’t join it. Because and I don’t know how many times this needs to be reiterated: Twitter has no obligation to be fair to anything or anyone. It’s not a public square. It’s not a federal institution. It’s a platform. And platforms can make editorial decisions.
      - john_the_writer 5y ago