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The twitter buy isn't about money its about power. Money is only a proxy for power. Controlling the largest distribution source of worldwide news is a pure pow
by boringg 5y ago
The twitter buy isn't about money its about power. Money is only a proxy for power. Controlling the largest distribution source of worldwide news is a pure power play.
- user_named 5y agoWeibo is bigger. Wechat too.
- tsimionescu 5y agoGood luck buying wechat as someone without Chinese citizenship.
- FerociousTimes 5y agoGood luck buying WeChat without the proper connections to the ruling class in China in the first place.
- reaperducer 5y agoHow much global news comes out of either of those? That's the point of the parent comment. Weido and Wechat may have more users, but they aren't newsmakers. Just like there's more people at a Def Leppard concert than in the White House, but the White House makes news.
- user_named 5y agoThey're not news makers? Yes they are.
- danso 5y agoFacebook is also far far bigger than Twitter. Yet Elon is content with ignoring it, and so was Trump (who is suspended into 2023 [0]) [0] https://www.npr.org/2021/06/04/1003284948/trump-suspended-from-facebook-for-2-years https://www.npr.org/2021/06/04/1003284948/trump-suspended-fr...
- boringg 5y agoFacebook is a dying site and it isn't for sale. Irrelevant to the options.
- danso 5y agoWeibo and Wechat are also not available for sale, so what's your point?
- boringg 5y agoAlso irrelevant to the conversation.
- danso 5y agoMy rebuttal was to this comment, which implied that size was an overriding factor of importance. That comment was a rebuttal to you. So I'm not sure what you even want to argue about. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31110766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31110766 Please learn how comment threads work.
- bombcar 5y agoFacebook amplifies, it doesn't create. People link to twitter threads from HN all the time, rarely if ever do they link to FB posts. Nobody cares about Facebook, even though it's hugely used it's a dead letter.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- boringg 5y agoThey are largely irrelevant to the rest of the world as a source of news except to see what the government line is and as a pulse taker of Chinese population tolerance to policy. They are a propoganda news source controlled by the Chinese Government for the Chinese population. Large population for sure, and highly impactful to controlling that population but only viable for the CCP.
- mbostleman 5y ago>>...the largest distribution source of worldwide news>> That's not really true is it? My understanding is that it's actually the smallest of its immediate peers in social media. And perhaps the same in the field of the broader definition of media. As a separate issue, my personal sentiment on social media, like a number of others I know, is that it has all become a steaming pile of toxic garbage, not unlike the pile of junk mail I dutifully retrieve from my physical mailbox once a month (and even then only so that the mail person has room to add more). My concern on a deal like this is that if that sentiment takes off in the mainstream a property like Twitter could experience a MySpace style collapse overnight.
- aNoob7000 5y agoYes, social media has become toxic but a lot of people use it to get their news and information. Twitter is a great way for Musk to get into social media without having to get users and build the infrastructure. He can compete at a worldwide level with Facebook on day one.
- bombcar 5y agoOver the next week, mark down every time you see the following news: 1. News such as an HN post which is a ... twitter link 2. News in an article or on TV that reverences a ... twitter link 3. Social media referencing a ... twitter link There's a lot more than appears at first, even if you aren't consuming news on Twitter or Tik Tok a lot of it is being broken there.
- boringg 5y agoThis is what I was referring to. Sure there are infinite other sites but Twitter is where it is being broken and where majority of all the journalists live. It is currently the site with status and clout for important news. Will that change? Always possible but it is the site du jour.
- mbostleman 5y agoOk gotcha. So largest by volume of breaking stories used as opposed to users.