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What it looks like Elon is trying to do is: - Level the playing field between the "blue-checks" and everyone else. I think the intent of that is to encourage t

What it looks like Elon is trying to do is: - Level the playing field between the "blue-checks" and everyone else. I think the intent of that is to encourage the 90% of people who passively consume content to engage more, and encourage lurkers without accounts to sign up. - Reduce the dependency on advertisers by pivoting to a model that is partly user-funded. Reddit seems to have had some success with this, for example. - Signal that Twitter is going to be less politically partisan going forward, probably in an attempt to rope back in users who moved to right-wing Twitter clones. I don't think those are objectively terrible ideas, but the implementation so far has been remarkably bad.

bb88 4y ago
> ... probably in an attempt to rope back in users who moved to right-wing Twitter clones. The problem with Twitter isn't free speech, but objective reality. There's only room for one reality on Twitter -- not two, or three, or four. Truth Social and the right wing platforms don't challenge people's view that the 2020 election was a fraud, that pizza gate really happened, so they will probably continue now as they are.
- pseudo0 4y ago
  For a lot of right-wing people I have spoken to, the Hunter Biden story getting falsely removed for "Russian disinformation" was the last straw. Think of it as a dumb scandal if you want, but the issue was a legitimate news story published by high-profile mainstream news outlets getting removed using counter-disinformation tools. That really damaged Twitter's credibility. Now they would rather hang out on a site where they don't have to worry about overbearing moderation, at the cost of a handful of nutters talking about Satanic rituals or whatever. I think Musk had a plausible route to getting those users back if he could promise slightly more limited and fair enforcement of the rules.
  - bb88 4y ago
    Is it the fact they don't want anyone to question their belief system? Because that's what I see. When they are questioned, they martyrize themselves to spark more outrage. (I'm a victim of the woke left!) And then use that as a crutch to deflect further criticism or questions. If it wasn't Hunter Biden's Laptop, it would be something else, e.g. Pizzagate, Voting Machines, Mail-in Balloting, Fake school shootings, etc. You can't blame the mainstream media if you're the one that's calling "wolf" over and over without facts.
    - pseudo0 4y ago
      I don't really think that's the case. We can see the dynamic in action on the Fediverse, a space where anyone can make their own server and moderate it according to their wishes. There are right-wing servers that have created their own walled gardens (Gab, Truth Social), but at the same time the left-wing servers have created server blacklists that include most of the "free speech" servers. Given the option, a lot of people across the political spectrum apparently want hugboxes.
      - bb88 4y ago
        I'm not saying it doesn't happen on the left as well. I'm just saying it's easier to recognize when it does happen on the right. The Dominion v. Fox News lawsuits come to mind here. Parents of Sandy Hook v. Alex Jones, too. Back around 1991/1992 the Democrats in congress were so convinced there was an October Surprise in the 1980 election. There just wasn't anything there. Hugboxes don't force you to question your belief system, right? You can go on living in whatever world you want to. But anything coming out of those hugboxes, no one should take seriously, right? Before social media we would have called much of this stuff "conspiracy theories".
        jessaustin 4y ago
        The reason there wasn't an October surprise was that Reagan's cronies conspired to prevent it: https://theintercept.com/2021/10/11/bani-sadr-reagan-iran-hostages-october-surprise/ https://theintercept.com/2021/10/11/bani-sadr-reagan-iran-ho...

bb88 4y ago

> ... probably in an attempt to rope back in users who moved to right-wing Twitter clones. The problem with Twitter isn't free speech, but objective reality. There's only room for one reality on Twitter -- not two, or three, or four. Truth Social and the right wing platforms don't challenge people's view that the 2020 election was a fraud, that pizza gate really happened, so they will probably continue now as they are.

pseudo0 4y ago
For a lot of right-wing people I have spoken to, the Hunter Biden story getting falsely removed for "Russian disinformation" was the last straw. Think of it as a dumb scandal if you want, but the issue was a legitimate news story published by high-profile mainstream news outlets getting removed using counter-disinformation tools. That really damaged Twitter's credibility. Now they would rather hang out on a site where they don't have to worry about overbearing moderation, at the cost of a handful of nutters talking about Satanic rituals or whatever. I think Musk had a plausible route to getting those users back if he could promise slightly more limited and fair enforcement of the rules.
- bb88 4y ago
  Is it the fact they don't want anyone to question their belief system? Because that's what I see. When they are questioned, they martyrize themselves to spark more outrage. (I'm a victim of the woke left!) And then use that as a crutch to deflect further criticism or questions. If it wasn't Hunter Biden's Laptop, it would be something else, e.g. Pizzagate, Voting Machines, Mail-in Balloting, Fake school shootings, etc. You can't blame the mainstream media if you're the one that's calling "wolf" over and over without facts.
  - pseudo0 4y ago
    I don't really think that's the case. We can see the dynamic in action on the Fediverse, a space where anyone can make their own server and moderate it according to their wishes. There are right-wing servers that have created their own walled gardens (Gab, Truth Social), but at the same time the left-wing servers have created server blacklists that include most of the "free speech" servers. Given the option, a lot of people across the political spectrum apparently want hugboxes.
    - bb88 4y ago
      I'm not saying it doesn't happen on the left as well. I'm just saying it's easier to recognize when it does happen on the right. The Dominion v. Fox News lawsuits come to mind here. Parents of Sandy Hook v. Alex Jones, too. Back around 1991/1992 the Democrats in congress were so convinced there was an October Surprise in the 1980 election. There just wasn't anything there. Hugboxes don't force you to question your belief system, right? You can go on living in whatever world you want to. But anything coming out of those hugboxes, no one should take seriously, right? Before social media we would have called much of this stuff "conspiracy theories".
      - jessaustin 4y ago
        The reason there wasn't an October surprise was that Reagan's cronies conspired to prevent it: https://theintercept.com/2021/10/11/bani-sadr-reagan-iran-hostages-october-surprise/ https://theintercept.com/2021/10/11/bani-sadr-reagan-iran-ho...