4 ms·

Twitter blocks links to Threads, while CEO downplays reports of traffic decline

37 points by gslin 3y ago

mmastrac 3y ago
It's sad to see such a great platform circling the tubes, but I think the occasional death of a large social network is a net positive benefit for the world.
- giraffe_lady 3y ago
  The shitty thing here is that it didn't "have to" die. It simply should not be possible for a single powerful individual to destroy something used by millions because they don't like the way it is used.
- herdcall 3y ago
  Twitter is not dying.
  - dpifke 3y ago
    Amusingly, journalists have been proclaiming the death and/or resurrection of Twitter pretty much since its inception. My favorite is from 2012: https://i.insider.com/4f4f8f0d6bb3f71e5700002b?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp https://i.insider.com/4f4f8f0d6bb3f71e5700002b?width=750&for...
  - amitrip 3y ago
    [dead]
mandmandam 3y ago
My current favorite conspiracy theory is that Musk is deliberately killing Twitter, having been funded to do so. Who paid for Twitter's acquisition? Musk, big banks, a Saudi prince, and Larry Ellison (read: biiig money). What has Twitter been known for spurring and amplifying the last 15 years? OWS, Arab Spring, MeToo, and BLM. Basically every move Musk has made can be read as a move to destroy Twitter while maintaining deniability - firing the workers, not paying bills, running afoul of employment legislation, high-profile idiotic moves, petty attacks on detractors, etc. Killing even one new OWS movement could pay off in the billions for these people.
- Fricken 3y ago
  Doesn't sound like a good plan. There's not as much you can do to control the narrative if it's happening on someone else's social media network
  - voytec 3y ago
    Such someone else could be paying the bills.
  - mandmandam 3y ago
    Well, if I were going to pull off a plan like this, I might fake a fight with a 'rival' social network ,while actually having some kind of deal with them. It's magic 101 - look at my hands. Don't look over there. Consider that maybe the literal dick measuring, the called-off MMA fight, etc, is just kayfabe - a show. It wouldn't be the first time. We fall for controlled opposition a lot more than we realize, because it's effective, and basically impossible to prove. Sometimes, the rivalry is 'real', but helps both parties maintain a profitable status quo. Pepsi vs Coke, Dems vs Republicans, etc. Even if it isn't a wrestling show, *Zuck and Musk's interests align*. Their incentives are aligned far, far more than with any non-billionaires. Be certain of that, and know that they know this. Their bluster and meme-battles don't amount to much more that a show in any case. For whatever reason - Musk could hardly be more effective in killing Twitter than he has been so far, while maintaining plausible deniability. This invites fun speculation. What's not speculation is that we're absolutely daft for letting these ultra-billionaires run our social media. It's deeply unsettling that people tolerate this after the last couple decades, and even cheer for new, even more insidious offerings from the same exact people.
- DHPersonal 3y ago
  Wouldn't Elon Musk have to be getting something in return for the price of his reputation among the industry and investors by choosing to waste money on Twitter?
  - dragontamer 3y ago
    You're assuming that Musk actually wanted to buy Twitter, and not the fact that he just bullied people into thinking he'd buy Twitter then mistakenly signed an ironclad contract to buy Twitter as part of that bullying, then tries to escape the contract for 6 months before the courts told him he had to uphold his end of the contract.
meepmorp 3y ago
I guess Bluesky will eventually pull their thumb out of their ass and do a public launch, right?
- 3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
  Scaling is hard. What Meta did with 100 million users off the bat and basically no downtime or issues (Instagram had problems intermittently, but now fixed I believe), is not something Bluesky can do. So they'll likely be conservative. Also if they open, it won't be exactly now, because they're waiting for the hype around Threads to die a bit and people to start saying "Threads sucks I uninstalled it" and so on. Which some people will inevitably do, no matter if Threads is successful or not.
  - xelia 3y ago
    I think Threads appeals to a different set of people than BlueSky - or at least a different side of a person. The lack of anonymity with Threads makes it a completely different experience for me. So I wouldn’t really say they’re competitors.
    - 3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
      This is the ideal scenario, where if we'll be getting fragmentation due to Twitter outflow, at least it leads to specialization for different optimal scenarios. Human identity is important in order to reduce astroturfing which has reached critical proportions and is literally defining and destroying businesses, political regimes and so on. So the interest in abusing anonymous accounts, fake accounts, AI accounts, is great. But anon accounts are also needed. Having distinct platforms, one that focuses on human identity and decency, corporate cleanliness & user friendliness, and one that focuses on anonymous accounts, decentralization, power users, but may also come with trolls, abuse, scams... seems like a nice duo.
    - vitorgrs 3y ago
      You can be anonymous on threads. Both on Threads and Instagram. Only on Facebook you can't, I believe.
Pxtl 3y ago
The ascendance of Threads show how Bluesky and Mastodon basically fumbled the bag while the end-zone was wide open. A moderately decent experience was all that was needed. Threads isn't even that good, it's just better than Mastodon and actually publicly accessible unlike Bluesky. A shame, I was ride-or-die for Mastodon. But its bad onboarding, bad discovery, and various UI hiccups killed it.
- herdcall 3y ago
  I think the jury is out on whether it is really "ascending." Getting a few hundred million out of billions of installed users try out a new extension doesn't mean much. What would be impressive if they can sustain the engagement, and we won't that for some time.
paxys 3y ago
Waiting for the "Musk is all for free speech" crowd to start their usual mental gymnastics.

37 points by gslin 3y ago

It's sad to see such a great platform circling the tubes, but I think the occasional death of a large social network is a net positive benefit for the world.

giraffe_lady 3y ago
The shitty thing here is that it didn't "have to" die. It simply should not be possible for a single powerful individual to destroy something used by millions because they don't like the way it is used.
herdcall 3y ago
Twitter is not dying.
- dpifke 3y ago
  Amusingly, journalists have been proclaiming the death and/or resurrection of Twitter pretty much since its inception. My favorite is from 2012: https://i.insider.com/4f4f8f0d6bb3f71e5700002b?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp https://i.insider.com/4f4f8f0d6bb3f71e5700002b?width=750&for...
- amitrip 3y ago
  [dead]

mandmandam 3y ago

My current favorite conspiracy theory is that Musk is deliberately killing Twitter, having been funded to do so. Who paid for Twitter's acquisition? Musk, big banks, a Saudi prince, and Larry Ellison (read: biiig money). What has Twitter been known for spurring and amplifying the last 15 years? OWS, Arab Spring, MeToo, and BLM. Basically every move Musk has made can be read as a move to destroy Twitter while maintaining deniability - firing the workers, not paying bills, running afoul of employment legislation, high-profile idiotic moves, petty attacks on detractors, etc. Killing even one new OWS movement could pay off in the billions for these people.

Fricken 3y ago
Doesn't sound like a good plan. There's not as much you can do to control the narrative if it's happening on someone else's social media network
- voytec 3y ago
  Such someone else could be paying the bills.
- mandmandam 3y ago
  Well, if I were going to pull off a plan like this, I might fake a fight with a 'rival' social network ,while actually having some kind of deal with them. It's magic 101 - look at my hands. Don't look over there. Consider that maybe the literal dick measuring, the called-off MMA fight, etc, is just kayfabe - a show. It wouldn't be the first time. We fall for controlled opposition a lot more than we realize, because it's effective, and basically impossible to prove. Sometimes, the rivalry is 'real', but helps both parties maintain a profitable status quo. Pepsi vs Coke, Dems vs Republicans, etc. Even if it isn't a wrestling show, *Zuck and Musk's interests align*. Their incentives are aligned far, far more than with any non-billionaires. Be certain of that, and know that they know this. Their bluster and meme-battles don't amount to much more that a show in any case. For whatever reason - Musk could hardly be more effective in killing Twitter than he has been so far, while maintaining plausible deniability. This invites fun speculation. What's not speculation is that we're absolutely daft for letting these ultra-billionaires run our social media. It's deeply unsettling that people tolerate this after the last couple decades, and even cheer for new, even more insidious offerings from the same exact people.
DHPersonal 3y ago
Wouldn't Elon Musk have to be getting something in return for the price of his reputation among the industry and investors by choosing to waste money on Twitter?
- dragontamer 3y ago
  You're assuming that Musk actually wanted to buy Twitter, and not the fact that he just bullied people into thinking he'd buy Twitter then mistakenly signed an ironclad contract to buy Twitter as part of that bullying, then tries to escape the contract for 6 months before the courts told him he had to uphold his end of the contract.

meepmorp 3y ago

I guess Bluesky will eventually pull their thumb out of their ass and do a public launch, right?

3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
Scaling is hard. What Meta did with 100 million users off the bat and basically no downtime or issues (Instagram had problems intermittently, but now fixed I believe), is not something Bluesky can do. So they'll likely be conservative. Also if they open, it won't be exactly now, because they're waiting for the hype around Threads to die a bit and people to start saying "Threads sucks I uninstalled it" and so on. Which some people will inevitably do, no matter if Threads is successful or not.
- xelia 3y ago
  I think Threads appeals to a different set of people than BlueSky - or at least a different side of a person. The lack of anonymity with Threads makes it a completely different experience for me. So I wouldn’t really say they’re competitors.
  - 3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
    This is the ideal scenario, where if we'll be getting fragmentation due to Twitter outflow, at least it leads to specialization for different optimal scenarios. Human identity is important in order to reduce astroturfing which has reached critical proportions and is literally defining and destroying businesses, political regimes and so on. So the interest in abusing anonymous accounts, fake accounts, AI accounts, is great. But anon accounts are also needed. Having distinct platforms, one that focuses on human identity and decency, corporate cleanliness & user friendliness, and one that focuses on anonymous accounts, decentralization, power users, but may also come with trolls, abuse, scams... seems like a nice duo.
  - vitorgrs 3y ago
    You can be anonymous on threads. Both on Threads and Instagram. Only on Facebook you can't, I believe.

Pxtl 3y ago

The ascendance of Threads show how Bluesky and Mastodon basically fumbled the bag while the end-zone was wide open. A moderately decent experience was all that was needed. Threads isn't even that good, it's just better than Mastodon and actually publicly accessible unlike Bluesky. A shame, I was ride-or-die for Mastodon. But its bad onboarding, bad discovery, and various UI hiccups killed it.

herdcall 3y ago
I think the jury is out on whether it is really "ascending." Getting a few hundred million out of billions of installed users try out a new extension doesn't mean much. What would be impressive if they can sustain the engagement, and we won't that for some time.

paxys 3y ago

Waiting for the "Musk is all for free speech" crowd to start their usual mental gymnastics.